Lately we went back to Italy, to my parents house, and since I saw that the persimmon tree in my father’s field was full of nice and big fruits, we decided to bring back some to Hungary and to make a nice and spicy jam, using also some quince and a little bit of ginger 🙂

The persimmon is a good fruit, but for some reason not so popular.

There are different types of persimmon, the one I used is an astringent variety of the Diospyros Kaki, and it’s not so easy to collect some together at the right ripening point 🙂 indeed, this fruit has a lot of tannin when still immature, which makes it astringent and uneatable, then when it’s ripe it loses the tannin but when it’s ripe it doesn’t last long, and the birds and bugs like it a lot 🙂 so the best thing could be to pick them up when almost ripe, and letting them to ripe in a cool room next to some apples. You could have an easier choice maybe with the varieties called Hana Fuyu, O’Gosho, Fuyu or Jiro for example, because they have lower tannin levels and you can eat them also when they are not 100% ripe.

Let’s see how to prepare it.

INGREDIENTS: 

• 2 kg of ripe persimmon (measure the weight after they are cleaned, so just the pulp).
• 450 g of quince (cleaned)
• 1,2 kg of sugar
• the juice of 2 lemons (not treated)
• the zest of 1 or 2 lemons (not treated)
• a small piece of ginger

1. First of all clean the persimmons: remove the skin and the stalk, and the possible rotten parts. Try also the fruit, to see if it’s perfectly ripe, otherwise you will not be happy to have tannin in your jam 🙂
2. The same for the quince: remove the skin and the rotten parts, then cut the persimmons and the quince into pieces and put them in a high pot.
3. Add the lemon juice and the zest, and start to cook it at high heat.
4. When it starts to boil (few minutes), add the sugar and the grated ginger (very little, otherwise it could be too much intense and it could cover the main ingredient).
5. After about 10 minutes cooking I switched off and I let it rest a whole night, as I do usually with all the jams, and then the following morning I cooked for another 10/15 minutes at high heat, reducing everything into a cream by using an immersion blender and I also removed the foam that appears on the surface, using a skimmer. But probably since I’m using quince it’s not needed this 2-phases procedure, I think you can do it in one time. Next time I’ll try.
6. Another thing, again because of the use of quince, in this case I didn’t measure the temperature with any thermometer, you can be sure the jam will not be too much liquid at all 😉
7. When it’s ready take a large funnel and put the jam very fast in the jars (which you have previously sterilized), leaving about 1/1,5 cm to the top (and take care to keep the edge clean). Then close the jars well, and turn them upside down, put them in a box and cover them with a woolen blanket, until they are cold. If you feel more safe you can then later cover the jars with water and boil them for 30 minutes, but if you put the jam in the jars when it’s still at boiling temperature it will create the void and you don’t need to boil them again.
8. Store the jars in a dark and cool place, and wait at least 3/4 weeks before eating your jam, but I tried it fresh and it was already really good 🙂
9. You can eat it simply on a slice of bread, or you could try it even next to some boiled meat or with some aged cheese.