It’s Persimmon Season!

The first thing I decided to do was roast and stuff these beautiful squash.

Ingredients:
3 squash cut in half
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup raisins
2 cups+ cooked Red Quinoa (or other whole grain, such as brown rice, farro, etc.)
1/2 cup cubed Gruyere cheese
1/2 cup thinly sliced leeks, sauted in butter until tender
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. clove
Salt/Pepper to taste

Preparation:
Cut the squash in half and scrape out the seeds and stringy pieces. If you want to save the seeds, rinse in a colander and pull off any remaining squash pieces. Spread the seeds on a foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle 2 Tbsp. olive oil and sea salt over the seeds. Roast for about 10-15 minutes at 375 until seeds start to pop. Remove. Cool. Enjoy!

Back to the stuffed squash…

If you decided to roast the seeds, reduce oven temp to 350 degrees. Rub the insides of the squash with olive oil and salt liberally. Place cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until squash is just tender. Timing will depend on the size of your squash.

Mix all ingredients together and fill squash. Either set aside or re-bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until cheese is melted.

These squash are delicious filled with about any combination of grain, veg, nut, and dried fruit you can come up with. Have fun experimenting! I am going to try them stuffed with Persimmon!

Since the oven was hot and I had lots of squash I roasted the rest of the squash and made Acorn Squash Soup.

Here’s a similar recipe I made a few years back using Butternut squash. http://cookwithcindy.blogspot.com/search?q=squash+soup

This time I kept the soup very simple. Bring 1 Qt. of chicken stock to boil. Add a diced carrot, diced celery stalk, and 1/2 diced onion. Simmer until veg is tender; about 20 minutes. Scoop out the roasted squash from the shells (cool first) and add to the stock. Cook another 10 minutes. Season with salt/pepper. Let cool and blend either in the blender or using an emulsion blender. It is so rich and creamy that no cream is necessary! It also freezes well.

And now on to the Persimmon. I found this recipe for Persimmon Bread on http://allrecipes.com/recipe/6964/persimmon-bread-ii/.  The only change I made to the recipe was to cut the sugar from 3 cups to 2. Now that my fruit is a little more ripe I will add 1 1/2 cups sugar. My batter easily filled 5 little bread tins, not 3.

There are several varieties of Persimmon that have different characteristics. These Persimmon are called Hachiya or Japanese Persimmon. When the fruit is not completely ripe it has a very astringent, pucker your mouth, kind of feel. Delicious taste, but mouth-feel not so nice, but once cooked they lose that mouth-feel and their delicious delicate flavor comes through. And once ripe, they lose most of that puckery feeling when eating raw.

Ingredients:
1 cup persimmon pulp (about 1 1/2 persimmon)
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups white sugar (amount of sugar will depend on ripeness of fruit)
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 12/ tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup water
3 cups white flour
1 cup walnuts

I love the way these fruit look inside!

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 5 mini loaf pans (6×3″). In a small bowl, stir together the persimmon pulp and baking soda. Mix so the soda dissolves. Let stand 5 minutes to thicken the pulp.
In a medium bowl, combine sugar, oil, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Blend until smooth. Mix in persimmon pulp and water alternately with flour. Fold in nuts.
Divide batter into prepared pans, filling each pan 2/3 full.

Top the uncooked breads if you like with a sprinkle of Turbinado Sugar.

Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

I am feeling HO! HO! HO! festive. So many parties…so little time!www.cookwithcindy.com