Chicken fillet with persimmon and feta gratinated on ginger and leek vegetables with pomegranate spice sauce

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 4 chicken breast fillets, 150 g each
• 1 persimmon, fully ripe and sweet
• 160 g feta cheese
• 1 tbsp oil for frying
• e.g. salt and pepper
• 2 stalk(s) leeks
• 40 g ginger root
• 2 m.-large onion(s), red
• 200 ml water
• 200 ml milk
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 80 g butter
• 1 tsp, heaped sesame seeds, roasted
• 20 black peppercorns
• 10 allspice berries
• 2 cloves
• ½ tsp, leveled salt
• ½ tsp cinnamon powder
• ¼ tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
• 2 tbsp pomegranate syrup

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour

Wash the leek and slice into rings, peel the onions and slice into strips, peel the ginger with a vegetable peeler, and then finely dice. Wash the persimmons, halve them lengthwise, and then slice them. Slice the feta cheese. If necessary, flatten the chicken breast fillets slightly to ensure even cooking. Make diamond-shaped cuts in any thicker parts with a knife. Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté the onion strips for 2-3 minutes. Add the leek rings and sauté for 5-6 minutes, stirring, until the leek has slightly collapsed. Add the ginger. Then pour in the soy sauce and maple syrup, stirring to reduce briefly. Sprinkle with flour and mix. Add the water and milk, stirring to combine. Bring everything to a boil, then simmer for 3-4 minutes. In the meantime, season the meat with salt and pepper on both sides. Preheat the oven to 220°C (top/bottom heat). When the vegetables are cooked, transfer them to a sufficiently large baking dish and spread out flat. Briefly clean and dry the pan, then heat the oil to a high heat. Sear the meat on each side for 2-3 minutes. Then place the meat side by side on the bed of vegetables and cover with the persimmon slices, overlapping them. Finally, spread the feta cheese on top. Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, place the toasted sesame seeds, peppercorns, allspice berries, cloves, and salt in a mortar and pestle and grind everything until finely ground. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, reduce the heat and add the spices from the mortar along with the cinnamon. Let everything simmer over low heat until the rest of the ingredients are ready in the oven. Finally, remove the seasoning sauce from the heat, add the grated nutmeg, and stir in the pomegranate syrup. When serving, lift the meat from the vegetables, arrange the vegetables on a plate, place the meat back on top of the vegetables, and drizzle everything with the seasoning sauce. Notes: The seasoning sauce has a deep, warm, aromatic, slightly nutty, and intensely peppery aroma. It seasons the vegetables and, thanks to the aroma and acidic note of the pomegranate syrup, goes wonderfully with the sweet persimmon, which tastes faintly of vanilla and apricots when perfectly ripe. The ginger in the leek complements the flavors with a citrus-like sharpness. For this reason, the ginger is added to the vegetables late in the cooking process, as it would lose much of its citrus flavor if simmered for too long. If the ground spice residue in the sauce bothers you, you can filter it through a fine sieve before mixing it with the pomegranate syrup.