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Persimmon is a very interesting berry, and its main feature is the ripening time. The harvest of orange fruits will ripen from October until the very frost. It is believed that only frozen persimmons need to be plucked from the branches, then it will be juicy and get rid of astringency. It turns out that in the autumn-winter season, persimmon is the only source of fresh vitamins and trace elements such as iron, iodine and many others. The only drawback of tasty fruits is their short shelf life. To enjoy the fragrant persimmon longer, housewives make preparations from this fruit for the winter.
What blanks can be made from persimmon for the winter, and what recipes are better to use - this will be an article about this.
How to choose the right persimmon
Usually the fruit is plucked from the tree when it is soft enough. It is considered that only ripe berries lack tannin - a substance that causes an unpleasant astringent effect.
Today there are many varieties of persimmons, some of them grow only in the subtropics or in tropical climates, others can be grown even in the Caucasus. Fruits of various varieties differ both in appearance and taste.
To choose a good persimmon, you should pay attention to:
- softness - the fruits should be ripe, but not overripe or rotten;
- brown streaks on the peel indicate that the persimmon was harvested on time;
- the leaves on the berries should be dry, brown colored;
- the shape and size of the fruit can be any - a lot depends on the variety.
Fresh, properly harvested persimmons can be stored for up to three months. This is a fairly long period, but the difficulty lies in the need for suitable storage conditions. In order for the fruit to last until spring, it is necessary to maintain a constant temperature in the storage in the range of 0 - +1 degrees, humidity - about 90%. It is also recommended to put boxes with fruits that emit ethylene (bananas or apples) next to the persimmon.
As seen, keeping fresh persimmons at home is very problematic, so people have come up with a lot of options for harvesting from this berry.
How to freeze persimmons
After the advent of household freezers, freezing any vegetables and fruits has become commonplace. Persimmon is no exception, it can also be frozen, but the temperature in the freezer should not be higher than -18 degrees.
To get rid of astringency, it is enough to freeze the fruit for several hours. And there is another option for freezing fruits for the whole winter, because they can lie in the freezer for more than six months.
As you know, most of the vitamins are preserved in frozen foods, so there is a point in freezing fast-perishable persimmons, and it is considerable. You just need to be able to correctly make such preparations for the winter.
The correct way to freeze orange fruits is as follows:
- If the berries are frozen whole, they are washed first, then dried completely. After that, each persimmon is wrapped in several layers of cling film and carefully folded into the freezer chamber.
- You can cut the fruit into pieces so that you can later use it as a preparation for pies, cereals and desserts. The cut slices are laid out on polyethylene, which is used to cover the bottom of the container. Cover the top of the fruit with a lid or several layers of film.
- It is very beneficial to freeze the persimmon in the form of puree. To do this, take out all the pulp from the fruit with a teaspoon and grind it with a blender. Place in cups or other plastic containers. When necessary, the preparation is taken out and frozen, added to hot porridge or defrosted and eaten as a fresh dessert.
How to wilted persimmon
This juicy and fleshy fruit can be dried. To do this, choose denser berries and tie strong ropes or threads to their stalks. Persimmons are hung in a dark, well-ventilated room with a cool temperature.
After 7-8 days, a white bloom forms on the fruits - this will begin to release sugar. Starting from this day, it is necessary to gently knead the fruits with your hands regularly (once every two days). Thanks to such actions, dried persimmon will be quite soft.
How to dry persimmons
The fragrant honey-flavored fruit can also be dried. The preparation of such a blank usually takes place in an industrial environment, where the berries are laid out on mesh trays and dried in the open air for several weeks. But such drying requires a tropical climate, and in Russia, winter is not the best time for this kind of harvesting.
Of course, housewives can use an electric dryer... For drying, choose unripe dense fruits and cut them into thin circles.
You can try to make a dried piece using a regular oven. For this, the fruit is cut into thin slices, sprinkled with lemon juice to taste, sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon and placed in a preheated oven.
To store the dried workpiece for a long time, you can dry the persimmon in the oven with the door open. This will take about seven hours, the fruits will need to be cut into four pieces and the seeds removed. After cooling, the dried workpiece is laid out in cardboard boxes and stored in a dark, dry place.
How to make jam or jam
No less popular is the harvesting method, which involves heat treatment of orange berries - blanks in the form of preserves and jams. The recipes for such blanks are very diverse: persimmons are boiled with sugar, lemon, oranges, apples and other fruits are added.
To get jam, all ingredients are chopped using a blender or meat grinder. Jam is made from pieces or even quarters of the fruit.
Whole fruits canned in apple juice
Such a preparation for the winter is usually done by those housewives who have their own apples growing on the site. Absolutely any apples are suitable for this blank, but it is better to take those varieties that are juicy.
So, they make the preparation in several stages:
- Juice is squeezed out of 6 kg of apples using a juicer.
- Filter the juice and bring it to a boil.
- Choose 2 kg of dense persimmon, peel it and cut it into 4-6 parts, simultaneously removing the seeds.
- Slices of fruit are laid out in sterile jars and poured over with boiling apple juice.
- It remains to roll up the blanks and lower them into the basement.
How to make wine
An excellent wine can be made from overripe berries.
Cooking is simple:
- persimmon, in the amount of 5 kg, cut into several parts, remove the bones;
- put the slices in clean wine bottles;
- syrup is cooked from 5 liters of water and 1.75 kg of sugar;
- pour fruit with slightly warm syrup;
- within five days the wine must ferment;
- after that it is drained, the pulp is squeezed out and placed under a water seal;
- when the fermentation is over, the wine is drained from the lees and taken to the cellar;
- after a month, the finished product can be filtered and bottled.
There are a lot of options for blanks from fragrant persimmon. You should definitely try at least one of the ways, because fresh this tropical berry is on sale for only a few weeks.
