November 11, 2011

Home-Made Wine and Astringent Persimmons/自家製ワインと渋柿

Today, I got two corrugated boxes from my father, who lives in Chiba. The boxes contained astringent persimmons (shibu gaki in Japanese) and a bottle of home-made wine, among others.
今日は、千葉に住む父から段ボール箱が2箱送られてきました。箱には渋柿や自家製ワインが入っていました。

One small (500 ml) bottle of home-made wine:
自家製ワインが入った小さな(500 ml)PETボトルが一つ:
I called my father, and he said he had got wine and grape juice mixed up, and he had to send us only this bottle, which he was sure was wine.
I had it with some cubes of ice at supper.
父に電話すると、ワインとぶどうジュースをごちゃ混ぜにしてしまい、ワインだと確信できるこの瓶だけを送ってくれたそうです。
夕飯に氷を入れて飲みました。
Astringent persimmons:
渋柿:
We will remove astringency from one half of them by putting them in a large plastic bag and adding ethyl alcohol in solid form.
We will peel the other half and let them dry to make hoshi gaki (dried persimmons).
半分は大きなビニール袋に入れて、固形のエチルアルコールを入れて渋を抜き、
もう半分は、皮をむいて、干して、干し柿を作ります。

Edited to add this note:
Under the Liquor Tax Law of Japan, it is illegal to make an alcohol beverage with an alcohol content of 1% or greater. The wine shown above is supposed to have an alcohol content less than 1%.
注を追記:
日本の酒税法では、アルコール分が1%以上のアルコール飲料を造ることは違法です。このワインはアルコール分が1%未満ということになっています。

6 comments:

Sissi said...

Hiroyuki, the wine looks very intriguing and the use of solid ethyl alcohol most unusual.
I have never had persimmons (sometimes I see persimmons here, but they have a different shape and are probably not astringent).
I am very curious about your future cooking adventures with both fresh and dried persimmons. (And also if you make any cocktails with this promising wine ;-)

Hiroyuki said...

Sissi: Here is an old post of mine about astringency removal:
http://hiro-shio.blogspot.com/2009/10/fall-is-here.html
The 500-ml wine was completely consumed by me last night!

Fräulein Trude said...

I like persimmons very much. Indeed I also like it when they still have a little tannin taste but not too much. Now is the season to eat lots and lots. I bought some today too. They sell different shaped persimmons from small and pumpkin round to big and long shaped. But they don't sell persimmons as I have seen in China: very big sized and flat round. I watched some gardeners? picking persimmons from huge trees in a park in Beijing with an very interesting and nearly artistic method: One hit a persimmon with a 10+ m long stick and two were fetching the falling fruit with a large net before it hits the ground. In China I ate dried persimmons for the first time, very nice. How do you dry persimmons?
Today I received soba and a soba dipping sauce from a japanese friend. We are going to visit her on sunday during her art exibition. I am going to give her some of my home made green plum wine. I hope she will like it (laugh). I am a little bit concerned wether it will match her taste or not.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Fuyu gaki
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/kajuen/182223/#182223
is the most common variety of "ama gaki" (non-astringent persimmon) in Japan. I used to have them a lot when I was in Tokyo. Here in Niigata, ama gaki are much less popular, and now I like "sawashi gaki" ("shibu gaki" with astringency removed) very much, because they are much sweeter than ama gaki.

In Japan, people now more often use a takaeda kiri basami (高枝切りばさみ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNLnE2KRa8U&feature=related
to gather persimmons. It's very lightweight and handy.

To dry persimmons, we will just peel them, dip in boiling water for a few seconds (not minutes), and put them in the net (the same net that I used to dry enoki mushrooms) to dry.

Usually, persimmons are tied with a string to hang outside as you can see here:
http://marron-dietrecipe.com/desert/desert_tsurushigaki.html
I don't like this method because it's cumbersome and time-consuming.

As for your present, don't worry! Your friend will be grateful to you for your home-made present.

Sissi said...

Hiroyuki, I also had almost the same amount of wine last night ;-) I am happy you are also a wine amateur! (My Japanese teacher and friend told me many people in Japan cannot drink alcohol, luckily she can ;-) it would be a shame to go out unable to share a glass of beer or wine).

Hiroyuki said...

According to one site,
日本人の37~38%は遺伝的にお酒に弱い体質、6~7%の人は、遺伝的にお酒をまったく飲めない体質である
http://www.sapporobeer.jp/tekisei/shikumi/taishitsu.html

37-38% of the Japanese genetically can't hold their liquor, and 6-7% genetically can't drink alcohol at all.