AFC Persimmon Tonic Water Dressing

AFC PERSIMMON TONIC WATER DRESSING ©

A simple, creamy, light, rich, persimmon salad dressing with the uncanny ability to make all the ingredients in your salad shine – a blessing. For special occasions when you are out to IMPRESS! Oh, and the surprise ingredient? Diet Tonic Water. Wow. It works. Perfect for fruit salads!

Makes 3 cups

1 c. RICH’S WHIP TOPPING, thawed (richwhip.com)

1 over-ripe hachiya persimmon, (to the touch the fruit feels like a water balloon)

2/3 c. apple cider vinegar

1 t. pink Himalayan salt

1 c. diet Tonic Water

salt to taste

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Pour whip topping liquid into blender container and blend till moderately thick (when a glob of topping sticks to the spoon turned upside down – not stiff peaks.

Wash, remove stem, cut in half, then dice a whole very ripe sweet persimmon. Add to blender container and blend till smooth.

Add vinegar and salt and blend again till smooth, pushing down coated insides of container with spatula.

Add diet Tonic Water, blend again till very smooth. Salt to taste. Blend again, then pack in jars and refrigerate.

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Notes: Hachiya persimmon is very sweet when very ripe, and very ripe is the only way to consume this fruit. It is acorn shaped without the cap. When very ripe, wash, remove stem, cut in half and scoop out insides with spoon to eat. The flesh is okay to consume and is more tender than it looks. Personally, the pulp comes off with the flesh when peeled, so I leave it on.

Fuyu is a different breed of persimmon that acts and can be treated somewhat like a tomato.

For this salad dressing recipe we use the hachiya persimmon.

It’s difficult to plan anything around a persimmon. If you buy five persimmons that look exactly alike and put them out on the shelf to ripen, they will not all ripen at the same pace.

So my advice is to either eat them plain by yourself, one at a time, or use the ripe one or two you have in a salad dressing. Hachiya persimmons are gooey inside, so you can’t slice and dice them. Adding them to a sauce or liquid is my suggestion. The next over-ripe persimmon is designated for a small cake or cupcakes maybe. We’ll see.

I’ve never tasted an under-ripe hachiya persimmon. When scanning the internet all writers who wrote about the hachiya concur that it is highly astringent, possessing huge tannins and will pucker you to the point of extreme discomfort. So if you want to make a dressing using the hachiya persimmon and it doesn’t ripen in time, then change your plan and make a different dressing – use canned apricots instead.

Every chef should know about RICH’S WHIP TOPPING. Google them. The product is located in the frozen section of the stores that carry it. Do your research. It freezes well. No restaurant should be without it.

http://richwhip.com/rich-whip.php

We use the diet Tonic Water to expand the yield of this dressing, while not carrying the calories that another liquid might add.

The custard-like gooey centers of the persimmon make it a perfect candidate for creamy style dressings.

Fruit Salad Suggestion: Thinly sliced red apple, sliced banana, segmented orange, fresh ginger matchsticks, a little diced sweet red roasted pepper. Toss with dressing. Plate on lettuce leaf. Add more dressing. Top with salted pumpkin seed snow (seeds processed in coffee grinder till snow-like in texture), orange zest and nutmeg.

If I had to eat only fruit, this is the salad I would eat three times a day. Beautiful in every way.

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Green Salad Suggestion: Use one half head romaine per serving

1 small head hearts of romaine, discard soiled leaves, trim core just enough to remove brown spots but keep leaves attached, then cut in half from end to end

raw broccoli buds, cut into small pieces

fresh matchstick carrots

thinly sliced red onion

chopped fresh celery leaves and sliced inner stalks

red grape tomatoes, cut in half from end to end

Persimmon Tonic Water Dressing

fresh grind black pepper

fresh grind pink Himalayan salt

Saute broccoli and carrot matchsticks in oil-wiped skillet over medium-high heat till charred in spots. Remove from heat.

Place each half head of lettuce cut-side-up on individual serving plates. Place broccoli and carrot over lettuce half, apply salad dressing as you like, then top with tomato, celery and onion.Sprinkle lightly with fresh grind pepper and salt. Serve.

Notes: Romaine lettuce served half-head style need not always be grilled. Us it plain and it’s just as good, since you have some char flavor on the broccoli and carrot.

 

 

 

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