22. Oktober 2006

what are you?!

what are you?!?
.... and how do i cook / prepare / eat you?!

well ... is it a fruit, is it a vegetable?! i can't even figure that out! can i cook this *thing*? or do i eat it raw?

i am really excited every thursday when my farmbox is arriving. while i enjoy to have fresh organic salad, carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, ... at my doorstep i am always very curious about the little unfamiliar surprises i find in the box. stuff i have never seen before, let alone cooked it. stuff that is not even available in my regular shops, stuff i would never ever voluntarily buy ...

now i don't have a clue about this thing here.
can you help me?

17 Kommentare:

Camila hat gesagt…

I might say that is a 'caqui'(caki) here in Brazil, I don't know the name in English. It's a delicious fruit, but it looks like not ripe enough, you can wait until it get more red. I slice it in the middle (without the leafes) and eat it directly from the skyn with a spoon, you can eat the skin too, if you want. Or simply eat it like an apple, but that makes a mess, because it`s very juice!

Anonym hat gesagt…

Another name is kaki fruit.
So you can prohabli more on the internet.

gemma hat gesagt…

In Spanish is KAKI or PALOSANTO(Diospyros kaki). I don't like them as they are very sweet, but you can eat them just raw (with a spoon).

Anonym hat gesagt…

Schau auch mal nach "Sharon", unter diesem Namen wird eine Variante der Kaki angeboten und dafür gibt's auch diverse Rezepte.

Anonym hat gesagt…

In English we call them persimmons. Sweet and delicious! But don't eat them before they're ripe, or they will be bitter.

tschoerda hat gesagt…

this is just fantastic!

within a few hours i can get from a big question mark floating above my head to instructions, tips and even wonderful recipes for that misterious fruit!

now i know what to look up on wikipedia i can even get the gist of this *thing* really quickly.

thanks for helping me out so fast!
you really are the best!

Robyn hat gesagt…

Oh my god, kaki persimmons are my FAVORITE FRUIT EVER!!!! Seriously, I buy em by the case. I've found them good when they're hard or soft (they soften when they're reallllllllly ripe). Hope you like it!

Anonym hat gesagt…

Here in Australia we also call them fuji fruit and they are gorgeous, although they're usually quite expensive, so it's not a treat I have very often. I find it best to leave them until they're really ripe - ie almost squishy and beyond what you'd normally think was "ripe" - for them to be really good.

There's also a relative of the persimmon, the black sapote, which is more commonly known as a chocolate pudding fruit - because when it's ripe the inside flesh looks like chocolate mousse. These are also beautiful.

Anonym hat gesagt…

yep yep, i love persimmons too! they are a fruit and there are many varieties. if this one is a "fuyu" variety (slightly longish in shape) then by default, you have to eat it when it's really really soft and mushy. if it's slightly flatish, and from israel or australia, then you can eat it when it's firmer. otherwise, they can taste extremely astringent! enjoy :)

Anne-arky hat gesagt…

They're called persimmons, but you already found that out. :P

Let us know what you decide to do with it! I always see those at the farmers' market but I'm never quite sure how to prepare them...

tschoerda hat gesagt…

me neither! i guess i will just wait until it is really ripe (like some of the commenters suggested) and then just eat it with a spoon. i am quite curious how it will taste!

vasilisa hat gesagt…

I don't remember what it's called in english... It's a fruit... (I guess you already figured the name anyways...) You're supposed to wait for it to be very ripe... So it is really really soft... Otherwise it sticks to your mouth and is quite horrible. When ripened properly it's the most delicious thing in the world. (So don't even try to eat it if it's hard... trust me... it's not the taste, it's the texture that's really really REALLY sticky... but once it's ripened -- heaven!)

Anonym hat gesagt…

Yum! Persimmons! I eat them in the morning with yogurt and cereal. I think it's a fuyu persimmon? Just peel and eat like an apple. I've never tried the hachiya....because I never know when to eat it. Or how.

Trig hat gesagt…

While I was in Portugal last week, a local farmer turned up with some "Sharon fruit". Technically, they should only be called this if they are from Israel, as their correct name is persimmon.

Apparently the persimmon has a very short growing season, so they are rarely seen ripe outside of these few weeks in October.

Tea hat gesagt…

It is a little hard to tell from the angle of this photo, but it looks to me like you have a hachiya persimmon, my favorite.

The are two main kinds of persimmons--hachiya and fuyu. The hachiya are rounded and more squat, the fuyu are more elongated. If you look at the bottom of the fruit you can probably tell. Fuyu will come to a point, like an acorn, while Hachiya will be fairly flat.

Hachiya persimmons you can eat while they are firm. I quarter them and peel them, though you can eat the skin (requires a little chewing).

For Fuyu you must wait until they are super soft, like jelly inside the skin, because if you eat them hard or firm they will taste like bitter cotton and leave an awful feeling in your mouth. Yuck! For a ripe fuyu, a spoon works great. If you wait until it is seriously liquid, you can make a tiny hole in the skin with your teeth and suck the insides out (little kids in Japan like to do this).

You might want to play it safe and wait until this guy gets soft. An unripe Fuyu is an awful experience.

I never cook persimmons, but they are often used in puddings and moist cakey things. In Asia they are often dried and become chewy and very sweet. I never cook them because I like them plain, peeled, and raw too much. They are sweet, but oh so good.

A fun fact: the persimmon genus, Diospyros, means "food of the gods."

Oh, and Kaki is the Japanese word for persimmon. It is used in many countries--sometimes spelled "caqui."

I hope you like it!

Anonym hat gesagt…

I'm a bit late on this one but let me tell you the best way to eat it-- simply put it in the freezer until it is almost firm and then slice it n half and eat with a spoon--- it is like a wonderful sorbet!! We have them everywhere here in Albania!

Marc hat gesagt…

I'm a little late to the discussion here, and by now you probably know how astringent your fruit was.

I see some contradictory information in the previous comments about which type is fuyu and which type is hachiya, which type can be eaten soft and which can be eaten firm. The food lover's companion's entry for Persimmon says that the hachiya is slightly elongated with a pointed end, and must be allowed to become completely ripe and soft before eating. The fuyu has a squatter shape, and can be eaten when firm, and there is no danger of pucker-overload. I always buy fuyu, as I am not patient enough to let the other type ripen.