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Fruit Cocktail

In document The Fruits We Eat In the Pacific (Page 122-127)

1. Wash, peel, and cut lychees in uniform size.

2. Combine with other fruits and pour off excess juice.

3. Mix sugar and lime juice well.

4. Pour mixture over fruit and chill for an hour before serving.

Method

1 cup seeded lychees

1 cup pineapple pieces

1/2 cup sliced bananas

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice

You will need

7. Nandau:Pometia pinnata

This delicious fruit is known as Pacific litchi or Oceanic lychee. The edible flesh is similar in appearance to that of Litchi chinensis. Pacific litchi or Oceanic lychee is found growing on a number of Pacific Islands. No infor-mation was found in the literature about its origin. It is called nandau in Vanuatu, dawa in Fiji, kao, dawa, awa, tao or tava in Solomon Islands and tava in Tonga.

The fruit is generally round and is similar in size to a common guava. The thin skin or shell of the ripe fruit varies in colour from green to dark red-dish-purple and peels off easily from the edible, sweet, translucent white jelly-like flesh that surrounds the seed.

The seeds are eaten in Solomon Islands. They can be roasted or baked (Henderson & Hancock, 1989). They are also preserved by roasting and then drying.

The nandau tree is cultivated from seedlings. The mature tree has a very long, slender, but commonly twisted trunk up to 30 m tall, with a dense, untidy crown (Henderson & Hancock, 1989). It grows in the forest and occasionally on the outskirts of villages. There are at least four cultivars of nandau, varying mainly in skin colour and fruit size (Henderson &

Hancock, 1989).

In most Pacific countries where the fruit is grown, the main season is around November to January, though there may be two seasons on some islands.

Selection

Choose clean, wholesome, ripe nandau that are firm but soft and free of infestation. Test ripeness by gently pressing the fruit with the thumb. When buying in heaps or bags, check individual fruit to ensure they are whole-some.

Storage

Like the Chinese lychee, fresh, ripe nandau do not keep very well at room temperature, but will keep for two to three days in cool storage. Care must be taken during handling to prevent bruising.

Pacific Islanders do not generally preserve the flesh of the fruit. The seeds can be dried and stored.

Preparation

Fresh fruit should be washed well before use. Remove the skin by gripping the fruit around its circumference and twisting. Two shell-like halves will come away from the edible, fleshy part. Remove seed, rub off the white pith and rinse thoroughly. Serve immediately.

Nandau flesh turns brown (oxidises) when exposed to air. Keep under water before use or dip in orange or lemon juice to slow down or prevent browning.

Food value

Like most fruits, nandau is a good source of Vitamin C, some dietary fibre and small amounts of vitamins and minerals.

Nandau or Pacific litchi is always eaten fresh as a snack. More recent use is as an ingredient in tropical fruit salads. The flesh can also be preserved by bottling or by stewing in light syrup and then freezing.

8. Passionfruit: Passiflora edulis

This delicious, sweet-tasting, aromatic fruit grew wild and was once even referred to as a weed. It is said to have originated from South America (Stanton, 1986) and spread to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Passionfruit was given its name by a Spanish priest who noted that the flower parts numerically matched the various sufferings of Christ (Darley, 1993).

A number of varieties of passionfruit now grow in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. It was considered a commercially viable fruit in many parts of the Pacific during the 1970s and some varieties were special-ly introduced for export. Processing plants were set up in the islands to process juice for export and for local consumption. Today some are still producing, but mainly for local consumption. Limited overseas markets have hindered the commercial production of this fruit (Carlos & Ooi, 1987).

Passionfruit is also known as bell apple. It grows on a climbing vine. Usually the fruit has a hard, green to brown skin that turns yellow or darkens to deep purple when mature. There is also a variety with a soft, furry yellow skin and another that has hard skin and looks like an egg. The skin may also be wrinkly in some varieties (Samson, 1986).

Inside the shell is a yellowish-orange pulp that can be quite sweet or tart, mixed with black seeds. The whole mixture of pulp and seeds is eaten together. It has a very rich and distinctive aroma.

Selection

Choose firm fruits with a yellow or purplish tinge and ripen under con-trolled conditions when possible. If fruit has been ripened, the skin may be starting to wrinkle. In these cases, select fruits that are still yellow or purple and have not turned dark brown. The fruit should be clean and free from infestation.

Storage

Mature passionfruit ripens within two to three days after picking. Once ripe, the skin becomes wrinkled and soft. Its skin can easily be damaged, so fruits should be carefully laid out on racks or shelves. Cold storage at 7°C can lengthen its shelf life up to a month (Darley, 1993). Passionfruit pulp or concentrate can be frozen for longer storage. It freezes well, particular-ly if sugar is added, 50 per cent by volume.

Preparation

Wash fruits, cut in half, scoop out the pulp and use as desired. The fruit can be eaten raw or a concentrate can be made from the pulp. For drinks, dilute one part of pulp with three parts of water and add sugar to taste.

Adding fruit directly to milk may result in curdling because it is very acidic.

Food value

Passionfruit has a high content of dietary fibre due to the presence of the seeds. Normally it has more fibre than other common fruits such as oranges, limes and mandarins. Fresh fruits provide a small amount of Vitamin C and niacin, with approximately 434 kJ or 105 kcal of energy per 100 g of passionfruit flesh (Stanton, 1986)

Use

Passionfruit eaten raw makes a delicious snack. The pulp can be added to fruit salads or made into drinks and used as flavouring in desserts. The

In document The Fruits We Eat In the Pacific (Page 122-127)

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