Exotic fruit

Good to know: Exotic fruits imported by air have been able to ripen in the sun longer and are therefore richer in sugar.

The pineapple

- The pineapple must be heavy, fragrant and firm to the touch. The ripening stage does not particularly affect the color of the fruit, on the other hand the pineapple is certainly ripe if its leaves are green and bright, and come off easily.

- If the pineapple is still whole, you can keep it at room temperature, while if you have already cut it, you must wrap it in cling film and store it in the refrigerator for no more than 5 days.

- Perfect to end the meal, pineapple contains an enzyme that favors digestion and in particular assimilation of proteins, but only if it is eaten raw. Depending on the variety, it can weigh between 500g and 2kg!

- The n ° 1 of pineapples: the Victoria pineapple from Mauritius or the island of Réunion, small and very sweet.

Banana

- Although it has now become familiar even in our hemisphere, the banana is still an exotic fruit! Martinique, Guadeloupe, Ivory Coast, Kenya ... the banana comes from hot countries.

- Some of us like it almost unripe, with a rather hard pulp, others prefer it when it is very ripe peel begins to turn brown and the pulp melts in your mouth. But be careful: if the banana is picked too early, the pulp will become floury as it ripens.

- Keeping the banana in the fridge alters its consistency.

- To make bananas ripen faster, nothing better than placing them next to an apple.

- Banana is a fruit that oxidizes rather quickly. If you make it in fruit salad, sprinkle lemon juice over it to prevent it from turning black.

The carom

- It is an elongated berry with 5 sides that give it a magnificent star shape when it is cut into slices. The color of the pulp ranges from white to yellow and its texture is similar to that of apple: fresh, crunchy and juicy. The taste of the carambola recalls that of the green melon.

- Choose a fruit firm to the touch, with a bright yellow rind, if not golden. If you notice dots on the peel, it means that the carambola is at a very advanced stage of ripening.

- You can eat it plain, cooked or raw, but it is mostly used for purpose decorative, to garnish desserts. You must keep it in a cool place, where it can last between 2 and 15 days, depending on the level of ripeness.

The dates

- I. fresh dates they occur in helmets attached to a stem. The fruits are small, elongated and of a yellow color tending to orange. Dates should be stored in a cool place, preferably in an airtight box, but you can also just let them dry in the sun ... Warning: dates tend to absorb odors.

- I. dried dates, sold separately or in small branches, have a wrinkled, brown and slightly shiny skin. In an airtight box they can be kept for a year.

- To keep dates even longer, dates are sometimes coated with glucose syrup. The date, however, is a fruit already very rich in sugar and therefore it is better to avoid the glazed ones.

- The most common date variety is the "Deglet Noor", But the variety"Majhool”Is the best ever: dates are bigger and pulpy, they melt in the mouth and have a taste reminiscent of marron glacé.

The passion fruit

- Passion fruit is a purple, red-orange or yellow berry with a wrinkled and irregular skin. The pulp is acidulous, of a yellow to orange color and full of inedible black seeds.

- It can be stored for a few days at room temperature. The more wrinkled the fruit, the more ripe it is.

The guava

- Also called goyava, it is a berry round or oval, with a smooth surface, of a color between green and light yellow. The pulp is pink, pale yellow or red, depending on the variety.

- You can cut it and eat it directly, or consume it in the form of fruit juice, ice cream or syrup. It is rarely found in the form of fresh fruit because it is very fragile and therefore difficult to import.

The pomegranate

- It is always a round fruit, about the size of a tennis ball. There peel is thick and pink, bright and fairly smooth but as it ripens it becomes harder, darker and thinner. Inside, the pomegranate contains gods pink or red seeds, crunchy and fresh but with a slightly bitter or sour taste.

- Pomegranate seeds are served in fruit salad, eaten directly from the fruit, or sprinkled with honey and orange blossom water.

- To choose it well, the pomegranate must have a shiny and smooth skin, between red and brown tending to orange. In hand the fruit must be heavy, a sign of a juicy pulp.

The kumquat

- It looks like a very small oval citrus fruit, maximum 4 or 5 cm long, yellow-orange in color. His sour taste sometimes tends tobitter.

- The rind is edible, but it must be soaked for a few moments before being swallowed. Kumquat is used to flavor jams or sweet and sour sauces and above all to decorate sweets in the form of fruit candied.

Lychee, rambutan and longan

- Lychee, a white fruit, sweet and fresh at the same time, no longer needs to be presented.

- The rambutan it is a bit rarer, but it deserves to get out of the shadows! Compared to lychee it is larger and has a "hairy" skin. The pulp is more consistent than that of the lychee and it is almost Crisp, as for the taste, it is less sweet and fresher. To discover!

- Another fruit of the same species, the longan or "dragon's eye" resembles a large grape with a dark skin. With a very delicate flavor, the stone is quite large.

The mango

- A ripe mango must be at the right point heavy, hard but soft to the touch (the fingers must not sink too far into the fruit). It all depends on what use you will make of it, but an overripe mango is extremely sweet and can be sickening.

- To cut it, open it in half following the core with a large knife. Then engrave the pulp and turn the peel, you will get a nice mango "hedgehog" perfect for decorating your table!