Recipe: Autumn Persimmon salad

How much do you love Autumn? It’s a wonderful time to be cooking for friends and family.

Autumn is a season that is favourable to most who live in the Central West region as weather is quite delightful and the cornucopia of produce flowing in from local farms and from our own gardens is wonderful.

I hosted monthly cooking classes at home until Covid-19 brought these to an abrupt end. I have always enjoyed showing people how simple it can be to put together delicious recipes with seasonal ingredients that are easily available.

The hero of the recipe

Persimmons are not a fruit people often think of to buy or even use in a salad, but they have such a beautiful colour and can be a hero of an Autumnal plate that pops with a wow factor!

You can also use them as a table decoration along with other items in your garden.

Autumn Persimmon salad

Ingredients:

2 ripe Fuju persimmons

2 pieces of Buffalo mozzarella or Burrata Cheese (creamy cow’s milk cheese)

2-3 tablespoons roughly chopped hazelnuts (or you could substitute for walnuts), toasted without skins.

2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds

2 tablespoons of Aged balsamic vinegar or pomegranate molasses for drizzling

2 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil

Flaky sea salt for finishing

Edible flowers can be purchased to include in the dish. (Available on request from most good grocers).

Radicchio leaf salad and baguette is lovely to serve on the side too.

Method:

1. Trim and discard the stem from the persimmon and then slice thinly like a tomato and place carefully into a shallow dish.
2. Pour one tablespoon of the balsamic or molasses and olive oil onto the persimmon to sit for a few minutes.
3. Overlap the slices of persimmon on your serving plate and place the buffalo mozzarella or burrata in the centre.
4. Scatter toasted hazelnuts and pomegranate seeds around the plate and drizzle the olive oil and remaining balsamic or pomegranate molasses
5. Just before serving, break the cheese apart and season with salt to your taste and finish with remaining some olive oil.
6. Place some edible flowers around the plate and radicchio leaf salad with olive oil, salt and pepper and baguette on side.