Broiled Persimmons With Brown Sugar And Sour Cream

It never fails, no matter how many persimmons I buy, no more than one will become fully ripe at a time. This is not helpful when I'm trying to prepare a dish that requires a bit of pulp.

Since I had one perfectly ripe persimmon, I split it, placed a tablespoon of brown sugar on each half and dotted it with shaved butter. A few minutes under the broiler (just until the sugar begins to bubble) and I had a lovely dessert, served with sour cream.

The recipe comes from Uncommon Fruits And Vegetables, a commonsense guide by, Elizabeth Schneider. This is an invaluable book that I've turned to for help with everything from salsify to chicory. Few books in our large collection get quite as much use. Some of the fruits and vegetables may seem common enough today, but in 1985, you'd be hard-pressed to find Fioja or Taro easily, even in Chicago where I lived at the time. The recipes are straightforward and easily prepared.

A word about persimmons. There are two main varieties available in the United States. The Hachiya is what I used in this recipe, and it is the bright orange, somewhat conical shaped fruit. The smaller, squat Fuyu is ready to eat whilst still hard, something you wouldn't wish to try with Hachiya (it is quite astringent). My husband noted that this was the first time he'd eaten a persimmon and enjoyed it to which I could only respond-"Stop eating under ripe fruit."

How ripe should it be? Practically water. The skin should just barely be holding back a nearly liquid pulp. The best method of ripening the fruit is to place it in a paper bag (some people swear a banana will speed the process but as I'm willing to wait, I've never tried it) and check it daily. Being a temperamental fruit, don't count on it to cooperate with any plans you may have for it-as noted earlier, it will ripen when and if it feels like it. Persimmons are best minimally fussed with anyway, so grab a spoon and slurp that delicious pulp up.

One other note-persimmons always give me a bit of mouth itching and throat burning-though not nearly as bad as melons or avocados. Allergists have noted cross-reactivity with birch pollen, so if that's a serious allergic trigger for you, perhaps it would be best to consider skipping the persimmon-or at least keeping antihistamines nearby.