Gluten-free persimmon bread

Well, more like cake, but I digress...

Persimmons have been in season here in Japan for the last month or so: the fruits section of the grocery store is full of what seem to be squashed, bright orange tomatoes... which is definitely what I thought they were on first sighting. Before coming to Japan, I'd never eaten a persimmon; they're not native to, or even common, where I'm from, so I confess that I actually Googled "how to eat persimmon" before tasting my first one.

Now, the most common right now are Fuyu persimmon, which can be eaten like apples; they're firm, a little crunchy, and super-delicious. I learned a bit later that the strange, elongated ones (which cost about an arm and a leg more than Fuyu) are called Hachiya, and if you eat them before they've nearly rotted into compost, they're astringent as all get-out, and you'll most likely end up throwing up after biting into one. Apparently, though, they're the best for cooking... something I've promptly ignored, because this recipe uses Fuyu persimmons! I'm sure it would be just as good with ripe Hachiya, of course.

Now, the persimmons I used in this recipe are stewed. Basically, to stew persimmons, just wash them, chop them into small pieces, taking out any seeds or bad spots, and throw them into the rice cooker overnight. I used about eight. Add a tablespoon of sugar if you like, and stir it up; the end result is a savoury mush that looks not unlike a hungover pumpkin blew chunks into your rice cooker because it couldn't make it to the toilet in time, but I promise it's pretty excellent-tasting. I had it on top of my okayu the other day!

Saving it in the fridge, tupper-ware style!

  Anyways, I'm rambling; let's get to the persimmon cake. Now, this is a modified recipe from one at Joy the Baker, which is neither gluten-free nor rice-cooker-worthy, so mine morphed a bit and probably doesn't taste like what the actual recipe does.

Ingredients:
-1 1/2 cup of stewed Fuyu persimmons
-1 tsp baking soda
-3 scoops of brown sugar
-1/2 cup potato starch
-2/3 cup buckwheat flour
-2/3 cup rice flour
-cinnamon
-nutmeg
-grated ginger root (from frozen)
-dash of salt
-1 egg
-1 tbsp olive oil

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, olive oil, and ginger root. In another small bowl (or the mixing cup, if you're lazy like me), whisk together the stewed persimmons and baking soda - ostensibly this thickens the persimmons or something, though I didn't notice too much of a difference in consistency afterwards. Whisk the persimmons into the wet mixture, then fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture, until there's no flour left.

It should be wet through, but not too runny.

Dump the whole operation into the rice cooker, and put it on two cycles of "cook rice".

The end result is moist and delicious.. I'd liken the texture almost to carrot cake - it's going to be difficult not to eat this all at once!