Persimmon Pursuits

A Work in Progress

“Be careful what you wish for…..” A passion for the fruit has turned into a challenge I must take.

The prolific persimmon pops up like popcorn at this time of the year. A generous and dear friend dropped off big bags packed to the brim. While I hold the belief I can never tire of this fruit, this time I get to put the hypothesis to test.

The pointy- ended one is the Hachiya persimmon. It’s uncomfortably astringent when unripe, and it gets super sweet and squishy when ripe. It’s a bit too sweet on its own, and it is an acquired taste. But, I like it in in small amounts. What do you do when you have tons of them during the pandemic? To find out, join me on my explorations.

Arm Candy

First, I used them to decorate my table. It gives a warmth and sense of abundance to the season. They look pretty, but they’re totally inedible raw.

However, you can rid them of their astringency to bring out their sweetness by dehydration.

Dehydrating Unripe Hachiya Persimmons

Yes, you can do it. It’s surprising how the astringent quality disappears with slow and prolonged heat, leaving behind the super sweet leathery treat. I slip it between two salt crackers, and the taste is delicious. Cutting them in rounds makes the starry pattern in the middle pop.

If you have a dehydrator, place the peeled and sliced in rounds persimmons for six hours in. You can also do it unpeeled, but it will take longer, and the skin is not exactly my favorite. You could also bake them in the oven at 130F for seven hours.

I made several batches, and I still have boatloads of persimmons. Now, I will bake bread.

Persimmon Bread

Next, I baked persimmon bread with the sweet, ripe Hachiyas. I slit the top and scooped out the pulp. With five persimmons, I had a little over a cup. You can mash it with a potato masher or the back of a spoon with ease.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• !/4 cup whole wheat flour
• Pulp from 5 persimmons (yields a little over a cup)
• Sea salt 2 pinches
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter 
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• butter to grease loaf pan

Preheat oven to 350F. You’ll need a 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan.

Sieve dry ingredients and sieve them together. In another bowl, cream butter, sugar until well incorporated. Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat together. Add persimmon pulp at the end.

Gently fold in the dry mixture, and put the batter in loaf pan. It will be more moist than regular cake batter with all the fruit, that’s a point to note.

Place pan in oven. My convection oven does the job in less than 40 minutes. The aroma of this bread swirls in less than 15 minutes after sticking it into the oven. I love that warm, fragrant kitchen on a cool, crisp autumn day.

The bread is ready, and I decorate the top with dehydrated slices. The pulp in the batter adds unprocessed sweetness, richness, and it makes the bread incredibly moist. I just shared the cake with a friend, mailed the dehydrated persimmons to my daughter. I still have tons of fruit to play around with.

Almond Flour Variation

Keeping the same proportions except sugar which I added .75 cup, I added one cup almond flour and half cup whole wheat flour. I used extra virgin coconut oil instead of butter a third of a cup. Added splash of cognac, decorated top with whole almonds, cranberries and pumpkin seeds before sticking it into the oven.

Hoshigaki

The Art of Hoshigaki or naturally dried persimmons the Japanese way intrigues me. It’s a long process, and let me see where my take on this will take me.

The Japanese peel the fruit, tie the stems with twine and hang it on a bamboo pole. It’s an exercise in patience and may take as long as 6-8 weeks. They watch it closely, massage it, and let it dry into a chewy, moist, frosted with its own sugar treat.

Here’s a quick reference

1. When you pick the fruit, make sure to leave a stem.
2. Wash, trim the tops and peel all over. Remove the leafy calyx, but retain stem.
3. Dunk for 10 seconds in hot water to prevent mold.
4. Tie stem with kitchen tie. Use one string for two persimmons.
5. Hang near window (preferable to have ventilation and light now and then).
6. Leave them alone for a few days
7. After 8-10 days, start gently massaging to remove any lumps.
8. Watch for mold, and to prevent this, you could spritz with cider vinegar or vodka, and ventilate.
9. Let cure for a few more weeks, and enjoy!

Instead of a bamboo pole, I decided to improvise. I rediscovered my old cafe curtain tension rod. The reason the Japanese use bamboo pole with a wide diameter is to make sure fruits do not stick together while drying. Although skinny, the cafe rod fits nicely in my kitchen window.

My experiment has begun. It’s going to be a long while. In the meantime, I have lot more persimmons to think of.

Meanwhile Moments

For this segment, these are recipes created by yours truly. Hope you enjoy them. I take inspiration from the familiar and like to put my twist on them.

Breakfast today….Saffron Persimmon Oatmeal

Ingredients

1. Half a cup cooked oatmeal
2. Saffron threads
3. One scooped out ripe Hachiya persimmon pulp
4. Pistachios and dehydrated fruit(persimmon again) for garnish

I cooked half a cup of oatmeal over the kitchen stove with water. Added a few threads of saffron at the end, and with the heat, the spoon, and the stirring, I could release much color and fragrance. Although the color is not necessary, the fragrant saffron complements the delicacy of persimmon. Added scooped out persimmon to the cooled mix and seasoned with pistachios and a few snips of dehydrated persimmon for texture.

Alternate Ideas for Oatmeal

.Snips of dehydrated persimmon, nuts of your preference, cooked oatmeal and pure maple syrup. No pulp required, as maple syrup will sweeten the oatmeal.

.Spicy Oatmeal with persimmon pulp with either cardamom or clove and ginger powder. Top with pumpkin seeds.

Persimmon Kshirkand or Srikand

Kshir means milk and Kand is sugar in Sanskrit. This is a creamy dessert made with hung curd, very similar to Greek yogurt. You add sugar, cardamom, saffron, fruits of your choice and pistachios and blend it well. It’s one of my favorite sweets.

My simple and quick recipe is just scooping out a pulp of one persimmon with equal quantity of hung curd or 2% milk fat Greek yogurt. Beat it up with crushed cardamom powder, saffron for a delicate flavor, and garnish with ground roast, unsalted pistachios. I like mine whole, so I skipped grinding it fine. I omitted sugar altogether, but if you like a little more sweetness, add a tsp or two of sugar while blending the yogurt and persimmon together..

No cook(Raw food)/ Quick Food/ 4 Ingredient /Lactose-Free Breakfast

For the raw food enthusiasts, for the on-the-go folks, and for the lactose intolerant, here’s my dedication.

A handful of Cashewnuts, a quarter cup raw oats, and persimmon pulp are all you need. Soak nuts and oats in water overnight, and blend together with persimmon pulp. It’s important to ensure you add water to blend if the nuts and oats have soaked through all the water. If you wish for some spice, you could add cinnamon or cloves. But these three ingredients and water for soaking and blending will suffice for a tasty treat.

It’s been a sweet journey, so I will change it up with a Fuyu persimmon savory salad.

Fuyu Persimmon-Daikon Salad

Select 2 crunchy, sweet Fuyu persimmons(the one with the round bottom), a quarter daikon or radish, salt, red pepper powder, lime juice, and cilantro.

Peel persimmons and daikon, slice them in discs, Then cut them in match-stick thin strips, add lime juice, cilantro finely chopped, red pepper powder, sea salt to taste and mix. Let sit a while and enjoy the salad.

Persimmon Gelato (Recipe Courtesy and Creation, Dear Husband)

Ingredients

1. Whole milk One Cup
2. Heavy whipping cream 3/4 cup
3. Sugar 1/4 cup
4. Sweet persimmon pulp 1 cup
5. saffron threads
6. cardamom

Blend ingredients finely, and let the gelato maker do its work. Alternately, whip it till much air is incorporated and freeze for a most delicious treat.

Papaya Persimmon Salad (a Som Tum Thai variation)

Here’s another vegan recipe I created with the inspiration of the vegan Som-Tum Thai version. Thai Papaya salad is a perfect combination of sweet, hot, sour, and salt with crisp and crunchy textures. Although I love it, the amount of sugar used in the original is not exactly my favorite part. With all the persimmon pulp I have, I created my version of a dressing.

Dressing

1. Rice wine vinegar 2 tbsp
2. Persimmon Pulp (Hachiya) 2/3rd cup
3. Soya Sauce 1/2 tbsp
4. Half tsp sea salt
5. green onion chopped a tbsp
6. Thai chillis 1-2 sliced finely

Salad

1. 2 cups grated papaya
2. grated carrot half a cup
3. One Persian cucumber grated(optional)
4. One Fuyu persimmon cut in julienne strips
5. One handful mixed finely chopped herbs(mint, cilantro, and basil)
6. 2 tbsps roasted peanuts coarsely chopped

Mix the ingredients of the dressing making sure they’re well incorporated.

Peel the raw, green papaya. Take out the center seeds. If you have a mandolin slicer, you could cut thin strips and julienne cut the papaya. I just grated mine in a regular grater. Grate the carrot, cucumber, and cut the Fuyu into matchsticks. I simply peeled the Fuyu, cut them in rounds, and then sliced them into strips.

Pour the dressing over the grated items and mix well with spring onions and fresh herbs. Reserve a bit of the chopped green onions and herbs. Just before serving, add the salt and mix. Then, garnish with reserved onions, herbs, and top with roasted peanuts.

I was pleasantly surprised by the way the dish turned out. With zero refined sugar, the sweetness came from the Hachiya pulp in the dressing and the crunchy Fuyu in the chopped mix. I loved how it turned out and hope you like it too. Happy kitchen pursuits!

Hoshigaki Time!

Eleven weeks later, the shriveled persimmons are ready. The dehydrated fruit push out the sugars, and there’s a bloom on them. I was lucky the bloom emerged early. Humidity conditions were right for them. If you don’t see a bloom after 6 weeks, put them in a mason jar to encourage the sugars to activate. You should see them in three to four days.

I could have harvested my persimmons earlier, but I waited just let them hang loose till I was ready.

How does it taste? Is there a difference between the dehydrated version and this prolonged labor of love?

The Hoshigaki tastes divine, with a plush texture and honeyed sweetness. Some may find this a tad over-sweet, but it is a great dessert choice.

There’s no leathery feeling in this method of air-drying versus the dehydrator method. The texture is chewier as well.

I am going to enjoy this with green tea. Happy experimenting, and Sayonara from me to you for now!