While making the apple sauce this year, the left over apple cores went into the freezer rather than directly going into the compost bin. Recently, we have been enjoying them as spiced apple tea, at nights. Especially when in need of a drink to heat you up, these were really easy to put together. The result is always satisfying even if the “exact” measurements I am about to share is not followed. You know the drill; you just whatever you have in this warm tea.

Recently I have developed taste for unsweetened tea, but for this one, somehow one looks for a sweetener. Our usual choice is the jaggery I have learned from dear Indira. Not only it improves the taste, but gives a nice color, too. Instead of buying the big cones from the local Indian store, I prefer buying the irregular shaped, small ones. This is way easier to deal with. ;) If you do not have a way to obtain jaggery, honey or molasses is another good alternative to sweeten your tea.

• 10 - 12 apple cores, with seeds
• 8 - 10 black peppercorn
• 2 inch long of cinnamon stick
• 8 - 10 cloves
• 1 - 2 inch fresh ginger
• 3 - 5 cardamoms
• 750 ml water
• 1 piece of jaggery or a teaspoon of honey

Bruise the peppercorn, cloves and cardamoms using mortar and pestle. Add to the rest of the ingredients. Add the jaggery if using, keep the other sweeteners off the mix for now, and add when serving. Boil on a very low heat about 30 minutes. Strain from a very fine cloth, add sweeteners if not already, and serve hot.

Above, the tea cup in the front has jaggery in it, but the further away has no sweeteners. See the color difference?

Persimmons are mystery for some people. Growing up eating the Hachiya variety (only to learn that’s what it is called in English, last year) I discovered the Fuyu variety rather late. This variety can be eaten before it has to get very soft, ripe, so it makes it easy to store. If you have access to astringent hachiyas, try putting them in a brown bag with an apple, and will get ripe in no time. The same trick can be used to ripen kiwis — which we successfuly applied this summer after picking the kiwis at my parents’ house.

The dried persimmons are a new addition to my “persimmon discoveries” as well. It started with a colleague of mine to tell me about a family owning an orchard just a few miles away from where I live. Once I was there, to buy some in season produce, I saw some orange mini-globes hanging from string on a nice wooden structure. Chatting with the owner, he told me that they are drying persimmons. Interesting idea. Well, this was 2 or 3 years ago. Finally, last time I was there, to buy the fresh persimmons, I bought a small pack of dried ones to try out. The result: heavenly.  Kind of resembles dates.
Btw, I also learned that hoshi gaki is the proper name for these jewels in Japanese.

Check out the drying process and how much it is involved.  What is amazing is that they start with unripe persimmon — which is very astringent (you should not even try eating!) and end up with such a sweet product.  At the end of the article, they list growers who’s ship far away, if you decide it is something you should taste at least once. I suggest you do.