Week 25
132 lbs
I often wonder how I survived my childhood. We had a lot of fun roaming around the neighborhood with our friends unsupervised, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that we ate any and every thing that looked like it was round and juicy and grew on a tree. And that we could reach.
I don’t remember anyone ever telling us that it was okay to eat the shiny blue-purple berries from the lantana bushes, but we picked them and ate them with impunity. (I later learned that the unripe lantana berries can be very poisonous and can even be fatal.) We routinely and blithely also ate the beautiful red banyan berries with their strange hollowed out seedy insides.
Sometimes we would pick random flat green beans and eat because no one else was harvesting them as food. That they weren’t being harvested should have been a clue, but no one said we were thinking. The Pride of Barbados shrubs were a favorite. We would painstakingly split open the pods and take out the smooth perfectly shaped seeds. Next we would peel the aril off and eat the flat, sweet centers. Beause it took so much work and took so long to get to the centers, we probably didn’t eat very much and hence were able to remain standing. I now am wise to the fact that the seeds of the Caesalpinia pulcherrim, that’s the botanical name for Pride of Barbados, are always poisonous once they reach maturity.
We did eat a lot of good fruit too. There were many varieties of mangoes (but these were better protected and harder to find lying around), guavas ( the sweetest and best ones were those that the parrots had started eating), and tamarind by the hundreds (which a neighbor couldn’t use but got really upset if she caught us eating them). But none of these were as exciting as those undiscovered fruit that we thought we were discovering while exploring the neighborhood.
Through great good fortune, reach my maturity I did. But I have never lost the habit of being unable to walk by a new fruit or vegetable without trying it.These days it is in the grocery store and hence usually the results are okay. Except for that first time I saw persimmons.
I was new to this country and excited about trying everything “American” – anything I had not seen before. These fruits were shiny, smooth and a bright color – everything that drew my magpie brain*.
“What a beautiful name,” I thought as I rolled the word persimmon around in my mouth, and as I rolled the fruits around in my hand. I gently pressed them and pushed the soft, mushy ones aside. I was mildly shocked that American grocers would put rotting fruit out, but then attributed it to a sloppy worker. I lovingly rubbed my fingers against the silky outsides of the fruit. I sniffed them – no unpleasant odors. I carefully selected two, took them home and placed them in the fridge to chill.
Two anxious hours later I took one out and cut the firm smooth flesh into even slices, setting the beautiful black seeds on their own plate to be admired, and possibly planted, later. I sat down at the dining table and carefully bit into a piece.
Halelujah! That was the fastest I had ever moved from the table to the sink. I spent the rest of the day trying to scrape my tongue clean. I genuinely thought I had poisoned myself and couldn’t get rid of the other persimmon fast enough. Our poor downstairs neighbor managed to duck just in time as a bright orange missile went whizzing past head. Even now, he may believe that he saw a true UFO that day.
The corollary to all this is that I can say, with all honesty and with no undue bragging, that I became an excellent cook. My fearless berry eating made me into a bold, creative chef, who is very good at blending flavors and smells. Of course, as an Indian, I think the ability to blend flavors is in my genes.
People, including my children, are constantly asking me for my recipes, but I rarely write them down. So I decided that as part of my good life project, I need to start writing down my recipes and saving them for my children, for myself, and to share with friends. I was also inspired by my niece who has an amazing food blog called Quinces and Lemons. She has actually published some of my recipes, and I admit, I often go to her blog to check how I made a specific item.
Fruit leather:
Good for adults. Loved by children.
This is a great way to use over-ripe fruit. I used the plums from my sister’s tree which was heavy with fruit this year. In fact I only used the plums that had fallen on the ground, most of which were smashed or misshapen.
This recipe is for plums, but you can use a variety of fruit, or even a blend of fruit. You will need to adjust the initial cooking time depending on how firm the fruit is.
Ingredients
4-5 pints ripe plums (8-10 cups of fruit)
1 cup sugar or to taste
Pre-heat the oven to 400˚F
Wash and pat dry the plums.
Seed and halve/quarter the plums and spread them out on a baking tray skin side down.
(Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the plums before they were cooked.)
Bake for 20 minutes.
Let the fruit cool and blend in a food processor with the sugar. A very smooth puree will result in a very professional looking end product, but I sometimes like to keep a few little bits of skin for texture and an interesting appearance.
If you are making the leather in the oven, line the trays with parchment paper.
(Tip: See how I use clothes pins to hold the parchment paper in place. Just remember to take the pins off before you put them in the oven!)
Spread the puree in the trays to a thickness/depth of about 1/6 to 1/8 of an inch and place in the oven or dehydrator at 140˚F.
If you are using the oven, make sure you leave the door propped slightly open (a wooden spoon works really well).
After 8 hours test for doneness. The leather should be set and should not stick to your fingers, but should still give a little when you press down. If not done, let it continue to dry and check every hour to reach a good fruit leather consistency that is not too dry and tough. (Of course, kids love the chewy stuff and it is a good way to slow down consumption of the fruit leather.)
Take out the leather and slice into the desired width with a sharp knife. You may need to rub the knife with a mild vegetable oil like canola oil. If the leather is sticky, you can use a brush to rub a couple of drops of oil over the surface.
Let the leather cool completely and then roll the strips or store them flat.
If your fruit leather is less dry, I recommend storing it in the refrigerator. When in doubt – just refrigerate. However, these are so delicious, they’ll probably disappear before you need to refrigerate them.
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Notes:
* Yes. I know. Magpies don’t actually like shiny objects.