Rice Salad with Roast Persimmons

This salad got a good review

When I started thinking about this entire week of celebrating persimmons I wasn't really sure what I could make besides salads and cake so I did a little research and came across roast persimmons.  Wow they are a revelation!  I am still figuring out exactly what can be done with a roast persimmon but the few times we have used them they are really wonderful.  This rice salad used about -

4 cups Cooked Rice
1 Roast Delicata Squash
2 Roast Persimmons
1 lb. Roast Baby Carrots

Students helped me to peel and cut the squash into batons that we tossed in olive oil and salt and then roasted until they were soft and a little browned.  The Persimmons were peeled and cut into quarters also tossed in olive oil and salt and then roasted until they were soft and a little browned, the carrots got the same treatment. The cooking class cut all the roast vegetables into small pieces and we mixed it all together.  I added a little salt and olive oil but really the roast vegetables had plenty of flavor.

Quantities are hard to remember - I think I used 4 cups of uncooked rice, 5 lbs. of carrots, about 6 squash and maybe 6 persimmons.  We also added a few handfuls of roast broccoli but I don't think that it was really necessary.  

We did not make this at school

I got so excited about roast persimmons that we made a tart with a lemon/orange curd and roast persimmons

Green Salad with Persimmons

Drying the spinach was actually way too much fun

We made two green salads in our week of cooking persimmons.  I started the week with a 3 pound bag of baby spinach and 1 1/2 pounds of romaine hearts and it was all used by the time we were done.

The #1 Salad (Pretty Conventional)
Baby Spinach
Persimmons
Jicama
Fennel

With a Rice Wine Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil Dressing


The #2 Salad (Not so Conventional but very good)
Baby Spinach
Romaine Lettuce
Persimmons
Oranges
Apples

The dressing was Blended Hachiya Persimmons, Yogurt, Lime Juice, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil

Winter Fruit Salad and Salsa with Persimmons

Winter fruit can make a great fruit salad.  For this remarkably good fruit salad that was made by fifth grade classes  we used -



Fuyu Persimmons
Oranges
Tangerines
Apples
Pomegranate Seeds
Mint
Lime Juice

Chopping Fruits and Vegetables for Salsa

In one of the fourth grade classes we made persimmon salsa with these basic ingredients

Fuyu Persimmons
Jicama
Cilantro
Oranges
Lime

We divided the class up into five different groups, each group made a slight variation.  One group substituted lemon juice for lime, another group added a pepper, another group added green tomato, one group got a little hot sauce.  There were some allergies to citrus and jicama so one group had no citrus and another had no jicama.  A hot pepper would have been a nice addition but I don't let students handle hot peppers.  When all the salsas were done the students had some time to sample each one and decide which they liked best.  I highly recommend this salsa especially now when the local tomatoes aren't very good. 

Persimmons

Persimmon Still Life by 5th grade student

All week long we cooked with persimmons.  I love these fruits not only for how delicious and versatile they are but also because the trees are gorgeous. Persimmon trees with stark black branches and brilliant orange red fruit or full of yellow leaves and the same bright fruit are just breathtaking.  They grow well and produce lots of fruit - in fact we have one in the yard at Peralta.  So here is a week of celebrating, cooking and eating persimmons.  First of all cake.  This is the first year that I have found a dependable and delicious recipe for Persimmon Cake.  I used this recipe from allrecipes with a few modifications.  We used a 12" x 9" pan and used from 2/3 to 1/2 cup of sugar and also did not use walnuts, raisins or the glaze.  We added orange rind to this recipe and also we tried it with a grated apple.  We made a few batches that were gluten free using about 1 3/4 cups GF flour. 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/persimmon-bars/

Kindergarten Students Making Persimmon Cake

Persimmon Cabbage Slaw

Fourth Grade Persimmon Cabbage Slaw

Cabbage - I do love it and it is plentiful and inexpensive but I never find it easy to make kids enjoy it.  One fairly dependable recipe is a salad with a rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil dressing; we added persimmons for extra color and additional sweetness.  I liked it and I am guessing the students who had four servings of this salad and complained that there was not enough also liked it.

We used -

Red Cabbage

Celery

Grated Carrots

Rice Wine Vinegar, Soy Sauce & Sesame Oil Dressing

Grating Carrots

Shiso

Green and Red Shiso in the Garden

In the summer I planted two shiso plants in the garden, one red and one green and a few sorrel plants.  Both the shiso and sorrel have done really well and I have a two giant leafy, delicious, fragrant  shiso plants and a few prolific sorrel plants which look just like spinach.  In Japan we used to enjoy red shiso ice cream and some people like to make shiso mojitos.  At home I use it often in cooked rice, salads or salsas but it is a unique and strong flavor that I didn't think students would enjoy.  Sorrel is wonderfully tart and I was pretty sure that it would be popular but I wasn't certain of the best way to use it in a class.  I thought that we should try to eat anything that is growing in the garden and that I like so well so we made a rice salad with garden herbs peas and carrots which was remarkably good.  Shiso is really nice with rice - at first we put a little in the salad but then added a lot when we realized how wonderful it was. I cooked about 7 cups of long grain rice - that is about 5 quarts of rice - It was all eaten with enthusiasm. 

To make a smaller amount try -

4 Cups Cooked Rice 
2 Carrots cut into small dice
1 Cup Cooked Frozen Peas
A handful of juliened Shiso 
A handful of juliened Sorrel
A handful of juliened Mint
I used a dressing of Rice Wine, Sesame Oil, Soy Sauce Dressing

This was an informative sight about shiso
http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/how-to-use-shiso-leaves