Turkey Day in Paris

There's a word for it in French: le mal du pays. Homesickness. It's a word I didn't have to look up until Thanksgiving, that very American holiday, arrived.
At home, I always host Thanksgiving. And, while I have come to accept the restrictions that tradition imposes upon the menu, I have always enjoyed the food, the company and the time to reflect on my many blessings. While my stateside family and friends lead the list, not all my blessings are in the U.S. I'm blessed to have friends (and family) here and, of course, my dear but sometimes cranky cat, Samantha Jacqueline.
Ever since I was a child, Thanksgiving for me has had a French flavor. That was due to my grandmother, whose homemade mashed potatoes, succulent turkeys with giblet gravy and chestnut dressing from her native southwestern France graced our Thanksgiving table. She gave my mother only the barest bones of her chestnut dressing recipe, keeping the key details a secret -- as French women are wont to do. But through the years I've fleshed it out. And this year, I prepared it in Paris for the ex-pat Thanksgiving gathering I attended.
Grandma's recipe finally came home.

Grandma's Chestnut Dressing

2 cups chestnuts
1 T anise seed
water
8 oz pork sausage, preferably Toulouse-style, with garlic
1-2 stalks celery, depending on size, with leaves, diced
12 oz mushrooms (I used a mixture of equal parts oyster, golden chantrelle and black trumpet, but regular white mushrooms work fine), brushed clean or washed by lifting out of cool water three times, leaving any grit in the bottom of the pan
3-4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 small onion, finely diced
2 T dry sherry
1 cup good chicken stock, boiled until it is reduced to 1/4 cup
bread crumbs
butter
salt, freshly-ground pepper

With a small, sharp paring knife, remove the shells from the chestnuts. (It helps to cut a cross on the flat side of each chestnut shell to get started.) Drop the chestnuts in boiling water to which you have added the anise seed. Boil for 10 minutes, drain and set aside until the chestnuts are just cool enough to peel, then quickly peel off the brown skins with your paring knife. (Or buy prepared chestnuts and forget the anise, or perhaps add a teaspoon, toasted and crushed, to the final dressing.)
Coarsely chop the chestnuts. Saute in a little butter for no longer than five minutes. Set aside.
Saute the pork sausage, breaking it up into little pieces, until browned on the outside and no longer pink inside. Drain and set aside.
Now you want to saute the rest of the ingredients, but separately, one at a time, so you can give each the particular amount of time it needs. So...add butter to the saute pan. Chop the mushrooms and saute each kind of mushroom until it gives up its juice and is soft (the black trumpet will take much longer than the others). Set aside. Do the same with the onion, then the celery,which can be sauteed in the same pan. Boil the garlic, unpeeled, in water about 10 minutes or until it is soft and mushy. Remove the skins and mash it with the side of
a knife.
Mix everything together well. Put everything in the saute pan, add the sherry and reduced chicken stock and heat the mixture for a few minutes, continuing to mix well. Add the bread crumbs if the dressing seems too moist. (You want it moist but not soupy.) Taste it; season. Put it in a casserole dish to a depth of about two inches, cover and bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour or until it is very hot. (Test by sticking a fork in the center for 10 seconds, then touching the tines to your lower lip to test for warmth.) At this point, you can hold it and heat it, uncoverd, just before serving, or you can remove the cover immediately and bake another 10 to 15 minutes, uncovered.
Serves 6.