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TopTropical Treasures: Your Guide to Exotic Fruit
Exotic fruits tempt us with enticing hints of faraway places. But sometimes we avoid them because we don’t know to prepare them. Read on for our guide to choosing, preparing and enjoying these tropical finds, many of which are available year-round at your Metro store.
Cactus Pear
- Cactus pear is sometimes known as the Barbary fig. Fruit grown in Argentina and Brazil is available year-round.
- The flesh varies from orange to deep red and is juicy, slightly acidic, sweet and aromatic. The seeds are edible.
- Cactus pears are ripe when the skin gives a little with light finger pressure.
- Using your fingers or a fork and knife, peel away the skin completely and remove the pulp. Cut into thin slices and enjoy plain or sprinkle with lemon or lime juice.
- Cactus pears are delicious in jams, preserves or sherbets. For sherbet, it’s best to strain the pulp to remove the seeds.
- The cactus pear can be used in many desserts and is delicious in fruit salads as well as vegetable, chicken or shrimp salads.
Coconut
- Coconut is a popular ingredient in South American, Caribbean and Asian cuisines. It’s available year-round in supermarkets.
- Try fresh or flaked coconut meat or coconut milk for a tropical touch in main dishes.
- Liven up plain vanilla ice cream with toasted unsweetened shredded coconut and pineapple slices.
How to Open Coconuts
1With a sharp knife gouge out two of the three eyes on the end of the nut.
2Drain the coconut water into a glass. Cheesecloth or a fine sieve may be used to strain it.
3Place the coconut on a hard surface and whack it with a hammer until it breaks into pieces.
4Pry the meat from the shell with a knife. Peel off the brown layer.
5Put peeled pieces in a bowl. Cover with water so they don’t dry out. They will keep up to a week in the refrigerator.
Dragon Fruit
- The dragon fruit is also called the pitahaya (from the Taíno word meaning “scaly fruit”) or the strawberry pear. It’s available year-round in supermarkets.
- The flavour of this fruit is sweet, delicate and fresh, leaving a refreshingly light milky taste in your mouth.
- Dragon fruit are eaten using a spoon, raw, very cold (straight out of the refrigerator) and cut in half—just like you’d eat a kiwi. A sprinkle of lemon juice adds a little tang.
- The edible seeds are the size of sesame seeds and dispersed throughout the flesh.
- The fruit can be used to make juice or wine. The large dragon fruit flower is also edible and can be used to make tea.
- Dragon fruit is also used to make delicious sherbet and makes a colourful, unusual addition to fruit salad.
Fig
- The fig is one of the sweetest fruits. There are several different varieties, including black, green and purple ones.
- Select figs that have a closed base and are plump and soft. Avoid any that are shrivelled, scarred or mouldy, or that have a strong odour. Fresh figs are usually available from June to October.
- Figs are delicious plain or added to fruit salad. They’re popular in jams, compotes or in desserts, and can even be paired with savoury accompaniments such as cheeses, meats, ham, poultry, lamb and duck.
- Figs can replace prunes in many recipes.
Guava
- Guava is available year-round and has black spots when ripe. Its juicy flesh is very fragrant, similar to that of a strawberry or peach, and it has a surprisingly strong taste.
- Select a smooth guava that is unblemished and not too hard or too soft. Guava that is not ripe is inedible because of its sour taste.
- This fruit can be eaten raw with its skin, sprinkled with sugar and rum, or stuffed with fresh cheese.
- Use guava in sweet dishes such as fruit salads, jams, jellies, chutneys and drinks.
- The taste of guava blends well with apples, adding a fragrant aroma to pies and compotes. It is also excellent in green salads.
- Guava is also excellent in green salads and can be used in savoury recipes with duck and other game.
Lychee
- This tiny fruit can be enjoyed as is. Just break open the shell with your fingers or a knife and remove the seed.
- Look for lychees at your supermarket from June to September and December to February.
- Lychees’ sweet, fragrant flesh turns ordinary rice, vegetables, meat and fish into exotic delights. Add the fruit at the very end of cooking to get the full benefit of its delicate flavour.
- Small brochettes of lychees and shrimp and a light wine are perfect for cocktail hour.
- Lychees really come into their own at dessert! They're irresistible dipped in caramel and rolled in crushed nuts or set like in caramel custard.
Mango
- The easiest way to prep mangoes to cut a thick slice on each side of the flat pit, as close as possible. Score the flesh, being careful not to cut through the skin, then flip the skin inside-out so the bite-sized bits are on the outside.
- Mango goes well with pork, poultry and seafood as well as cakes, crêpes and ice cream. It can be used in sauces or to make juice, coulis, chutney or sherbet. For a refreshing meal, add diced mango to tabbouleh served with jumbo shrimp.
- Firm, underripe mangoes can be cooked like a vegetable. Raw mangoes, grated or sliced, work well in salads and marinades.
- Ataulfo mangoes are sweet and creamy, and tend to be less stringy than other mangoes. Mangoes are available year-round, but are usually at their best from mid-March to July.
Papaya
- Enjoy ripe papaya as is, but remember that the skin is inedible. You can also sprinkle plain papaya with a little lemon or lime juice, rum or port.
- Like melon, papaya is marvellous with ham, prosciutto and smoked salmon. It’s also refreshing in chicken and seafood salads.
- Papaya should be added to fruit salads only at the last minute.
- Thread cubed papaya, pieces of cheese or prosciutto onto toothpicks for miniature appetizer brochettes.
- Look for papaya at your supermarket year-round.
Passion Fruit
- This fruit is available year-round and is at its best when it looks its worst, with dark, wrinkled skin.
- The fruit’s gelatinous pulp ranges from yellow to green and contains edible seeds in orange-coloured juice sacs.
- Succulent and delicious, passion fruit are great plain. Simply cut in two and eat with a spoon.
- Passion fruit’s sweet-tart flavour makes it perfect for fruit coulis and frozen desserts. A little is all it takes for ambrosial cocktails, fruit salads, crêpes, yogurts and sauces.
Persimmon
- On the outside, persimmons often look a lot like tomatoes; inside, their flesh resembles a sweet, fragrant jelly. They’re available from November to April.
- Persimmons are usually just cut in two and eaten with a spoon, but they have to be fully ripe.
- For a quick sherbet, freeze a ripe persimmon in plastic wrap and eat it partially thawed.
- Very ripe, soft persimmons can be puréed with a few drops of lemon juice and used on cakes, ice cream, crêpes and yogurt.
- Persimmons give sauces for pork and poultry a flavour boost.
- Persimmons make lovely jams, marmalades and chutneys.
Pineapple
- Pineapples have been cultivated for hundreds of years in South America and the Antilles. Europeans first discovered this fruit after Christopher Columbus made a voyage to Guadeloupe in 1493.
- To cut up a pineapple, slice off the top and bottom, then cut around the sides to remove the tough outer skin. Cut the juicy yellow centre into slices or bite-sized pieces.
- Pineapples are a wonderful addition to fruit salads, cakes, pies, punch, sherbets and more.
Plantain
- Plantains cannot be eaten raw and must be cooked before they are edible.
- Firmer and less sweet than their cousin the banana, plantains have a thick skin, and peeling it often requires a knife.
- Find plantains at the supermarket year-round. Underripe plantains taste somewhat like sweet potatoes or squash. When their skin turns black, they are ripe and have a sweeter taste.
- Baked, grilled or fried, plantains can be used in soups and stews or served with roasted meat, fish and poultry. Since their flavour is less sweet than that of a banana, plantains can be treated like a vegetable and used in savoury dishes.
- Sliced very fine, fried in a little oil and lightly salted, plantain chips make a tasty snack.
- Make a long cut in the skin of whole plantains before baking or boiling them. Baking time is usually one hour at 180°C (350°F). Peel and serve with a little butter and brown sugar.
- To boil plantains, immerse them in boiling salted water for a few minutes. Peel and return to the pot, and continue cooking until soft. Cooked plantains can be mashed.
Star Fruit
- Slices of this bright yellow fruit, also known as carambola, resemble stars and add a beautiful decorative touch to dishes and platters.
- Raw star fruit goes well with fruit and vegetables, and can replace lemon as a garnish for fish.
- Lightly cooked, star fruit partners meat and poultry very well and is ideal in sweet and sour dishes.
- Marmalade- or jelly-glazed slices make the perfect decoration for pies and cakes.
- Individually frozen slices of star fruit can be kept in a freezer bag or airtight container and used to garnish frozen desserts.
- The smooth, waxy peel is edible, but the seeds are not.
- Star fruit is available year-round, but its season peaks from June to February.
Try Exotic Fruit with These Recipes
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