Rambutan, scientific name: Nephelium lappaceum, is a plant from the family Sapindaceae, which is actually a family familiar to us as several previous posts have fruits from this family, with ackee being one and another fruit likely familiar to you, lychee. The name comes from the Malay word “rambut” which refers to the hairy appearance of the fruit. Rambutan is widely cultivated in Southeast Asia, where it is a popular snack amongst those living there. Over the past few centuries, the fruit has spread throughout other tropical regions in the world, including the tropical Americas.

Rambutan is purported to have several health benefits, including helping dry lips, promoting good digestion, reducing bad cholesterol, helping to rejuvenate skin and cultivating healthy hair. They contain plenty of healthy fibers, carbs, proteins, and multiple vitamins. While the seed and the peel of the rambutan may also contain rich nutrients, not many people eat them and in fact, they may be poisonous if consumed in large amounts, so best to avoid the seed and peel. Altogether, the rambutan could be a healthy addition to one’s diet.

Luckily, this hairy,golf ball sized, neon red fruit happens to taste really good. The white, creamy flesh inside is generally what is eaten, and it’s said that it tastes like a cross between a fresh date and a grape, having the tanginess of the grape and a slight bitterness like that of a fresh date. As someone who has not eaten a rambutan but has eaten a lychee before, it would be interesting to taste and compare the two, considering they are from the same family and share some similarities in looks. Rambutans can be eaten on their own, or they can be added to curries, desserts, smoothies, etc., making it a versatile fruit.

Speaking of which, this week’s recipe will be a “Summer Rambutan Curry” from Selina Wamucii. This one is kind of long, but it looks like it’s going to be worth it.

Summer Rambutan Curry

Ingredients

• 8 rambutans
• 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
• 4 torn kaffir lime leaves
• 4 roughly-chopped garlic cloves
• 3 stemmed, red Thai chiles
• 1 smashed stalk lemongrass with fiber outer layers removed and thinly-sliced inner core.
• 1-inch piece galangal root that is well peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon of peanut oil
• Half small pineapple, which is peeled, cored, and cut into small 1-inch cubes
• 1 medium and thinly-sliced yellow onion
• 2 ½ cups of coconut milk
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
• 1 pound of skinless chicken breasts and that are thinly-sliced
• 2 teaspoons of palm sugar
• Cilantro leaves to garnish
• cooked white rice lime wedges and for serving

Directions

• With a pestle and mortar, pound the chiles, garlic, , lime leaves, galangal, and lemongrass with the turmeric until it forms a coarse curry paste. Take a small paring knife and use it to cut the rambutans into half and then peel away their outer shell. Discard the soft flesh from the center nut, but ensure that you avoid the papery skin surrounding it. Put the flesh in a bowl.

• Take a saucepan and use to heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high. Add the pineapple and then cook for about 4 minutes while stirring until it is slightly caramelized. Use a slotted spoon and transfer the pineapple to a plate. Add the remaining one tablespoon of oil and onions into the pan. Cook while stirring until it is golden brown for about 4 minutes. Take the curry paste, add it to the mixture, and stir until fragrant for about 2 minutes or more.

• Pour the coconut milk and stock and bring it to boil. Reduce the heat and maintain a simmer as you cook while stirring for about 20 minutes until reduced by half. Stir in the chicken and then continue to simmer until it’s well cooked for 8 minutes. Add the rambutans and pineapple and cook for about 2 minutes until the fruit is warmed.

• Remove the curry from the heat and then stir in the fish sauce, as well as palm sugar. Garnish with cilantro and then serve immediately with rice and lime wedges.

Araza, one of of my favorite names so far, is a fruit in the guava family that originated in Brazil and Peru. It has a scientific name of Eugenia stipitata, being named after Francois Eugene, and Austrian general in the 17th century who was a patron of the arts and sciences. Funnily enough, this is one of the few fruits on this blog that have not become a commercial crop and spread throughout other similar climates in the world. In fact, even people native to the Amazon did not seem to create widespread use of the fruit. However, it must be considered that araza grows best when left in the wild, rather than cultivated. As a result the fruit is often known as “Amazonian guava“.

The fruit is small, yellow, and as I said above, acidic. It is one of the most sour fruits that mankind knows of, which to be honest, sounds right up my alley as I love, LOVE sour things. You might ask, isn’t that basically what a lemon is? Well, not really. They look completely different for one, with araza being way more fleshy and pulpy.  Also, araza is more delicate than the lemon, which makes it harder to ship around the world. Due to its high acidic content, it ends up mostly being used for culinary purposes, meaning used as part of the cooking process rather than being able to be eaten raw. The fruit is a good source of vitamins and minerals, having a particularly high content of nitrogen and potassium. There is also some research that supports the fruit helping control blood pressure and could help prevent cancer.

The tree that this fruit comes from produces fruit year round and there end up being four harvests total during the year, the same life cycle as guava has. Most fruits are added while they are still green in order to have the longest shelf life possible. In South America, araza can be found primarily in the forms of jams, jellies, syrups, ice creams, and liquors. It is also commonly used in order to enhance flavor while cooking, again, much like the lemon.

This week’s recipe is a nice, spicy Araza Hot Pepper Jelly created by Barry from Kimberly Beck’s blog.

Araza Fruit Hot Pepper Jelly

Ingredients

2 cup Araza (peeled and de-seeded)
1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
3 Habanero Peppers (use gloves when de-seeding these can burn your skin and eyes)
4 cups Sugar
3 Limes (juiced)

The directions for this one are pretty easy: put everything in a big pot and cook it down. After 30 minutes, put a small amount on a cold name in the freezer. If the small amount thickens, the whole mixture is ready to jar and enjoy!

This week’s fruit goes by the lovely name of Atemoya, and has the most interesting scientific name I’ve come across all of the research I have done for this blog: Annona × atemoya, or Annona squamosa × Annona cherimola . Atemoya is in fact a combination of two fruits, which are the sugar apple and the cherimoya. Both of these fruits are native to the American tropics. The first atemoya was bred by horticulturist P.J. Wester in 1908. While it can be created in the wild, self pollination is rare and hand pollination will almost always guarantee superior fruit. It eventually spread to the Philippines, South America, Israel, Egypt, and other tropical places throughout the world.

It’s gained different names throughout each country that it has spread through. In Taiwan, where it is very popular, it is called, after translating, “pineapple sugar apple”. In Israel, it is called annona, like the scientific name for it. In Lebanon, it is called achta, and in Brazil, it is called by the name we call it here, atemoya.

Atemoyas are round and heart-shaped, and can weigh up to five pounds, a pretty heavy weight for a fruit if you ask me. Fruits produced by the atemoya tree have easily bruised skin that is spiky, warty, and green. The flesh inside is white and it tastes slightly sour and sweet with a vanilla undertone. A characteristic it shares with the cherimoya, one of its parent fruits, is that the flesh inside is one whole section which is ideal for scooping out as compared to the flesh of its other parent, the sugar apple, whose flesh is in segments. The skin and seeds of atemoya are toxic, so no matter how tempting the shiny black seeds are, do not eat. Atemoya can be eaten on its own or frozen and added on top of ice creams and puddings.

With that being said, in honor of the one 60°F day we had this week before temperatures plummeted once again, this week’s recipe shall be an Atemoya Lime Sorbet, which will come from Melissa Pellegrino at Fine Cooking. Her recipe is actually for a Cherimoya Lime Sorbet, but the two fruits when used in recipes are pretty much interchangeable due to their similar taste and texture.

Atemoya Lime Sorbet

Ingredients

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 to 3 large ripe atemoyas (about 3-1/2 lb.)

2-1/2 Tbs. fresh lime juice

1/2 tsp. finely grated lime zest

Sea salt

Directions

1. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine 1 cup water with the sugar and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let the sugar syrup cool completely, about 15 minutes.

2. Cut the atemoyas into quarters, scoop out the flesh with a spoon, and discard the seeds. In a food processor, purée the atemoya flesh until smooth. (You will need 3 cups of purée.)

3. Add the lime juice, zest, sugar syrup, and a generous pinch of salt and pulse to combine.

4. Transfer the sorbet mixture to a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until completely chilled, about 2 hours. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

There are definitely ways to make sorbet without an ice cream maker, so don’t be afraid to try this delicious recipe, and be prepared to eat a lot of it!

That’s the sound of the scream you’ll make if you see this suspiciously demogorgon looking fruit in the dark, or maybe as you observe the fruit looking at you with its “eyes” !   Ackee belongs to the Sapindaceae (soapberry) family, and its scientific name, Blighia sapida, comes from Captain William Bligh who took the fruit from Jamaica to the Royal Botanical Gardens in London in 1793. Originating in West Africa, it spread throughout tropical regions such as the Caribbean, southern Florida, and Central America.The common name ackee comes from its name in the Ghanaian Twi language, akiye.

Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica, and you might have heard of it in reference to the popular Jamaican dish of ackee and saltfish. The dish has many nutrients that were the most easily accessible to Jamaicans. Ackee has a lot of fibre, protein, and vitamin C, which made it, along with saltfish, one of the best meals for enslaved peoples in Jamaica to eat while working on plantations. Over the years, it has become a popular breakfast and lunch food. Other uses for ackee include using the seed and pods to make soaps in West Africa and some use it as medicine.

The fruit grows on evergreen trees and year round in Jamaica, which allows Jamaicans to enjoy their national dish year round. When the fruit is ripe, it’s skin is bright red and easily split open to reveal the cream colored flesh, called aril along with large black seeds. The aril is what is eatern. Unripe ackee fruit, on the other hand, is extremely poisonous, to the extent that the US has banned most ackee products for the past 30 years. To eat ackee, separate the flesh from the sink and seeds and rinse extremely well before eating. When used in cooking, ackee is used more like a vegetable than a fruit and is often incorporated into more savory dishes.

Of course this week’s recipe has to be none other than Jamaican ackee and saltfish, which this week comes from Charla at “That Girl Cooks Healthy”.

Jamaican Ackee and Saltfish