I got sent a box of Spanish Persimmon of the Hachiya type recently. In Israel they are called Sharon fruit but Persimmon sounds far more exotic and romantic, stemming from an American Native Indian word. As girl’s names go, I prefer Persimmon to Sharon. They are very pretty fruit with an intensely sweet soft flesh. Technically they are a berry. You must wait until they are ripe to eat them otherwise they could cause a bezoar, a kind of woody hard mass in your stomach, if you eat too many regularly. One of the remedies for this is drinking lots of Cocoa cola which shrinks them.
I had a good old play:
- I baked them with spices
- I roasted slices
- I paired them with breakfast cereal
- I poached some
- I ate some raw, cut in half and scooped out the flesh as if it were a boiled egg
- I ate some with the skin on
- I combined them with a coconut tapioca pudding
Lazy arse breakfast muesli with warm persimmon.
It is a rule that making your own muesli is always going to be better than shop-bought. But sometimes I cannot even be bothered to properly make muesli. So I just eat the ingredients raw! Still tastes good.
1 Persimmon, cooked in spices such as star anise, grated nutmeg, ground cloves with
a drool of honey
A scoop of porridge oats
A handful of nuts
A glug of Milk
a dollop of Yoghurt
a pinch of ground cinnamon
Cut up the persimmon into chunks. Place in a saucepan with a star anise, a few scrapings of nutmeg, a pinch of ground cloves and a tablespoon of honey. Simmer until warm.
Take a bowl and scoop in your cereal stuff, whatever you’ve got around, porridge oats, ends of cereals such as rice crispies, cornflakes, all bran.
Add any nuts you like, almonds and hazelnuts are great.
Pour in some milk, a dollop of yoghurt.
Add the warm Persimmon.
Sprinkle some ground cinnamon.
Best eaten raw
Yeap, Persimmon sounds much nicer to me, too. 🙂 I bet they were amazing with the tapioca pudding. Would be great with rice pudding, too. And I love how you paired them with the star anise, how their shapes match – simply stunning.
Thank you for a really nice post. I have never eaten persimmons but you have inspired me to try them now.
Tina
This is great. I'm never sure what to do with persimmons – I think I must have experienced woody ones sometime – but now with all these wonderful ideas must try again.
I think I recognise this as what in Italy we call "kaki". When I used to live there it was my favourite autumn fruit, although I prefer the variety which has waxy skin but is really really soft in the middle and requires a spoon for eating….yumm! The recipes sound fabulous, I need to try harder and find them in London!
WOw that is the first time I am coming across this fruit but the dish looks delicious. Ginger and cinnamon are very good for digestion.
We have just been given a big basket of home-grown persimmon ('kaki' in Italy) and I've been wondering what to do with them, your suggestions look delicious (as does just about everything on your blog), grazie!
The thing about persimmons is essentially that you either cherish them or loathe them.kaki fruit