Today (October 29th 2005) marks the 82nd anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic. Please join me in celebrating this beautiful day by remembering the people who lost their lives, loved ones against the forces dividing our country. We, as Turks, owe this precious land to everyone who fought for freedom under Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s leadership.

Following is his address to the Turkish Youth:

You, the Turkish youth! Your primary duty is to forever protect and defend the Turkish independence and Turkish Republic. This is the mainstay of your existence and of your future.

This foundation is your most precious treasure in the future, as well, there will be malevolents, within and abroad, who will seek to deny your birthright. If one day you are compelled to defend your independence and the republic, you shall not reflect on the conditions and possibilities of the situation in which you find yourself, in order to accomplish your mission. These conditions and possibilities may appear unfavorable. The adversaries who scheme against your independence and your Republic may be the representatives of a victory without precedent in the world. By force or by ruse, all citadels and all arsenals of our dear fatherland
may have been taken; all of its armies may have been dispersed and all corners of the country may have been physically occupied. More distressing and more grievous than all these, those who hold and exercise the power within the country may have fallen into gross error, blunder, and even treason. These holders of power may have even united their personal interests with political ambitions of the invaders. The nation itself may have fallen into privation, and may have become exhausted and desolate.

You, the future sons and daughters of Turkey! Even under such circumstances and conditions, your duty is to redeem Turkish independence and the Republic! The strength you shall need exists in the noble blood flowing through your veins.

Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Note: translation of the original text is taken from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tsa/ata/youth2.html.

Depending on where you live in Turkey, you might call this lovely persimmons with a different name than the rest of the country. I grew up knowing it as “Fruit of Heaven”, and recently, from a book written by Tijen Inaltong (in Turkish) I learned that it is known as “Date of Trabzon” — here read “date” as in the fruit date, and Trabzon is a city in the Black Sea region.

I am so glad I have eaten a ripe one the first time I tasted this fruit. Otherwise I would have been one of those people who detest it and cannot believe how anybody can eat it. I cannot blame them; you have to eat those ripe no matter what.

You know how healthy they are? How good of a calcium and especially pottasium source they are?

I love this fruit, yet for the last 10 years I am living in this country I have not even bought one. Can you believe this? Well, I have been seeing them in market, and could not get myself to buy one since they were tough. All those years! Finally last weekend I have seen them again in the farmer’s market. Again touched them and again tough. I was thinking “What is the matter with this people? If they sell this once, whoever buys them will never want to see that seller again, let alone buying anything from his stall.” After touching, feeling couple of them I finally asked the seller if there are any soft ones. He said no! I could not stop myself and asked him “I guess you like that astringent taste it has?” He smiled and said “these are Fuyu variety.” Well, that really didn’t mean anythıng to me. I guess he also gathered that from my facial expression and continued “these are eaten like an apple, just slice them.” Woow! Slicing a persimmon and eating it when it is hard? Sounded like eating raw eggplant! After a second of hesitation sure enough I bought a lot of them. It definitely is not an astringent variety, but still a persimmon.

And recently I also bought another variety of them from a local Japanese farmer family. They grow many varieties in their land, and one of them is this “Hachiya” and they are close to the type I am used to.

Later I learned that Fuyu variety has 6 times more calcium than Hachiya, but both are superior to oranges when it comes to being a pottasium source.

Sure I could have sliced and enjoyed them that way, but I wanted to try out a persimmon cake recipe. After seaching for a while I decided to use the one from Fresh Approach Cooking website, and made small changes.

I liked how it tasted, and I wonder if you’ll like it, too. Does not have that interesting persimmon taste, at all. A classic fall cake, with the right amount of spices. Not a fluffy one; at least not the one I made!

If you do not want to bake a cake, just mix equal amount of persimmon pulp with (soy) milk and add cinnamon to taste. I definitely enjoyed this drink.

Here comes the recipe for the cake (with the changes I adapted, otherwise a direct copy from the website I got the recipe)

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 cup pureed pulp (I used 2 big Hachiya persimmons)
2. 1 teaspoon baking soda
3. 1 teaspoon baking powder
4. 2 cups unsifted flour
5. 1 tsp cinnamon
6. 1/2 tsp each fresh nutmeg and ground cloves
7. 1/2 cup butter
8. ½ cup white sugar
9. ½ cup brown sugar
10. 1 egg
11. ½ cup kefir
12. 1 tsp orange zest

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Puree persimmon pulp until smooth.
3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon.
4. In an large bowl, using a hand mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and combine well. Add half the flour and just combine. Add the buttermilk and just combine. Add the remaining flour and stir until it just comes together, then stir in the orange zest.
5. Spoon into a 9 inch cake pan that has been greased with butter. Bake for 40 minutes, or more until knife comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a platter to cool completely.
6. Before serving, dust lightly with powdered sugar.

Bon Apetit!