I probably said it before but I love persimmons. I don’t do well with cold weather but the one of the few things that I like about it is I get to eat persimmons! I like to eat them raw when they are ripe but I want to show you one of my favorite ways to eat persimmons which are dried. They are called “hoshigaki” which literally means dried persimmons in Japanese.
Before I get into to how to make them, I wanted to point out the variety of persimmons which works for this method. You want to use Hachiya persimmons and not Fuyu persimmons. Hachiya is an astringent variety and isn’t edible when the are unripe. You need to wait until it gets completely soft. Fuyu can be eaten when it’s still hard. Hachiya is pointy like this.
For this recipe (I’m not sure if you can even call it a recipe!), all you need is Hachiya persimmons. Let’s begin.
- Peel the skin. Leave the stem.
2. Tie a rope around the stem
3. Tie the end of the rope to something you can hang like a hook
4. Boil peeled persimmon in boiling water for five seconds and pat with paper towel gently to remove excess water.
5. Hang persimmons for two to three weeks at a cooler place with some breeze. It’s best to hang them outside. Since I don’t have any place to hang outside, I’ll hang them inside. I use a laundry hanger.
6. After one week, gently massage them once every week.
The outer layer gets harden, and they shrink in size as they dry.
7. When they are soft all the way and starts to get brown, they are ready to eat. You can continue to dry them until they become hard. I like to eat them when they are still little soft.
When you cut them open, they are gooey inside.
The sweetness is concentrated when they get dried, and they are so good!
It takes time but pretty simple to make. I hope you try and enjoy hoshigaki!
- Hachiya persimmon
- Peel the skin. Leave the stem.
- Tie a rope around the stem
- Tie the end of the rope to a hook
- Boil peeled persimmons in boiling water for five seconds and pat dry with paper towel gently
- Hang persimmons for two to three weeks at a cooler place with some breeze.
- After one week, gently massage them once a week
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