Tis the season for persimmons. A few weeks ago one of my Nia students came into class with persimmons. Many of us ooohed and ahhhed at the beautiful fruit, but most people did not take them because we don’t know what to do with them. The last time I received persimmons in my organic produce box I looked up recipes that use them and most of them call for a puree and then they are baked into something. One of my students said she had a pudding recipe. I think she said it was like a bread pudding, so she was happy to take them. I didn’t know what to do with them, but I took one. Then the next day the woman who brought them in had more and even less people took them so there was a lot left and she was going out of town so I took a few. The student with the bread pudding recipe said they wouldn’t be ripe until about Christmas. So I put them in my fruit bowl and didn’t check them often because I thought they would be ready closer to Christmas. In the mean time my husband brought home some persimmons. So I had quite a few persimmons and I didn’t know what to do with them.
The ones that my student brought in were from her neighbor’s tree and they were the Hachiya kind. I had never had those. The bread pudding student said they were ready to eat when they were soft. Well, it turns out the ripened a lot faster than I was expecting and unfortunately a couple ended up casualties. The kind my husband got from his co-worker were the Fuyu. Those are the ones I had received before. Those are to be eaten when they are more like an apple. So one, the Hachiyas, need to be soft, the other, firm, but not hard.
The only thing I knew to do with them was to make my Fancy Toast. And that is with the Fuyus. I know there was a time when I was eating that every day it seems, but I just wasn’t that into it this batch of persimmons. So there they sat.
Then one day I looked at them and realized that I was going to have more casualties if I didn’t use some of them. So I just decided to throw them on my chicken. When I met my husband one of the things he liked to cook was apricot chicken. He would get some apricot preserves and put it on the chicken. I thought that persimmons wouldn’t be too different. So I tried it. I liked it so much I am making it again to use up the remain persimmons. It was easy and tasty. Here is what I did.
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Persimmon Chicken
2 large chicken breast
2 Hachiya persimmons
2 Fuyu persimmons
cinnamon
nutmeg
salt
(pepper, if you like it)
I would salt both sides of the chicken put the chicken in a baking dish. I smashed the two Hachiya persimmons and spread them on top of the chicken. I sliced up the two Fuyu persimmons and put them on top of the chicken and on the sides. Then I sprinkled a little more salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon on top of everything in the dish.
Bake at 375° F. Halfway through cooking, I took the dish out of the oven and flipped the chicken. I arranged the persimmons back on top and around the chicken, sprinkled a little more salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon on top of everything, then baked it until done.**
**This time around I am using a tiny bit of soy sauce. I put a little on the chicken before baking. Not soaking in it, just a little on both sides of the chicken. I should have used salt. I sprinkled a little tiny bit of cinnamon and nutmeg on it THEN add the persimmons (this time I only have one Hachiya). Then I sprinkled the salt, the nutmeg, and the cinnamon on top of everything in the dish.
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The chicken still needed a little bit more flavor to me. It was GREAT as long as I got a piece of persimmon with the meat, but not having salted it before (as I say to do in the recipe) left it kind bland. Because I did the soy I didn’t salt it, but I will next time.
So . . . there you have it. If you want to use your persimmons you might want to try this. If you have a recipe you already use for your persimmons, please let us know.
What do you do with persimmons?
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