Nuts and Persimmon Couscous

There are many recipes for couscous dishes in the Mediterranean cuisine. Some are savory, with vegetables, and some are sweet, with nuts, fruits, or raisins. Today, here is my version of a traditional nut couscous dish. It is spicy but also almost sweet. It can be served with grilled meats, vegetables, or as a dish on its own. I like it on its own the most, because it is very pure and this way you can taste better its rich ingredients: the butter and the saffron, and better appreciate the flavor of the nuts in the couscous.

This type of couscous is also made with dried fruits, besides nuts. But instead of dried fruits I decided to use fresh persimmons, which are now in season. Because persimmons can be very sweet at the peak of the season, to contrast their sweetness, I added preserved lemons to the salad. Here it is a very simple yet flavorful dish.

Nuts and Persimmon Couscous

Ingredients:
1 cup couscous,
1 cup hot water,
1/4 tsp salt,
1/2 cup blanched almonds,
1/2 cup shelled unsalted pistachios,
4 dried seedless dates chopped (optional, if persimmons are very sweet),
a pinch of saffron threads,
1/4 tsp ground cumin,
1/4 tsp cinnamon,
1/4 tsp ground cloves,
1/4 tsp ground coriander seeds,
a pinch of cayenne pepper,
1 persimmon, peeled,
4 slices of preserved lemons, cut into small cubes,
2 tbsp olive oil,
2 tbsp butter,
fresh mint to garnish.

Preparation:
1. In a small pot bring to boil water with olive oil and salt. Take off the heat, add couscous, mix, cover, and set aside for about 10 minutes.
2. Heat the butter in a medium-sized frying pot. Add saffron and nuts and fry stirring until the nuts are brown.
3. Add dried spices to the nuts and cook for about a minute. Toss in the couscous and heat everything together for two minutes.
4. Cut persimmon into quarters and then in halves, and mix with the couscous.
5. Add preserved lemon cubes and mix everything together. Garnish with chopped mint.

Serve warm or room temperature.

Almond Cake with Persimmon Compote

This very nice Italian-style cake is one of the easiest cakes to make. It can be prepared entirely in a stand-up mixer. In principle, it is a cheesecake, but it does not taste like one. True to its Italian roots, it is made with the ricotta cheese, which gives it a nice moist texture but it does not stand out in the taste. As a result, the cake is very delicate and tastes more like a sponge almond cake than a cheesecake.

I decided to garnish this cake with persimmons, which are now in season and are easily available in most of the stores, especially Asian and Middle Eastern. They have a beautiful color and wonderful honey-like sweetness. Because they are so sweet, to tone them down a little, I made a wine and lemon syrup in which I cooked them briefly. Then I poured it over the cake. This combination could not be better. Just try.



Almond Cake with Persimmon Compote
(For a 9-inch round baking form with removable walls)

Ingredients:

For the cake:
1/2 cup all purpose flour,
1/2 cup ground almonds,
1/2 cup ricotta cheeses,
2/3 cup sugar,
1 and 1/2 stick unsalted butter,
1 tsp baking powder,
4 eggs.

For persimmon garnish:
4 firm persimmons,
1/2 cup sugar,
1 cup dry white wine,
juice from 1 lemon,
1/2 cup whipped cream or creme fresh to garnish.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Line a bottom of a baking form with wax paper, grease with butter, and dust with flour.
3. In a medium bowl mix flour, ground almonds, and baking powder.
4. Melt the butter and pour it in a bowl of a mixer. Add sugar and ricotta and beat on a high speed until the mixture becomes very smooth and white, for about 5 minutes.



5. Add to the mixture eggs, beating well between additions. Incorporate dry ingredients and beat again.
6. Transfer the batter to the form, smooth and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top becomes gold. Let it cool down.
7. To make the persimmon compote peel off persimmons cut in half and slice them into a 1/2-inch thick quarters.
8. Pour wine, sugar, and lemon juice into a medium pot. Bring it to boil and cook on a medium high heat for about 30 minutes, until it thickens to a consistency of a syrup. Add persimmon quarters and let it boil in the syrup for two-three minutes. Cool down completely.



9. Remove a cake from the form on a serving plate and finish with persimmons and cream.

Chestnut Mousse with Persimmon Sauce--Dessert in no Time

Last year, when I shared a recipe based on chestnuts, it was a savory dish--cornish hens with chestnut stuffing. The chestnut season is upon us and I decided to experiment with chestnuts again. For this purpose, I bought several bags of the organic shelled and roasted chestnuts to make a dessert based on chestnuts.

I was inspired by the Italian cuisine and my Italian cookbooks where chestnuts appear often as a main ingredient of many desserts: cakes, creams, and mousses. I chose a chestnut mousse, a very simple dessert that can be prepared in no time. I was full of doubts how it would turn out after my chocolate and chestnut cake disappointment a few years ago. This time, I was pleasantly surprised.

I liked the taste of the mousse very much--it was delicate but chestnuts gave it a kind of earthy flavor. And the whole dessert was not too sweet. I also added a tablespoon of the hazelnut liqueur, which made it taste even more "earthy and nutty".

But I needed something extra to finish the whole dessert and create a nice presentation. I chose the persimmon sauce. Persimmons, like chestnuts, are typical fruits of the season. It was a good combination, since the delicate persimmons did not overshadow the taste of the chestnuts. Overall, chestnut mousse, although somewhat unusual, seemed interesting enough and very in season to be a Thanksgiving dinner dessert.

Chestnut Mousse with Persimmon Sauce
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
1 cup (7 oz) of roasted and shelled chestnuts, or a full cup of raw chestnuts,
1/4 cup of sugar,
1 tbsp of hazelnut (Frangelico) or walnut liqueur,
1 cup heavy whipping cream,
3 persimmons,
a pinch of cinnamon (optional),
juice from half a lime,
mint leaves to decorate.

Preparation:
1. If you use raw chestnuts, blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes then drain and peel off. Put the peeled chestnuts in a small pot of boiling water and simmer for about 30 minutes. Drain them and chop. If you use cooked or roasted chestnuts just chopped them roughly.

2. Put sugar in a small pot, add two tbsp of water and bring to boil. Boil briefly stirring until sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat. Add to the pot chopped chestnuts and using a hand blender make purée. Let it cool down.
3. Add hazelnut liqueur and cinnamon, if you like. Mix well.
4. Pour heavy whipping cream into a medium bowl and beat until stiff. Add chestnuts purée in two batches gently folding in. Chill the mousse in a refrigerator for half an hour.

5. Meanwhile, peel off persimmons and remove the hard parts around the stem.

6. Cut two persimmons in small pieces, add lime juice and, using a hand blender, make a smooth sauce. Cut the third persimmon into slices and use for decoration before serving.
7. Remove the chestnut mousse from the refrigerator. Dip a soup spoon in a hot water, get a spoon of mousse and place two spoons on each serving plate. Drizzle with persimmon sauce, decorate with persimmon slices and mint, and serve.

Fresh Persimmon Dessert--Light, Easy, and Healthy

About this time a year ago, pomegranates were the hit of the season for me. I simply could not get enough of them. This year, for change, I have gone crazy about persimmons. I buy them by pounds, peel off, cut, and eat like apples, several a day. I have never seen them more ripe and sweet and just cannot resist their taste. They are so perfect that they hardly have this characteristic, starchy aftertaste, but they are just sweet like honey, which makes me almost want to squeeze some lemon juice on them.

This year, I buy mostly the hachiya variety of persimmons. They are larger, sweeter, more juicy, and have a brighter orange color than the more common Jiro persimmons that look like flat unripe tomatoes. In the Middle Eastern or Asian stores, where they truly know how they should taste, they are sold in their most perfect stage--very sweet but not yet mushy.

Sometimes, the products of the nature are so perfect that we cannot do much to make them taste better. I think that it is the case with persimmons. But I was just thinking how to popularize these wonderful fruits, which are rich in oxidants and potassium, but also help digest lipids and therefore help prevent heart diseases.

To preserve their nutritional value I was thinking about serving them fresh. My first idea was to make a smoothie with them. Unfortunately, milk made the persimmon taste too bland. So I puréed the fruits with a blender and spooned over the glass goblets. Then I topped it generously with my favorite Greek yogurt. It was good but the contrast was too strong, so I drizzled a bit of running honey on top of yogurt. It was almost perfect but I just needed some extra texture. I sprinkled yogurt with toasted almonds and when I tried it for the last time it was what I was looking for. It became my favorite dessert in last weeks and sometimes, when I added some toasted oatmeal to it, also a breakfast.

Persimmon Dessert

Ingredients:
4 hachiya persimmons,
1 cup of Greek fat free yogurt,
4 tsp running honey, preferably acacias,
4 tsp toasted almond flakes,
mint leaves to decorate.

Preparation:
1. Cut each persimmon in half, remove the seeds, and the tough core.

2. Peel off each half and chop. Put fruits in a blender and run the engine until the fruit is nearly puréed. Or just chop the fruits very finely. Divide it among four glass goblets.

2. A a tablespoon of Greek yogurt to each goblet. Drip a teaspoon of honey on top and sprinkle it with toasted almonds. Chill for about half an hour in a refrigerator.

Decorate with mint and serve.

Persimmon Panna Cotta--from the Greek Gods

Panna Cotta and Tiramisu certainly belong to the most popular Italian desserts. They are on many restaurants' menus, even those that are not Italian, like a good coffee, which everyone loves, regardless of the food that is served. There are many variations of Tiramisu. They all use Mascarpone cheese but differ in many other ingredients. The same happened to Panna Cotta, which has mutated into many versions and is served with many sauces. Last time, I had Panna Cotta in a small Italian restaurant in London's Portobello. I had a very good espresso and a very nice berry Panna Cotta. The fruit sauce was a little bit too sweet and strong, but since it was not an after-dinner dessert, but an afternoon snack, it did not seem too heavy after all and its richness was neutralized by a strong coffee.

I do not think I can come up with any new variation, that Italians do not know already, but as I pass a persimmon tree growing on my street and watch its fruits turning into more and more orange every day, I thought about making Panna Cotta with persimmon sauce.

Persimmons are acquired taste, but I do like their tomato-like look as well as their sweet and tart taste that stays on a tongue for a while. I eat them by pounds as any fruits, make salads and will try in more desserts. When I was about to leave Switzerland, Japanese persimmons (kakis) became very popular there and were often served with cheese platters instead of the traditionally used grapes, pears, or figs.

For this Panna Cotta recipe I combined cream with yogurt, to add contrast to the sweetness of the persimmons, which when ripe can be honey sweet. Here is my seasonal Panna Cotta variation with the sauce made of persimmons, which the ancient Greeks called Diospyros, that is the Fruit of the God. Let's try.

Persimmon Panna Cotta
(Makes 6 portions)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream,
1 cup Greek yogurt ( if you want to cut on calories 0 % fat will be suitable)
1/2 cup sugar,
2 tsp unflavored gelatin.
3 persimmons.

Preparation:
1. Sprinkle 2 tbsp water over the gelatin and let it stand for about 10 minutes.
2. Pour two cups of heavy whipping cream in a pot, add sugar, and heat on the medium heat until sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a boiling point.
3. Take the pot off the heat, add gelatin, and stir until it dissolves in the cream.
4. In a separate bowl mix yogurt and the remaining 1/2 cup cream.
5. Add the hot cream to a yogurt mixture and gently combine.
6. Divide the cream over 6 individual ramekins and cool for minimum of 4 hours.

7. Peel off persimmons and puree them all but one half.
8. Take Panna Cotta from the ramekins (you may need to dip the ramekins in the hot water for 5-10 seconds) pour over the persimmon pure, decorate with persimmon slices and serve.

On the picture below I put just a little bit of sauce, but when I was eating it I added much more of it and Panna Cotta was even more delicious and the taste of the persimmons was more detectable.