Jujubes at the Santa Barbara Farmers Market
A trip to the local Farmers market in Santa Barbara occasionally turns up a culinary oddity. Today I spotted a dried fruit labeled Jujube. I remember that name associated with a candy but it is has no relationship with the dried fruit I found.
The Jujube at the market is a fruit called Ziziphus Jujuba or more commonly Jujube, Red Date or Chinese Date.
I has a taste somewhat like and apple-pear combination and a texture like a slightly pithy apple. There is one large seed in the middle like a date or olive.
It is thought to originate in southern Asia between Lebanon and northern India to the Korean peninsula and souther-central China. They grow on small deciduous trees that reach up to 30 feet tall. The fruit is about 2 inches and is smooth-green when young and dark red to purplish-black when dried.
Its use in the kitchen includes preparation of tea. The Chinese make a sort of wine by fermenting the fruit and also preserve it in distilled spirits much like the French do with cherries. In Persian cooking the dried fruit is pounded with tamarind, red chilies, salt and jaggery (an unrefined sugar made from cane juice). Small dishes are made from this dough and are then dried in the sun like fruit leather.
Chef Michael Hutchings
