Dried Persimmon Chips: Snacks for the Kids

What The Heck Is A Persimmon?

When you live in Los Angeles, you become spoiled by the enormous selection of fruits. There is hardly any fruit that is not grown in California in some capacity. Some, like the pomegranate, achieve wide exposure due to corporate marketing campaigns. Others remain artisan or exotic, quietly tucked away from the mainstream.

A persimmon is neither artisan nor exotic. But its unfamiliarity within the general population makes it enigmatic. To the uninitiated, it either resembles a plump tomato but with the wrong color; or it has the crunch of an apple but the taste of cinnamon and honey.

One you’ve tried one, though, you will be smitten. Just ask the Japanese. They made it their national fruit!

Two Common Varieties: Fuyu vs. Hachiya

To add further confusion, there are two common varieties of persimmon, Fuyu and Hachiya. Unlike, say, apples, these persimmon varieties are vastly different from one other:

Fuyu Persimmon

Resembles a cross between a tomato and a tiny pumpkin. When it is ripe, the texture is firm and crisp, like an apple. This variety is non-astringent.

Hachiya Persimmon

Resembles a heart. It is not edible until it is very, very soft and jelly-like. The high tannin content in the unripe Hachiya gives it a harshly leathery, astringent taste. The sensation is similar to an unripe green banana or a very dry wine.

Even people who work in the grocery business may be unfamiliar with the Hachiya.

To illustrate:

I recently grabbed a handful of very soft and ripe Hachiya persimmons at Whole Foods. The woman at the checkout stopped me and remarked, “Oh no! Those are rotten. Let me get you some firm ones!” I responded, “No, you really don’t want to do that! They’re supposed to be soft.”

Nutritional Powerhouses: Persimmons Are High In Vitamin C, Iron, And Other Nutrients

Nutritionally, persimmons are high in vitamin C and contain iron, calcium, potassium and manganese. They are also a reliable source of antioxidants such as vitamin-A, β-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin and cryptoxanthin, which may play a role in certain aging processes.

Aside from Whole Foods and some specialty markets, the best place to find persimmons is at farmer’s markets around the LA area. The growing season runs from mid-October to late December, although I am still seeing (and buying) them into January this year.

How To Eat Them: Dried Persimmons

In addition to eating them fresh, dried persimmons also have several great uses:

• As a dried snack for the kids to pack in their school lunches

• In a salad, tossed into little pieces like dried cranberries

• As an addition to a homemade trail mix

We like to use the pumpkin-colored Fuyu persimmons for this, as their drier, firmer texture makes them an ideal candidate for dehydration (or low-temperature oven drying). Hachiya persimmons are too astringent until they are very ripe, so these are best used in other recipes like a jam, pudding or smoothie.

How To Make Dried Persimmons

1. Wash well (as you will be using the skin too; organic is best for this).

2. Slice thin using either a mandolin (manually) or a CuisineArt (we use a PowerBlend Duet). You can choose the thickness that you want for your slices. On the manual mandolin, we set ours to 1.3mm.

3. Lay out the slices on a wire mesh rack in a single layer.

4. Dehydrate at 145°F for 1 hour, then lower to 115°F for 6-8 hours (or until dry). If using an oven, set at the lowest temperature setting and leave the door ajar if you can. Depending on the oven, you will need to check the texture until the fruit feels dry to the touch.

5. Store in an airtight container like a Mason jar for up to 6 months.

The Fractal Geometry of the Romanesco Cauliflower

Nature never ceases to impress me:

The Romanesco is one of the most beautiful vegetables I’ve ever encountered. As a member of the Brassica family, it is technically a broccoli but visually closer to a cauliflower.

The Romanesco’s beauty is enhanced by its mathematically precise form: a fractal pattern and a Fibonacci sequence formed by the spirals of the buds. It is believed to have originated in Italy in the 16th century as a result of selective breeding. But how did it attain that incredibly mathematical shape? That is unknown.

This remarkable-looking vegetable contains lots of zinc, carotenoids, iron, vitamin C and folate. It is crunchier than a cauliflower, with a more nutty, earthy flavor.

We like it steamed and seasoned with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. It can also be stir-fried with a bit of low-sodium tamari sauce.

If you haven’t tried one yet, the new year is a perfect time to sample one!

The Colorful History Of The Chanukah Latke

Are Jewish Traditions Immutable?

We often think of our Jewish holiday traditions as immutable. For instance, on Pesach, we eat brisket and matzo ball soup. On Rosh Hashanah, we eat pomegranates, apples and honey. And on Chanukah, we eat potato latkes and sufganiyot. These are the experiential and culinary representations of our festivals. We assume that they are part and parcel of the holiday, existing alongside the actual halachot (the religious rules that govern how we observe the festivals). As Tevye sings in Fiddler on the Roof, “Tradition!” 

The reality, however, is that our culinary traditions have evolved over time and continue to do so. And few have evolved more than the Chanukah latke. Of course, the purpose of frying latkes is to commemorate the miracle of that last vial of oil that miraculously lasted for eight days. But how we got to our modern potato latke tradition is fascinating.

The Story of Judith: The Prehistory Of The Latke

The concept of the latke originated with the Apocryphal story of the prophetess Judith. Likely hundreds of years before the Hasmonean era, Judith fed cheese pancakes to an invading Syrian-Greek general, Holofernes, then got him drunk and cut his head off. This story infers a tenuous connection to Chanukah at best, with Jewish sources in the Middle Ages suggesting that Judith was related to Judah Maccabee.

Ricotta Cheese Pancakes: The OG Latke

The 14th-century Rabbi Kalonymous ben Kalonymous, who became well-known in Italy, associated cheese pancakes as a Chanukah food in one of his poems, possibly connecting it to the story of Judith.

Inspired by this connection, the latke really took off as a ricotta cheese pancake called cassola. Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish Expulsion in Sicily brought cassola to Rome in 1492. These cheese pancakes were be fried in olive oil, in commemoration of the miracle of the oil used to light the menorah in the Temple.

Buckwheat: A Northern European Tradition

This ricotta cheese custom also reached Northern Europe. However, due to dairy’s scarcity and expense and olive oil’s lack of availability, the locals often substituted buckwheat or rye to make their latkes. Buckwheat latkes (known in Poland as “gretchenes") were made of buckwheat flour mixed with water, yeast and onions. They were fried with copious amounts of goose schmaltz. Why goose schmaltz? Geese were plentiful in Northern Europe in the wintertime and their slaughter provided copious amounts of cooking fat. Additionally, due to the Torah prohibition of mixing milk and meat, ricotta cheese could not be used with the schmaltz.

Potatoes: The Modern Latke

Crop failures in 1839 and 1840 in Poland and Ukraine led to the potato overtaking buckwheat and cheese as the latke ingredient of choice for Chanukah pancakes. It wasn’t until the early 20th century, though, that the modern potato latke really became established with its own firm tradition. Potatoes are cheap, easy to grow and quite tasty.

However, from a health standpoint, potato latkes are problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, they are deep-fried in vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is high in Omega-6 fatty acids and thus inflammatory, while frying also makes the foods higher in calories. Secondly, white potatoes are predominantly made from simple starch with minimal nutritional value. Finally, latke recipes often use bleached white flour to help bind the other ingredients together. These factors, coupled with the toppings that often accompany latkes, such as sour cream and jam, results in a very high glycemic index food that does few favors for your health.

Sweet Potatoes: The Latke Of The 21st Century

A better solution is to use sweet potatoes and to bake the latkes rather than fry them.

Why sweet potatoes? Unlike regular tubers, sweet potatoes are high in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium and fiber. They are also a very reliable source of complex carbohydrates, ranking these vegetables low on the glycemic index.

Why baked? Baking preserves nutrients and spares your body from the advanced glycation end products of deep frying starches. Deep frying in partially hydrogenated oil causes inflammation. And heating oils at high temperatures causes them to oxidize, potentially causing many serious medical problems.

What Are The Nutritional Benefits Of Using Sweet Potatoes?

Each variety of sweet potato provides different nutritional benefits:

• Orange sweet potatoes contain copious amounts of beta-carotene, which our bodies metabolize into vitamin A.

• The Stokes Purple variety is very high in antioxidants, specifically anthocyanin.

• The white Hannah variety contains iron and also has the closest texture to a traditional white potato.

• The Japanese variety contains calcium and thiamine and is denser and starchier than the orange variety.

A Fun Sweet Potato Latke Recipe

Last Chanukah, we cooked up a fabulous-tasting latke recipe that I learned from Canadian food blogger Meghan Telpner, whose culinary course I took in 2016. The recipe uses sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots and onions, with almond flour and eggs to hold it together. It is gluten-free and dairy-free and can easily be made paleo (depending on the flour) or vegan (by substituting chia for the eggs).

We had fun with this recipe and used three different varieties of sweet potatoes (Hannah, Japanese and Stokes Purple) and two different varieties of zucchini (Green and Gold Bar). All the vivid colors made it an engaging recipe for the kids.

While these latkes are obviously not fried in oil, we maintained the connection to the miracle of the oil by basting them with olive oil before baking. This had the added benefit of locking in moisture so we had a crispy outside and soft inside.

Another option is buckwheat latkes. Buckwheat is an entirely different experience from potatoes – earthy and satisfying but not sweet. That is a project for us to try again next year.

Parting Thoughts On The Latke

The latke has a very long and colorful history. Far from being bound to an unchanging culinary tradition, Chanukah foods are constantly evolving alongside the nutritional needs of the community and the availability of the raw materials.

Rather than viewing sweet potatoes as a radical departure from the traditional latke, this is just another delicious iteration in the ever-evolving history of the latke.

What new or unique ingredients have you used in your latkes this year or in years past? Please share in the comments below!

Happy Chanukah!

The Pleasures of Autumn Royal Grapes

AUTUMN ROYAL GRAPES

Beautiful Autumn Royal seedless table grapes. Flanked by Scarlet Royal at left and Princess at right.

With their deep purple hue, sweet taste and crisp texture, Autumn Royal are quite possibly our favorite grape variety this season. They make a remarkably tasty grape juice as well!

As one of the Seven Species, grapes hold a very special place in the Torah. But most commercial grape juices are made of Concord grapes. While the Concord’s presence at a Shabbat table is virtually the definition of traditional, the Autumn Royal delivers a new and exciting experience for us.

It’s always fun to experiment with making familiar juices from unfamiliar varieties. It’s even fun to combine them into blends! When you make your own grape juice, you get to decide on the flavors, textures and colors that you serve yourself and your family for special occasions such as Shabbat meals.

Want to learn how to make homemade grape juice? Try it!

These grapes were purchased from Nicholas Farms, which is located in Orange Cove, CA.

Jujubes: Gumballs For Your Health

What Is A Jujube?

You may have seen these cute little fruits at farmer’s markets, Asian shops and Indian stores during the early autumn months. They’re jujubes, also known as red dates or Chinese dates. Jujubes resemble miniature ornamental apples when fully ripe, with their dappled brownish-yellowish skin and firm texture. Bite into one and you will find slightly spongy flesh with a date-like pit at the center.

Unlike the popular candy of the same name, which has absolutely no nutritional value, the jujube fruit is a nutritional powerhouse. It contains lots of fiber and is high in vitamins A and C, the B vitamins, iron, phosphorus and calcium.

What Are Jujubes Used For?

Jujubes have been cultivated for over 4,000 years and are employed heavily in Chinese medicine. They are used for combatting insomnia and pain, as well as for their sedative effects. Of course, they can be taken in supplement form – but they’re certainly more delicious in their natural form!

I love sending jujubes to school with my kids, as they become little jujube addicts during snack time. The anti-anxiety and pro-digestive effects alone make it a worthwhile treat!

How Do You Use A Jujube?

Besides popping jujubes into your mouth like gum balls, what are its culinary possibilities? Here is a sampling of ideas:

1. Boil into a tea

2. Dehydrate into dried fruit

3. Dry and use in place of dates or raisins

4. Dry, chop up and mix with almonds, walnuts and other nuts as a trail mix

The Colorful Plumage of Pluots

What Is A Pluot?

Now that the stone fruit season is winding down, I want to pay homage to one of my favorites: pluots. Have you noticed these colorful-looking stone fruits at the farmer’s markets – and even at Trader Joe’s? Pluots are hybridized stone fruits that are roughly 75% plum and 25% apricot. They are a relative newcomer, having been developed in the late 1980s. What I love about their plum-like flavor is that they rarely exhibit the characteristic tartness of plums. Instead, they explode with sweetness. Nutritionally, they are very rich in vitamin C and potassium.

I grew up eating a handful of stone fruits: plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines. That was the extent of it, and in retrospect it seems so boring!

Dapple Dandy Pluot

Splash Pluot

Pluots Come In A Multitude Of Colors

By contrast, pluots come in dozens of varieties and a multitude of colors such as green, crimson, purple, orange and pink. My kids are most intrigued by their colorful names, which match their colorful skins: Dapple Dandy, Dinosaur Egg, Emerald Beauty, Flavor Grenade, Flavor Treat, Flavor Queen, Honey Punch, Crimson Beauty, Crimson Royale and Splash, among many others that we’ve tried. Each of my kids has a personal favorite.

For now, we must be content with finishing our last remaining pluots of the season, until the late-spring pluot harvest comes around again.

The Culinary Versatility of Raw Almonds

Are Almonds Nuts?

Almonds are all the rage these days in the food world. But did you know that they are not actually nuts? Botanically, almonds are stone fruits and are closely related to peaches and plums. We eat the kernel inside the hard shell.

When I was a kid, we would often remove the shell to get to the kernel inside. Nowadays our culture prizes convenience over authenticity. So it’s easy to forget that almonds do not actually grow in cellophane packaging! But what I find fascinating about almonds is that they are really just raw inputs into an entire world of culinary versatility.

What’s The Best Way To Eat Almonds?

There are many ways to consume almonds. Some of our favorites include:

• As a snack: Soak overnight and then dehydrate (or oven-dry) to eat as a part of a homemade trail mix

• As a beverage: Pulverize into almond milk

• As a garnish: Top off a salad with slices, flakes or slivers

• In schnitzel: Add (in the form of flour or meal) to make the coating for chicken schnitzel

• In matzo balls: Roll (in the form of flour or meal) into matzo balls

• As a dessert: Mix (in the form of flour) into a batter to make a honey cake

• As a gluten-free bread substitute: Mix (in the form of flour) into a dough to make a delicious bread loaf

• As a spread: Spread (in the form of nut butter) onto celery sticks or apples (Fuji or Gala taste the best!)

Early in the growing season, some cultures also have a custom of eating green almonds. These are really just the immature fruit (including the fuzzy outer hull), harvested before it has had a chance to harden.

How Do You Store Almonds?

Like nearly all nuts and nut-like foods, almonds are high in a variety of fats and oils. The high oil content creates two issues:

They are particularly efficient at absorbing pesticides. Therefore, they should be purchased organic whenever possible.

They are susceptible to going rancid fairly quickly due to heat and light. Therefore, they should be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place, away from heat sources. We prefer to store ours in the freezer but a fridge works just as well. Furthermore, once they've been soaked and dehydrated, they must be stored in the fridge or freezer.

What are some of the ways that you use almonds in your diet?

The Secret History of the Etrog (aka Citron)

“To everything there is a season. And a time for every purpose under heaven.”

— Ecclesiastes

Last week was the Jewish festival of Sukkot, a very joyous time of year on the Jewish calendar. The holiday commemorates the protection that G-d provided the Children of Israel in the desert when we left Egypt. Sukkot is also the celebration of the fall harvest.

One of the many visible symbols of the Sukkot festival is the etrog. It is ceremonially waved along with the lulav (palm frond), myrtle twigs and willow twigs. You probably know the etrog by its English name, the citron.

What Is An Etrog?

Etrog slices with rind, pulp and seeds

The etrog is a strange-looking fruit. It resembles a bumpy lemon. I always assumed that it was an off-shoot of the lemon. In fact, the lemon and lime genetically derive from the etrog. The fruit has very little pulp and is mostly thick rind with aromatic skin and lots of seeds. In ancient cultures, those seeds symbolized fertility.

Where Did This Quirky Fruit Come From?

The etrog originated in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan. It then traveled to northeastern India, where it became incorporated into Ayurvedic medicine. Given its strong history of medicinal uses, the etrog may even be considered a superfood. It eventually spread to the Persian Empire and the Mediterranean region once Darius I conquered India.

The most commonly used Etrog comes from Calabria, Italy. It is one of the three major exporters of etrogs, along with Israel and Morocco. In order to remain kosher for the holiday, they cannot be grafted onto other hardier citrus trees. Ironically, that preference for purity means that there has been very little cross-breeding for hundreds of years, so the etrog of today may truly be an ancient fruit.

What Do You Do With An Etrog?

The etrog is very unlike most other fruits: it does not spoil; rather, it shrivels over time. And there is precious little juice. So culinary options are limited.

After we are done with using it for the Sukkot holiday, my wife makes a tasty jam. Some people in our community make etrog liquor. The fruit’s aroma is really quite lovely, regardless of how it’s used.

Wait, What? Meet The Buddha’s Hand Citron

A close cousin of the etrog is the Buddha’s Hand citron. We encountered this at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market last week. This strange-looking exotic fruit resembles a very lumpy lemon with fingers. Or a squid made out of yellow rind. It is downright weird. It looks so darn cool that my kids keep nagging me to buy one!

What Is This Creepy-Looking Fruit?

The Buddha’s Hand is a hybrid of the etrog (citron) that originated in the Yangtze Valley of China. In Chinese and Japanese culture, it symbolizes happiness, wealth and longevity.

What Do You Do With A Buddha’s Hand Citron?

You can throw it in your laundry machine. The lavender-like aroma is so alluring that the ancient Chinese used to wash their clothes with the fruit. You could use it as citrus zest. Or you could cut it up in small pieces and fry it. Either way, the fragrance apparently can’t be beat.

What’s the weirdest fruit that you’ve ever encountered? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

The Color Purple: Meet the Anthocyanins

I try to bring my wife and kids a new vegetable or variety as often as possible. There’s fun in the discovery and the ensuing culinary experimentation. At the very least, it results in memorable dinnertime conversation. For Rosh Hashanah, we got two new fruits: a “paper shell” pomegranate, which looks like an albino version of the familiar red pom; and a sapote, which, after 3 weeks, is still waiting to ripen in our kitchen!

Autumn is the time when so many fascinating new fruits and vegetables spring into season. All the incredible hues that we’ve seen around the farmer’s market this season give new meaning to the term “fall colors”: red, white, pink, black, brown, yellow, orange.

And purple. Lots and lots of purple.

Purple means the plant contains anthocyanins, a flavonoid antioxidant that also manifests as red, blue or black. This is the same compound that gives blueberries its hue.

This week, we found purple beans, purple basil and Salanova lettuce.

Purple Beans

Beneath the royal purple sheen, purple beans are green beans or wax beans in disguise. They are sometimes referred to as Royal Burgundy and Royal Purple.

Sadly, the purple color fades when the beans are cooked, revealing an ordinary-looking pale lime bean. After all the buildup around this novelty of a bean, my kids were less than wowed when the plate of ordinary-looking beans showed up at the dinner table. But flavorful they were!

Next time, we will steam them or eat them raw to retain the purple color.

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Purple “Opal” Basil

The purple “opal” basil was a hit with the kids. Purple basil, you may ask? Well yes, and strikingly so: The leaves are variegated deep purple and green, giving it a gorgeous color profile. The taste is reminiscent of anise or fennel, slightly more bitter and savory than traditional green basil. It is intensely aromatic.

Needless to say, my kids competed on who could eat the most purple basil leaves at one sitting.

Beyond dinner table food contests, where else can this honorable herb be used? As with green basil, the purple opal variety has medicinal uses as well:

• As a tea to calm the digestive tract

• As a homemade bug repellant

• As a nausea remedy

Interestingly, it is often grown next to tomatoes, as it repels tomato pests. Who knew that this common culinary combination – tomatoes and basil – could be rooted in nature?!

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Salanova Lettuce

What can possibly be exciting about a lettuce? It’s among the most common salad vegetables around. Yet there are so many varieties: iceberg, romaine, red leaf and butter, for instance. But it’s no surprise that some of the more unusual varieties can be found at local farmer’s markets. Among them is Salanova lettuce, which you can get from Sunrise Organic Farms at the Larchmont Farmer’s Market.⁠

Salanova lettuce is relatively new on the market. It resembles an oversized baby lettuce. This red-leafed variety was first sold in 2005. (The Washington Post had a fascinating article about it a few years back.) It’s crunchy like an iceberg lettuce but with a mild, buttery flavor. The burgundy-colored leaves contain anthocyanins.

It is also incredibly efficient to prepare and serve Salanova:

With most lettuces, the leaves are joined around a central core and must be peeled off layer by layer. But Salanova’s leaves are all joined at the base. Just cut off the base and all the leaves fall into a pile, ready to be tossed into a famil-sized salad.

How convenient! We think so too.

Your Turn: What Interesting New Fruits Or Veggies Have You Tried Lately?

I’d love to turn the culinary tables on you, my readers:

What interesting new fruits or vegetables have you tried this season? What new fruits did you feature on your Rosh Hashanah table recently? How did your kids react to them?