Cachi...Persimmon

Do you even know what a persimmon is? I sure didn't before I lived in Italy! I thought they were weird looking tomatoes from somewhere called Cachi…

Anyways, cachi have a light reddish orange color, and have the same texture as a tomato, inside and outside pretty much - soft, juicy, and fleshy. They're sweet. When I first tried one, the first thing I could compare it to was a cross between papaya and a non-sour passion fruit.

They're originally from China, and arrived in Europe thanks to Japanese imports at the end of the 18th century. They are now cultivated widely in Italy. Don't worry, you might be able to find them as well in the United States, especially in California where they are commonly grown. According to my online persimmon source, they are more easily found in "ethnic" supermarkets in the US.[i] Just remember to buy in season and try to support your local farmers. Cachi ripen quickly, so don't buy them too ahead of time. If you're reading this not in the fall or winter, you could probably find persimmon jam and use that as a substitute in the recipe below.

Unfortunately, they're pretty high in sugars, which makes them great for the recipe that follows, but not so good for gorging on. I guess that's why it's a good winter fruit -- the high sugar content must have been good for farmers or hard laborers in the cold, late fall and early winter months. They are a good source of vitamin A.[ii]

Thanks to a suggestion from a friend, I decided to make some cachi cookies for this blog. I found a recipe online, but modified a bit. This week my recipe will also be in Italian because everyone I gave my cookies to last night and this morning begged me for la ricetta :)

Cachi Cookies

Ingredients: (for around 36 cookies)

4 ripe persimmons

2 tsp baking soda

4 cups flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

2 cups chopped hazelnuts

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cut up and smash your persimmons (or put them through a food processor, I just mashed mine up to get a chucky, jam texture). Mix in the backing soda and set aside.

3. Mix together flour, salt, cinnamon, ground cloves, and set aside.

4. Cream together butter, sugar, and egges. Then add in the persimmon, then the dry ingredients, and then the nuts.

5. Arrange spoonfuls of the batter on cookie sheets and put in oven for 15 minutes.

6. Let them cool a bit on the cookie sheets before moving them to a plate. They are very moist cookies! Enjoy!

 Biscotti di Cachi

Ingredienti: (per fare circa 36 biscotti)

4 cachi maturi

2 cucchiaini di bicardonato

480g farina

1 cucchiaino di cannella

1 cucchiaino di chiodi di garofano

1 cucchiaino di noce moscata

1 cucchiaino di sale

2 uova

200g zucchero bianco

200g zucchero di canna

113g burro

320g nocciole tritate

Istruzioni:

1. Riscaldare il forno a 180º C.

2. Tagliare a fettine e schiacciare i cachi (o metterli in un frullatore, io l’ho solo schiacciati). Mescolare con il bicarbonato e mettere da parte.

3. Mescolare insieme la farina, la cannella, i chiodi di garofano schiacciati ed il sale, e mettere da parte.

4. Sbattere insieme il burro, lo zucchero, e le uova. Poi aggiungere i cachi, e poi gli ingredienti secchi, e poi le nocciole.

5. Disporre cucchiai di pastella su lastre per i biscotti e mettere in forno per 15 minuti.

6. Lasciarli raffreddare un po’ sulle lastre prima di passarli ad un piatto.

Buon appetito!

---

[i] http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/persimmon.html

[ii] http://www.cibo360.it/alimentazione/cibi/frutta/cachi.htm

Beans in Budapest and Black Rice in Barcelona

Hello again everyone! Many apologies for not having written about the seasonal produce in Italy for awhile! It has been a busy month! And this entry, I'm not even writing about Italy, but where I've been traveling this fall. Don't worry, I still have some time to write about what's at the market here in Turin before I go home for the holidays...

Budapest

First on our itinerary: Budapest. I ate a lot of Hungarian food, in particular, a lot of goulash. It was amazing, very heavy stuff, but amazing. At the end of the trip, one of my work colleagues coined a lovely new phrase, she was "goulashata"! In Italian, -ato/a is a common way to end an adjective. Her new linguistic invention expresses the following: "I am so full of goulash, I'm getting acne from all this heavy food, I'm ready to go back to pizza and pasta in Italy." 

A big thank you to my friends and colleagues who took all these pictures  for me in Budapest. Long story short, I forgot my camera :)

My favorite dish in Budapest, however, was not the goulash, but an amazing, cheap bean soup we had the first night in a cozy little underground pub called Green's.

This is part of the description on the webpage where I found the recipe upon returning home "You may be stunned by how meat-heavy and fat-laden it is. Well, welcome to the wonderful world of Hungarian cuisine." I thought I had ordered a vegetarian dish... to my delight, especially to the delight of my taste buds, this is an incredibly tasty bean soup thanks to all the meat! To try and reproduce my Budapest bean adventure, check out this recipe - it's well written with a bit anecdote. 

My brief research on Hungarian beans reveals that peas and soybeans are the most import legumes produced in the country, although I don’t think they were featured in my soup. The soybeans are used for animal feed. There is an increasing movement to produce soybeans locally because of the distaste for genetically modified foreign imports and because organic farming is on the rise. Over the years, however, domestic production of total legumes has gradually decreased both for human and animal consumption. Even with government subsidies, imports are required each year to meet demand. Perhaps this is because the northern regions of the country are too dry to produce what’s needed – most soybean production in Hungary occurs in the south. Grain legumes are full of proteins and amino acids, that’s why they’re so important as animal feed and as a staple food for human sustenance.[i]

If you search around on this webpage, you can find out why producing “grain legumes” (i.e. beans, lentils, lupins, peas, and peanuts) is not bad for the environment, mainly because of their lower fossil energy consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Another big item produced in Hungary is its paprika. You can find it everywhere, and it's a popular item for the tourists to take home (see the jar I brought home). 

I looked up the scientific name of this Hungarian paprika because I wanted to know if it was the same as certain Italian or Latin American peppers. The paprika I bought and saw dangling around everywhere in Budapest is of the species Capsicum annum.[ii] This genus species combination covers a wide range of varieties: Aleppo, Anaheim (also called California), Ancho (called poblano when fresh), Bell pepper, Cascabel, Cayenne, Chilaca (called pasilla when dried), Chiltepin, Cubanelle, De árbol, Dundicut, Fresno, Guajillo, Hungarian wax, Italian sweet pepper, Jalapeño (called chipotle when smoked), Japanese, Mirasol, Macho chili, Mulato pepper, Niora, New Mexico (known more widely as 'Anaheim'), Pasilla (called chilaca when fresh), Pepperoncini, Piquín, Pimento (also called cherry pepper), Poblano (called ancho when dried), Puya, Sanaam, Serrano, Sport, Super Chili, and Tien Tsin![iii] These prolific peppers are originally from Mexico, but found their way to Hungary in the 16^th century with the Turks. Hungary is know to produce high quality stuff, in a range of colors from bright red to terra cotta brown. Its spicy property is also used as a pain killer in some parts of the world. It’s also a source of vitamin C. Hungarians first used the plant to fire up food served to invaders before it became widely used and loved! The sunniest, southern-most parts of Hungary are the main producing regions.[iv] To learn much more about Hungarian paprika, and to find recipes, click here. Beware, do not stock this up in your cupboards for too long, it’s best fresh.

For another good Hungarian recipe website check out Chew Hungary. Remember to try and play with the ingredients to include produce and meat products from your local area!

Barcelona

Next stop: Barcelona! I was barely in the city long enough to get to a decent restaurant, but one night, instead of buying pastries and orange juice in the supermarket by my hostel, I ventured down to the old town area and had some banging seafood. 

First, I enjoyed some prawns grilled in garlic and presented with a sinful butter sauce outside the Saint Mary of the Sea Cathedral. (This was a mandatory stop for me - last year, I read the book Catedral del Mar, or "Cathedral of the Sea" by Ildefonso Falcone. This novel talks about the construction of this church in historic romance perfection, set in 14th century Spain.) Sorry, no pictures, I ate them up too fast! 

Not full yet, and wanting to salute the ocean before heading back to sleep, I went down to the old port of the city. I briefly inhaled in the scent of the Mediterranean, and went in search of a not too expensive seafood restaurant. It's a bit touristy and cliche, but I didn't have the funds or time to search out anything better this time around, I ordered paella. I didn't go for the classic, saffron infused variety, however, I chose the rice sauteed in cuttlefish ink - that's why it's black.

In 1993, Spain produced 102,000 metric tons of squid and cuttlefish and imported another 74,355 metric tons. In 2004, the country produced a mere 21,000 metric tons and imported instead 142,000 metric tons.[v]  This could be because Morocco wanted a better deal, as Spanish ships made a large percentage of their catches in Moroccan water in the early 90s.[vi] The country was an overall net exporter of cuttlefish and squid until it joined the EU 1986, so perhaps it’s just cheaper to import from non-EU Member States. It gets most of its cuttlefish from the US, with smaller amounts coming from India, Argentina, and Morocco. I wonder, does the lower cost of foreign cuttlefish also mean catching it in these other countries equals lower impact on the environment? Or do we sacrifice bad greenhouse gas emissions for the transport of cheap, high quality products from elsewhere? How do we solve such problems while still promoting free and global trade? 

So many things to research! Until next time...

BACI

---

[i] http://www.grainlegumes.com/aep/special_reports/grain_legumes_in_central_and_eastern_europe/grain_legumes_in_hungary_today

[ii] http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/hungarian-paprika.html

[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsicum_annuum

[iv] http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/hungarian-paprika.html

[v] http://indexmundi.com/en/commodities/agricultural/squid-cuttlefish/

[vi] http://aquanic.org/publicat/govagen/fas/sp5039.htm