The Fall Rose Beauty

November went by really fast.  I had some moment to check on my fall garden and found roses welcoming what's left of the warm sun in the fall afternoon.  I couldn't resist from taking some photos with my usual and faithful PowerShot A560 AiAF camera.  I am not a photographer, but I love to test taking photos with any camera and see how they would turn out.  It's much more forgiving than the cooking, of course.  Interesting things about these roses of mine are that they don't seem to produce the same type of blossoms each season.  You never know how it looks like when they blossom.  Will they be red?  hot pink? or pink? Sometimes they produce blossoms like the 'tea roses', then, sometimes, the long stem roses, then, sometimes very tempermentally - anything they say they want to be.  Enjoy.

 

  

 

  

 

 

  

  

  

Dried Persimmons Progress Report #2

I am posting the images of air drying HACHIYA (astringent, cone shaped) Persimmons from Day 1 through Day 13. I think the drying process maybe much faster in California, U.S.A. because of the humidity difference between US and Asia.   If the normal air drying of persimmons take 6 to 8 weeks than mine is drying super fast, but of course, there are other factors to consider.   I only have 11 hanging persimmons, one persimmon per string vs strands and strands of persimmons being air dried.   Hope this images will help any new persimmon enthusiasts on  "How to Dry Persimmons" or "What to do with HACHIYA Persimmons".  So this is how they would look air drying persimmons.  (Please read The Fall Jewel - Persimmons (Dried KAKI) http://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2009/11/fall-jewel-persimmons-dried-kaki.html  for "how to prepare" in my previous blogs.)

(Double click on the image to view vimage in larger size.)

 

 

 

FUYU Bundt Cake

FUYU Persimmons are our favorites or any of the non-astringent crunchy type persimmons are.  The best one to bite into is the Giant FUYU KAKI.  Love the crunchy and sweet taste and interesting level of textures in one fruit.  And we love the beautiful orange color in the autumn.
I came across this recipe from http://www.sdfarmbureau.org/FUYU/recipe.html.
I find it interesting that FUYU persimmons are used rather than the cone shaped astringent type for baking. But I jump right into and tested it.  The bundt cake came out beautifully.  I think it tasted better on the 2nd day.
My variation to this recipe is that I used 4 tsp of lemon juice rather than 2.  (I didn't want to waste the extra two tsp of fresh lemon juice that I got from the lemon in my garden.)

Enjoy!

Persimmon Oatmeal Cookies

While researching about 'how to dry persimmons' on the net, I came across persimmon cookies recipe at this site.  I am not going to print it here as it is not my recipe.  But here is the site address:  http://www.seedtosupper.com/persimmons.html  and you can get much more interesting facts on persimmons than mine.
For this recipe, 1 cup of fully ripened persimmon pulp was used.  My taste test on this is that I don't really taste the persimmons in it.  I taste more of the oatmeal and spices than persimmons in it.
Perhaps, cutting down on the oatmeal entirely or measure down to 2/3 or 1/2 or 3/4 Cup would do.
Only testing would tell.  But it is a good recipe to start my adventure with baking with HACHIYA persimmons.

Modification in the recipe of mine included the following ingredients:
1 tsp Vanilla
3 Shakes of Chili Pepper Flakes
a Couple of shakes of Lemon Zest ... about 1/8 tsp but could have used 1 tsp of fresh lemon zest.

The Fall Jewel - Dried Persimmon Progress Report

I thought it may be interesting to note the progress at which the cone shaped astringent type persimmons were getting their dehydration -- in my garage.  I still have the concern with birds in the backyard and pollution in the air, so I have not built this dehydration tree using dowels that I got.  I need to do that, however, since I will be cropping a lot more persimmons today.
So Day 1 and and Day 2 images of persimmons show the varied degrees of moisture loss.
Outer fresh starting to look dry.
I decided to "massage" one of them as described in the process at some of the Japanese website regarding drying persimmon - HOSHIGAKI.
The experience is interesting enough to say, if you have not tried it - you should to understand what I am talking about.
At first, the persimmon felt like a unripe Avocado.  But as you start to gently squeeze a bit, you will feel the inner membrane move around.  Then, you gently massage a bit more without making any break on the outer fresh, and you are done.  According to some Japanese website related to drying persimmons, they do this daily.  Surely, the persimmon that I massage got orangish ripening look the next day more than the others.  So, I decided to massage everyone.  (with gloves, of course for the food service type.)
By 5th day, this morning, when I checked, the outer fresh is quite leathery.  They have lost 60% of the moisture.

3:30 pm 11/14/09 - Found out why the 'massaging' of hang drying persimmons are beneficial.
I just so happen to go through garage in the afternoon and found these persimmon's colors are different then in the morning around 9 am.  They look more orangish.  I think the massage has brought the moisture - the 'juice' to the surface.

Also, here is photos of whole and halved ripened astringent type persimmons that were dried in the dehydrator.  Tasted awesomely delicious.  I only got three left.  Others, I made Persimmon - FUYU Bundt Cake (FUYU non-astringent type) and Persimmon Cookies (astringent type).   I will post those later tonight.