Tropical fruits are loaded with so much nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. Some tropical fruits even have medicinal benefits. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the tropical and other fruits and there various uses.
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Banana - as well as being used as a dessert, bananas are grilled for a fish garnish, fried as fritters and served as a garnish to poultry (Maryland); they are used in fruit salad and other sweet dishes.
| Banana |
Bubaco - hybrid of the papaya.
Cape gooseberry - a sharp, pleasant-flavored small round fruit sometimes dipped in fondant and served as a type of petit fours.
Carambola - also known as star fruit, has a yellowish-green skin with a waxy sheen; the fruit is long and narrow and has a delicate lemon flavor.
Cranberry - these hard red berries are used for cranberry sauce, which is served with roast turkey.
Curuba - also known as banana passion fruit; soft yellowish skin.
Custard apple - heart-shaped or oval light tan or greenish quilted skin; sour sops (prickly custard apples) have dark-green skins covered in short spines.
| Custard apple |
Date - whole dates are served as a dessert; stoned dates are used in various sweet dishes and petits fours.
Dragon fruit - yellow or pink; pink are larger, about 10 cm long and covered with pointed green-tipped scales.
Durian - large fruit that can weigh up to 4.5 kg; round or oval, have a woolly olive-green outer layer covered with stubby, sharp pikes, which turn yellow as they ripen; contains creamy white flesh with the fruit ripens.
Fig - fresh figs may be served as a first course or dessert; dried figs may be used for fig puddings and other sweet dishes.
Granadilla - largest members of the passion fruit family; like an orange in shape and color, light in weight and similar to a passion fruit in the flavor.
Grape - black and white grapes are used as a dessert, in fruit salad, as a sweetmeat and also as a fish garnish.
Guava - vary in size between that of a walnut to that of an apple; ripe guavas have a sweet pink flesh and can be eaten with cream or mixed with other fruits.
Jackfruit - related to breadfruit; the large, irregularly shaped oval fruits can weigh up to 20 kg; they have a rough spiny skin, which ripens from green to brown.
Jujube - also known as Chinese jujubes, apples or dates; small greeny-brown fruit.
Kiwano - also known as horned melon, horned cucumber or jelly melon; the oval fruits have thick, bright golden-orange skin covered with sharp spikes. The skin conceals a bright green, jelly-like flesh, encasing edible seeds, rather like passion fruit.
Kiwi fruit - have brown furry skin; the flesh is green with edible black seeds that, when thinly sliced, gives a pleasant decorative appearance.
| Kiwi fruit |
Loquat - native to China and South Japan, also known as Japanese medlar. They have a sweet scent and a delicate mango-like flavor.
Lychee - a Chinese fruit with a delicate flavor, obtainable tinned in syrup and also fresh.
Mango - can be as large as a melon or as small as an apple; rioe mangoes have smooth pinky-golden flesh with a pleasing flavor; they may be served in halves sprinkled with lemon juice, sugar, rum or ginger; mangoes can also be used in fruit salads and for sorbets.
Mangostine - apple-shaped with tough reddish-brown skin, which turns purple as the fruit ripens; they have juicy creamy flesh.
Maracoya - also known as yellow passion fruit. Vibrant green with a thick shiny skin, which turns yellow as it ripens. Inside orange pulp enclosing hard grey seeds.
Passion fruit - the name comes from the flower of the plant, which is meant to represent the Passion of Christ; size and shape of an egg with crinkled purple-brown skin when ripe; flesh and seeds are all edible. Has many uses in pastry work.
Pawpaw (papaya) - green to golden skin, orangey flesh with a sweet subtle flavor and black seeds; eaten raw sprinkled with lime or lemon juice. Served with crab or prawns and mayonnaise as a first course.
| Pawpaw (papaya) |
Pepino - smooth golden skin heavily streaked with purple, sometimes called a tree melon. Native to Peru.
Parsimmon - a round orange-red fruit with a tough skin, which can be cut when thr fruit is ripe; when under-ripe they have an unpleasant acid-like taste of tannin.
Pineapple - served as a dessert; also used in many sweet dishes and as a garnish to certain meat dishes.
| Pineapple |
Pomegranate - apple-shaped fruit with leathery reddish-brown skin, and a large calyx or crown. Inside in a mass of creamy-white edible seeds, each encased in a tiny translucent juice sac.
Prickly pear - also known as ‘Indian fig’. Fruit of the cactus. Skin is covered in prickles. Greenish-orange skin and orangey-pink flesh with a melon-like texture.
Rambutan - related to the lychee, sometimes known as hairy lychees.
Rhubarb - forced or early rhubarb is obtainable from January; natural rhubarb from April-June; used for pies, puddings, fools, and compotes.
Sapodilla - oval fruit from Central America. Light brown skin, the flesh is sweet, with inedible hard black pips.
Sharon fruit - a seedless persimmon tasting like a sweet exotic peach.
Snake fruit - large member of the lychee family, the creamy flesh is divided into four segments each encasing a very large inedible brownstone.
Tamarillo - known as the ‘tree tomato’, large egg-shaped fruits with thick, smooth wine-red skins. Each fruit has two lobes containing a multitude of black seeds.
Tamarind - red, egg-shaped, flavor a mix of tomato, apricot and coconut, used in sweet dishes and salads.