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Loquats and Mountain Bird

One of my elementary schools really has developed a nice pattern of introducing me to various elements of Japanese culture and nature.  They’ve let me join for tea ceremony, taught me about fuki no to, let me write some calligraphy and more.

The latest is the 枇杷 (biwa) loquat, a small, pear-shaped fruit about the size of an apricot.  It has a subtle flavour reminiscent of a persimmon, which is also similarly coloured in an orange-yellow hue.  The edible fruit is quite small due to the five large seeds within, but it is light and refreshing.

It is also said to be a good source of Vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, and manganese.

The Japanese name “biwa” is probably derived from the variety of lute shaped quite the same.  The modern Chinese names for the fruit (枇杷 pípá) and lute (琵琶 pípá) also sound the same.

That’s no coincidence, since the loquat is native to Southerneastern China, where it may have originally been restricted in consumption to royalty.  It was introduced to Japan a thousand-some years past, and now can be found in various places in many regions around the world.

Bunch of loquats sitting in the staff room.

A third year elementary student brought a bunch of the fruit from his home, supposedly having picked them all himself, and gave them to the staff and fellow students.

Looking around the Interwebs, I found a tasty recipe to try.

Blanching
To peel loquats for sauce and fruit cup, blanch by pouring boiling water over loquats to cover. Add 1/4 cup lemon juice to each quart of water. Cook over low heat about 5 minutes, just until skin loosen. Drain and reserve liquid. Cool, peel, halve, and seed loquats (remove seeds).

Loquat Sauce for Ice Cream
Combine 2 cups juice from blanched loquats with 2 cups sugar. (see Blanching above) Bring to boil, cook over medium heat until syrup spins a 2-inch thread when dropped from a spoon (230~234ºF / 110~112ºC on candy thermometer), about 20 minutes. Cool completely. Add 2 cups / 475 mL peeled, halved, seeded loquats. Chill, then serve over ice cream. Makes about 3 cups / 710 mL sauce.