What large tree grows cinnamon-brown, fuzzy pea pods? Can this be a fruit? Tasty, Tantalizing Tamarind (Tamarindus indica)
Breadfruit
Coffee
Guava
Lychee
Moya
Passion Fruit
Rambutan
Tamarind
What large tree grows cinnamon-brown, fuzzy pea pods? Can this be a fruit? The Arabs introduced tamarind, from the Arabic tamrhindi (Indian date), to Europe in the Middle Ages. It gives a sweet-sour, pleasant acidity to food. The tamarind tree, graceful with feathery foliage and small red and yellow flowers, is a distant cousin of the string bean and a member of the pea family. In its native habitat of tropical Africa and southern Asia, it can grow to eighty feet. Tamarind fruit is a pod three to six inches long, three-fourths inch wide, cinnamon-brown, and fuzzy. The fruit pods hang in clusters on the tree. Shiny, brown, inedible seeds inside the pod are embedded in a jamlike, edible pulp. When mature, the edible pulp shrinks from the pod. The pulp can be found pressed into bricks, but the jellylike tamarind concentrate sold in jars is much easier to use. Find it in Oriental or Indian markets.
Did you know that Captain Bligh's cargo on the Bounty was1,015 breadfruit plants growing in tubs? Needless to say, he hadto return to Tahiti in August 1791 to gather more breadfruit plantswhich he successfully delivered to Jamaica.
The breadfruit tree is a beautiful tree about sixty feet tallwith lobed leaves one to three feet long. Hawaiian quilt and jewelrydesigns are often patterned from the leaves and fruit of the tree.Breadfruit does not travel well, and it would be unusual to findit in a store outside the tropics. The fruit is green, round oroblong, and about 8 inches in diameter. It has a thin, rough rindwhich turns green-brown to yellow as the fruit ripens. Despiteits name, breadfruit is not used in making bread. It is used likea potato--in stews, whipped, and diced, and in a salad resemblingpotato salad.
Hawaiian coffee is making its mark in the world marketplace. Wegrow coffee in Kona, Kauai, Maui, and Molokai. The first coffeeplantation in Hawaii was started in Kona in 1828.
The coffee plant is a shrub or small tree which grows to aboutfifteen feet and bears dark red, shiny berries. Each berry hasone or two large seeds which are the coffee beans. It takes about500 pounds of coffee beans to produce 100 pounds of roasted coffeebeans. The beans are shipped clean and dry to the coffee manufacturerwhere they are roasted and blended. Ground coffee or coffee beanscan be stored in the freezer, but don't thaw and refreeze.
Wild guavas, a great thirst quencher, are found often on Hawaii's hiking trails. In Kilauea, Kauai, C.Brewer's guava plantation is open to visitors. Their Beaumont guavas are lovely and large with pink-strawberry pulp. Visitors see fruit-laden guava trees and can sample guava ice cream, sorbet, and other products. During harvest, the trees may need to be picked thirty-five times because guava does not ripen uniformly.
The form, color, size, and sweetness of guava, classified as a berry, vary widely. Guava pulp, highly fragrant, tart, and slightly granular, was named xalxocotl--"sand plum"-- by the Aztecs. The 150 species of guava growing worldwide from 27 degrees north latitude to 30 degrees south latitude encompass sweet, crunchy, small, and large guava.
Don't peel guava because the edible rind has a large concentration of vitamin C. For smoothies and other uses, puree the rind along with the pulp, but discard the hard, white seeds. Guava has about five times more vitamin C than orange (raw guava, 242 mg. vitamin C per 100 g./ orange 50 mg. vitamin C per 100 g.) Purchase mature, green-stage guava which can be refrigerated for a week. When ready to use, ripen the guava at room temperature for 1-5 days. When ripe, guava keeps only a day or two, but the pulp freezes well. Use guava puree for marinade and for entree and dessert sauces. Guava also makes excellent sorbet, frozen yogurt, and combines well with other fruits and vegetables for salads.
The world's most romantic fruit, lychee, has been enjoyed in the Orient for over 2,000 years. In fact, the first fruit culture book, written in 1056, was about lychee. Want to win your lady's heart? You might try giving her fresh lychees like T'ang Emperor Hsuan Tsung (A.D. 712-756). He organized a "pony express" to carry fresh lychees from tropical south China to the northern court for Lady Yang Kuei Fei.
Lychee's fragrant, sweet, juicy flavor is memorable. Fresh lychees are oval, about an inch in size, with a brittle, red peel. Do not bite through the inedible, reddish shell. It peels easily revealing the fruit's pearly white, translucent flesh which surrounds a brown, inedible seed. Lychees grow in clusters on thirty to fifty foot trees which are sensitive to drought, frost, and wind.
Don't confuse "lychee nut" with fresh lychee. Lychee nuts are dried lychee and resemble a raisin. The dried fruit has a smoky taste and is crunchy. Canned lychees, however, do resemble fresh lychee and can be used successfully in recipes.
Red fruit is fresh. Select the heaviest and fullest fruit with stems. Lychee keeps 2 weeks when refrigerated and about 6 months frozen. Freeze lychee unpeeled, with a small part of the stem intact for a seal. Store in freezer bags or freezer containers. Occasionally, the lychee shell cracks during freezing, but the fruit's flavor and texture remain good. Defrost before peeling.
The popular use for lychee, fresh or canned, in Honolulu is as an appetizer. We stuff lychees with low-fat cream cheese and top with crushed nuts. Lychee is exquisite in a fresh fruit salad with pineapple, papaya, kiwi, and banana. Even canned lychee are good in a fresh fruit salad. Lychee on ice cream with chocolate sauce is absolutely decadent. A lychee stuffed with a fresh or frozen raspberry turns a glass of sparkling wine or champagne into a festive drink. Lychees are truly a "class act".
The longan is known as the "little brother" of the lychee. Sometimes called Dragon's Eye, the longan, rambutan, and lychee all belong to the Sapindaceae family. Longan is round or oval and a little larger than an olive. Its thin, rough, caramel-colored shell is easily peeled. Longan pulp is white translucent and surrounds a large, round, deep brown seed. While the longan's flesh is sweeter than a lychee's, it is not as juicy.
This green, bumpy fruit is among the earliest recorded New Worldfruit. All varieties have a thick, soft, inedible skin with shiny,watermelonlike seeds. The atemoya, cherimoya, soursop, and sweetsopare usually labeled "moya" for marketing convenience.They are about 4 inches in diameter with the soursop twice aslarge. Moya is eaten when the fruit yields to pressure like aripe avocado.
Chill and peel the fruit, remove all seeds, and cut into chunksor puree the pulp. Use moya in fruit salad, smoothies, tropicaldrinks, sorbet, and salad dressing.
This vine, native to the steamy Amazon, produces beautiful flowers and sweet-tart fruit. It was named by the Spanish missionaries in South America who saw the Passion (suffering) of Christ represented in its flowers. In Hawaii, the purple passion fruit grow at higher altitudes than the yellow, but both kinds are found wild on Hawaii's hiking trails. Most Hawaii passion fruit connoisseurs prefer the yellow variety. Passion fruit's exotic flavor entices backyard gardeners, but the vine is closely watched because it quickly climbs trees, spreads, and becomes a pest.
The highly fragrant passion fruit is unmistakably tropical. About the size and shape of a large egg, passion fruit has a tough shell. Inside the 1/4-inch shell, juicy, yellow-orange pulp is filled with edible seeds about the size of grape seeds. The famous Australian dessert, Pavlova, named for the Russian ballerina, is customarily topped with passion fruit pulp including seeds.
Don't try to substitute passion fruit juice for passion fruit pulp in recipes. The juice is sweetened, diluted, and may contain other fruit. The results will be disappointing. If you warm passion fruit pulp, the seeds can be removed with a sieve. Most people, however, do not find the seeds objectionable. Passion fruit pulp is good in marinade, sherbet, juice, salad dressing, and as dessert topping for ice cream, cake, and cheesecake.
This luscious fruit is slightly larger than a lychee, about thesize of an apricot, and has sweet, translucent flesh. Rambutanhas soft spines which can be green, red, pink, or yellow. Selectbrightly colored fruit with fleshy spines because the rambutandarkens with age. Peel rambutan and use the fruit in salad, fordessert toppings, and as a sauce for chicken and seafood dishes.
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email the author©1996-2003 Marilyn Rittenhouse Harris (home.hawaii.rr.com/tropicalfruit)