It is beautiful now with its autumn livery. It matches with the color of GiglioCooking, which is orange.
Cachi or Kaki in Italian, but also Diospero, which is the name most used in Florence: one of the gifts of the season.
They are divided in two main types: soft and hard.
Of both types there are some varieties, that change the size, the content of seeds, the taste.
All of them are good as simple dessert: my personal habit is to have fresh fruit as dessert.
Hard ones can be used in salads or cooked with sweeter meats like pork and duck. Soft ones are suitable to make puddings, creams, sorbet, soft cakes.
The leaves are beautiful in summer, when they are bright green as well as in fall, when their shades go from yellow to red.
The only inconvenient is that the courtyard must be swept every day.
PERSIMMON (VANILLA HARD VARIETY) AND ORANGE SALAD
Ingredients:
1 leek
2 fennel bulbs
1 bunch of frugola
2 cachi vaniglia (hard persimons)
3 oranges
for the vinaigrette:
80 gr ( 2 ½ Oz) extra virgin olive oil
ml 100 ( ½ cup) orange juice
the grated zest of 1 orange
2 tbs apple vinegar
2 sprigs fresh green fennel
a few sprigs of chives
dry hot chilli pepper
salt
Rise well the leek – included the green part -, arugola, fennel. Slice and put in a salad bowl.
Peel and cut the cachis in thin wedges.
Peel the oranges and extract the clean wedges (without the thin skin).
Make en emulsion with the olive oil, the filtered orange juice, apple vinegar, chopped herbs, seasoning.
PORK ROLLS WITH PERSIMMONS
Ingredients for 4:
8 thin slices of pork loin
1 hard persimmon + 1 for the side sauce
100 gr ( 3 oz ) pancetta
60 gr ( 2 oz ) extra virgin olive oil
a splash of Brandy
salt and pepper
optional broth as needed
Cut the Pancetta into thin strips ( or buy it already thinly sliced).
Peel one had persimmon and slice it.
Pound the slices of meat. Line them with some strips of pancetta; place in the middle 2 slices of persimmon. . Roll them and fix with a toothpick.
In a saucepan heat the extra virgin olive.
Cook the meat rolls until golden-brown. Season with salt and pepper.
Splash with Brandy, let it evaporate. If they are not cook inside, add a ladle of broth, cover and let them cook.
Take the meat rolls out of the pan.
Peel and slice the second persimmon and cook it in the same pan for a few minutes.
Put the pork rolls back in the pan.
Serve with vegetables like turnip tops, cabbage, kale, broccoli; potatoes are always good.
Note: this recipe doesn’t need herbs. Optionally you can sprinkle the rolls with a mixture of rosemary and sage well minced.
PERSIMONS SOFT CAKE
Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cachi (soft persimmons)
60 gr ( 2 Oz) sugar
100 gr ( 3 Oz) hazelnuts (peeled and slightly toasted)
100 gr ( 3 Oz) almonds, peeled
powdered sugar
Mill almonds and hazelnuts with a spoon of sugar in a mixer, until they pulverize.
Peel the cachis – persimmons and eliminate the pits. Gather the pulp and mix it in the blender.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Add the remaining sugar to the yolks and beat them until foamy and pale.
Incorporate the pulverized nuts and the persimmons puree.
Whip up the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the dough.
Cook in a round baking pan, lined with parchment paper, in a preheated oven at 190° C for about 30’.
Garnish with powdered sugar.
CHESTNUT MOUSSE WITH PERSIMMON SAUCE
Ingredients:
250 gr ( 8 oz) chestnuts
250 gr ( 8 oz) whipped cream
1 tbs sugar
2 cups milk
Small piece of vanilla bean
1 tbs Rum
1 gelatin sheet
Sauce:
2 persimmons
100 ml ( 4/5 cup) Maraschino or other sweet liquor (Amaretto, Cointreau)
1 tbs podwer sugar
Boil the chestnut in water “half way”.
Peel them.
Put them in a pot with the milk, with vanilla, sugar and 2 tbs of Rum. Continue to cook until the chestnuts are soft.
Puree them in the mixer, add the gelatin, previously soaked in cold water then melt in a little water on the fire, the remaining rum. Fold in the whipped cream.
Pour in individual moulds and refrigerate for 3 hours.
Peel the persimmons, put them in a mixer with powder sugar and sweet liquor.
Unmold the chestnut mousse and serve with the persimmon sauce.
Marcella Ansaldo