Nutrition counseling for those who want to feel healthier

November Newsletter: Nutrition Matters

Tip of the Month: http://www.foodnews.org/ is the website to find the guide to which of the common conventionally grown fruit and vegetables have less pesticide residue.  For those trying to save money on groceries, this information helps decide which should be organically raised: e.g., apples and bell peppers always organic; onions and avocadoes, not so important.

Food Focus: Persimmons

          Have you seen persimmons in the market and wondered whether to buy them?  Not sure which variety to pick?  How long to let them ripen? Eat them raw or cooked?  Served how?

        There are two varieties of the persimmon (diospyros: loosely 'divine fire' in Greek) available in grocery stores in the fall, usually from East Asia or Brazil.  The astringent Hachiya variety is acorn-shaped and deep red orange when ripe.  The non-astringent Fuyu is smaller and rounder.  Hachiya must be squishy to be ripe, but the Fuyu is crunchier, only getting mushy when overripe.  Like an apple, it's good in salads. No need to peel either kind, but if you prefer you can scoop out the pulp to eat now, to freeze for later, or to cook into cakes, puddings, or sauces.

Besides their sweet taste, persimmons have a big load of vitamin A to recommend them -- witness the telltale orange color.  Potassium, too, abounds, making them a good banana substitute.  In Eastern medicine, persimmons are revered for reducing phlegm and also intestinal inflammation. (Healing with Whole Foods, Pitchford, 1993, p. 582.)

Principal source: Environmental Nutrition, vol. 31, No.10, Oct.'08, p.8.

Recipe of the Month: Persimmon Crisp

Ingredients:

-         4 Fuyu persimmons in bite-sized slices and tossed in

-         1/4 cup of lemon juice (or the juice of one lemon).

-         1 cup of rolled oats mixed with

-         1/4 cup flour and

-         1 teaspoon of cinnamon and

-         1/2 cup of dried cherries or blueberries or raisins.

-         1/4 cup of melted butter mixed with

-         1/4 cup of honey.

-         1/4 cup of orange juice.

-         A pinch each of salt, clove, and nutmeg, if you like them.

Directions:

Spread the fruit on the bottom of a 7"x7" pan. Combine all the other ingredients well, except the orange juice.  Spread the sticky dough over the fruit. Then pour the juice over it all and bake at 350 F. for about an hour, but check at 45 minutes as pans vary in conductivity.  Serves four.

Adapted from La Cuisine Americanine (Borde & Malovany-Chevallier, Herme, 1987)