Persimmon in tofu dressing 柿とほうれん草の白和え

I did a post on persimmon previously. In the US, we can usually get either "Fuyu 富有 or Jiro 次郎" and "Hachiya 蜂屋".  This time we found Fuyu persimmons at the store and I let them ripen to the point where the meat of the fruit was soft and gelatinous but very sweet (I didn’t let them ripen to that point on purpose, I just forgot about them). Before they passed the point of no return, I quickly made this persimmon salad with traditional tofu dressing called "Shira-ae 白和え. "Shun-giku" 春菊 or edible chrysanthemum would be the traditional pairing but since I did not have it, I substituted blanched baby spinach.



I served this on two occasions.  Since I had a small persimmon shaped bowl, I served in this container but it was a bit too small (below).



Ingredients (for two servings as seen in the first picture)
Persimmon, Fuyu Jiro variety, one, skinned and cut into 1/4 inch slices.
Spinach, hand-full, quickly blanched in salted boiling water, quickly washed/cooled in cold running water and moisture squeezed out then cut into half inch long pieces.

Tofu dressing: I used a half container of sukui tofu. The seasonings can be variable but I added Japanese white sesame paste "Neri-goma" 練りゴマ (2 tsp), sugar (1 tsp) and salt (1/2 tsp). You could add light colored soy sauce or miso instead of salt. I mixed them up in a small Japanese pestle and mortar (suribachi with surikogi) as seen below. Using silken or sukui tofu makes the dressing very smooth and creamy.

I simply dressed the persimmon and spinach with the tofu dressing. It is nice small salad. Although there is no oil added, the tofu makes the dressing very smooth, rich and creamy. The persimmons we used was a bit over ripe but still this was a nice small starter dish.