OK I realize that persimmon season is officially over. But I just can’t seem to help running into them. They follow me around! I got the recent batch at Berkeley Bowl, that Mecca of all things breakaway. These came from Israel, and were very tasty. I know all too well that buying fruit flown in from Israel can’t possibly be a good thing, but hey, we’ve all got a few vices, and one of mine is buying every single persimmon I ever see.
This beautiful winter salad had:
- baby spinach
- baby arugula
- chicory
- radicchio
- persimmons
- sliced dates
- toasted pine nuts
- anchovies
Every bite packed an umami wallop, mainly from the anchovies. The sweet dates nicely offset the bitter greens/chicories. The whole thing was brought together by a creamy persimmon dressing, made by pureeing persimmons, unfiltered fruity green olive oil, greek yogurt, and champagne vinegar in the mighty Vitaprep. Dusted with plenty of freshly ground black pepper and flecks of tangerine salt.
Questions:
1) How many anchovies did you use?
2) Have the sustainable/local/organic foodie police knocked on your door yet?
1) four or five
2) they must have rss feeds that let them know about transgressors, because they were here in seconds!
As Homer Simpson might say, “Mmmm…anchovies.” Great photo of the salad by the way, nice focus, good exposure.
Mmmmmm—Jaffa Oranges. Sorry, you transported me to Israel for a second. While I wholeheartedly support local agriculture ( I live in a very agricultural area and know several farmers and shop at the local farmers market or buy from the farms direct or at New Leaf which carries them heavily in the winter months), how many “locavores” still drink coffee?
Everything looks absolutely delicious. I love your whole sensibility. I am totally enamored of Japanese home cooking (my daughter’s all-time favorite food is ground chicken over rice), but it’s very hard for me to shop in the Japanese markets since I can’t read anything!
Just got a tip to your blog, and this is the fifth entry I’ve read that made me go ‘oooh!’ Which doesn’t happen much these days. Looking forward to reading more! With your help, I might make a dent in some of that miso that’s sitting in my fridge….