September Cornucopia: Persimmon

Maybe it was global warming or the lack of summer typhoons that were spinning away from Taiwan every time, but persimmon season came a month early in my backwater. My landlady's dad has a few trees in front of my house (which he gave me a bucket full), and my neighbors have tons. Not wanting to waste and in the spirit of exploration we tried out all kinds of persimmon recipes.

Where I come from in the States, persimmon isn't available (when I was growing up). I didn't even know what they were until moving to Taiwan, but apparently, the Pacific NW and California have them. They are also grown in Korea and Japan.

Crepe cake with persimmon-ginger, flax seed jam

There are two main varieties, one that can be eaten crunchy like an apple (Fuyu) and the other that is only sweet when its soft and bursting like a fig (Hachiya). My neighborhood has the latter. I got literally over 40 on the verge of bursting ones from my neighbor, so my kid and I made a batch of jam and added a bit of ginger from another neighbor and some chia seeds for nutrition (and it helps to gel.)  We burnt the bottom of our pan (it was too thin) and had to try and remove the burnt bits before we gave some to our neighbors and coworkers. Once opened, it had to be eaten within a few days because the chia seeds made it spoil easily. We had so much, my kid baked a bunch of crepes and used the jam to make a crepe cake!

 Most of our leftovers I pureed and put into the freezer or I used the dehydrator and dried them. With the dehydrated pieces, I made a Korean fruit tea (Sujeonggwa) that is stewed with ginger and cinnamon sticks. It's traditionally served cold, but its such an autumn weather drink for a cool rainy day like today! 

Persimmon Cheesecake

We just got another bag from our neighbor so my daughter baked some it into a cheesecake. There is still plenty of fruit left over for another batch of cookies or fruit bread spiked with rum. This cornucopia of baking with persimmon isn't doing any favors for my waistline, but life is still sweet.