Persimmon Panna Cotta

I was lucky to grow up in a town where grew all my favorites fruits; Asian pears, figs, and persimmons. When I move to the US, they are not easily found at a regular supermarket. But now it is getting easier to find at a local store though they are pricy. I am happy that I can find them here, but I can’t afford to buy them all the time. So if I buy them, my first choice is eating them fresh. Probably the last thing I would do is cook with them even though there are plenty of interesting recipes using them. I think it only makes sense to use fruits for cooking when they are abandon like apples in New England where I live.
But last week, I found very inexpensive persimmons at the Russian market, and finally made persimmon pannna cotta that I wanted to make for a long time. They came out so delicious. Since I love the taste of fresh persimmons, I tried not to cook them. I just pureed them, and mix into milk. So the taste came out really close to a fresh persimmon though I still prefer eating the way it is over this wonderful panna cotta. I know this is almost the end of the season, but hopefully you can find them to try this out!
The thing to remember when you make this is that persimmons are just like bananas which sweetness changes a lot depending on how ripe they are. If you can be patient, wait till when they are almost mushy. In that way, you don’t need to add too much sugar. If you are using unripened not so sweet persimmons, you probably need to increase the amount of sugar in the recipe.

Ingredients:

Panna Cotta

• 1 package gelatin
• 1 1/2 + 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 5 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup persimmon sauce

Persimmon Sauce

• 4-5 very ripe fuyu persimmon
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 table spoon sugar (adjust the amount accordingly)
• 2 table spoon water (adjust the amount accordingly)

Preparation:

1. Persimmon Sauce: Blend persimmons, lemon juice, sugar and water in a blender until smooth.
2. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl and let stand 5 minute to soften.
3. Bring 1 1/2 cup milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add gelatin mixture, stirring until dissolved. Whisk cream and 1/4 cup persimmon sauce (1) into milk and pour into molds. Let it cool to room temperature. Cover and put in the refrigerator until firm for about 8 hours.Serve with persimmon sauce (1) on top.