Wordless Wednesday

Chirimoya and persimmons

The last time I was at the frutería, I bought some fruit I didn´t know anything about.

The green lumpy things are Cherimoyas, or custard apples.

The fruit is oval, often slightly oblate, 10–20 cm long and 7–10 cm diameter, with a smooth or slightly tuberculated skin. The fruit flesh is white and creamy, and has numerous dark brown seeds embedded in it. Mark Twain called the cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to men."[2] The fruit is fleshy and soft, sweet, white in color, with a sherbet-like texture, which gives it its secondary name, custard apple.

Some characterize the flavor as a blend of banana, pineapple, papaya, peach, and strawberry. Others describe it as tasting like commercial bubblegum. Similar in size to a grapefruit, it has large, glossy, dark seeds that are easily removed. When ripe, the skin is green and gives slightly to pressure, similar to the avocado.

When I bought them they were hard like golf balls. But left in the windowsill they have softened nicely over 3-4 days. I just cut in half and scooped out the flesh with a spoon. There are black seeds about the size of those in a watermelon. They are very sweet and do have certain banana-y richness, though I wouldn´t include strawberry or peach flavors. Some mango - maybe? Some sweet apple? The flesh, though soft and juicy, does have a certain fiberous quality, like a mango, but is also creamy. Very interesting. I could see it blended into something cold and tropical. Or maybe mixed in a salad with a soft brie. Some recipes here.

The orange globes are persimmons (hachiya, I believe, from the color).

Persimmons are eaten fresh, dried, raw, or cooked. When eaten fresh, the skin is usually cut/peeled off and the fruit is often cut into quarters or eaten whole like an apple. One way to consume very ripe persimmons, which can have the texture of pudding, is to remove the top leaf with a paring knife and scoop out the flesh with a spoon.

In the state of Indiana (USA), persimmons are harvested and used in a variety of dessert dishes most notably pies. It can be used in cookies, cakes, puddings, salads, curries [1] and as a topping for breakfast cereal. Persimmon pudding is a dessert using fresh persimmons. An annual persimmon festival, featuring a persimmon pudding contest, is held every September in Mitchell, Indiana. Persimmon pudding is a baked pudding that has the consistency of pumpkin pie but resembles a brownie and is almost always topped with whipped cream. Persimmons may be stored at room temperature (20 °C) where they will continue to ripen. In northern China, unripe persimmons are frozen outside during winter to speed up the ripening process.

One is softening but the other is still like a hockey puck after 3-4 days, so I´ll wait. Maybe I´ll try a persimmon pie.

Ingredients

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups half-and-half cream
1 cup persimmon pulp
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Combine eggs, cinnamon, sugar, and salt. Mix in cream, persimmon pulp,
melted butter, and lemon juice. Pour into unbaked pie shell.
Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake an
additional 30 minutes. Cool before slicing.

Pan Gallego

Source


I´ve been looking into Pan Gallego or pan del pais. Unfortunately, it requires both a ¨mother¨ or starter made from rye flour and ¨strong¨ flour, which I´ve no idea where to get. The next time we´re in Galicia I´ll look for some fariña do pais or ground Galician flour. They say it requires kneading for almost an hour as all the water necessary is incorporated.

Source

So until I have the ingredients and wherewithal to try this at home - I shall share with you first a really great Spanish bread forum:

El Foro del Pan and their entry on Pan Gallego

And also Panis Nostrum dedicated to artisanal breads and their entry on Pan Gallego.

And from Panis Nostrum - A video on making ¨Bollos¨ with that nifty topknot. The tricky thing is not kneading at this point.



And ¨Roscas¨ the ringshaped loaves.



And from the Foro del Pan - a video on making your starter. Which is basically mixing flour and water and then periodically ¨feeding¨ with additions of flour and water and then taking out half and adding more water each day for a week.



And one in English

Two more blog recommendations

After cobbling together a post on Guy Fawkes, then discovering I was a day late and discarding it, I offer two thoroughly enjoyable blogs for your perusal:

Lost in Arles is a lovely, beautifully photographed, thoughtful wander through a stunning corner of France. They also have a gorgeous golden retriever.

The New Victorian Ruralist is a new find and I haven´t gone back and read the archives yet, but it´s a striking blend of lifestyle, design (they have a shop), and ecclecticism that achieves a blend of rustic and sophistication I find very appealing.

Maybe I´ll trot out the Guy Fawkes post next year, since we´re likely to still be saddled with the same group of European incompetents - or much, much worse.

Carrot Cupcakes

To counteract more delays in our renovation, the imminent yet always ongoing EU crisis, and turning yet another year older (better than the alternative, but still) I offer:

Celebrating fall with these lovely spicy cupcakes.

I used a recipe from Fine Cooking. I picked this one because it didn´t list crushed pineapple or pecans - which I don´t have.

For the cake:
1 cup canola, corn, or vegetable oil; more for the pans
2 cups (9 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour; more for the pans
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1-3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. table salt
4 large eggs
2-1/2 cups (8-3/4 oz.) lightly packed, finely grated carrots
2 cups packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup raisins
1-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Make the cake

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil and flour the sides of two 9x2-inch round cake pans, tapping out any excess flour. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the oil, eggs, carrots, brown sugar, walnuts, raisins, and vanilla on medium speed until well blended, about 1 minute. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just blended, about 30 seconds. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

Bake until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed and a cake tester inserted into the centers comes out clean, 28 to 30 minutes.

Let cool in the pans on a rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the inside edge of the pans to loosen the cakes, invert them onto the rack, remove the pans, and carefully peel away the parchment. Set the cakes aside to cool completely before frosting.

I got 12 cupcakes out of this recipe - baked for approximately 25 minutes. I cut back on the white sugar by about 1/4 cup. I was also a little heavy handed with the spices.

Quite tasty! Although they are lighter both in color and texture than I remember carrot cake. The flavor does improve overnight. I´ve frozen half to see how they keep.

You can find a cream cheese frosting recipe at the link. I improvised with grated orange zest and a squeeze of the juice mixed with some cream cheese and powdered sugar. I´m always a little appalled at the quantity of sugar called for in icing recipes. It turned out a bit watery, so it wouldn´t hold a piped shape - I salvaged by rolling the sides in crushed walnuts.