Taste some tropical fruit!

Now that Winter is well and truly on the horizon all those lovely fresh fruits of summer are disappearing. Although I usually try and buy fruit that is grown locally, in Winter you sometimes have to cast your net further to much hotter climes like South America and Africa, because even in Spain where the orange and lemon trees are in full fruit, it is too bitter and only suitable for cooking.

I love those boxes of easy peel Satsumas currently in the shops (my daughter used to be able to peel them in her pocket during lessons with one hand) and fresh figs are sometimes available but its a good opportunity to try something a bit different.  Of course some fruits are no longer so exotic.  Mango is one of my favourites but I'm not sure it can be considered unusual these days, the same with Pineapples, Kiwis and probably Pomegrantes.  I remember trying the awful smelling Durian Fruit in Singapore once, it tasted OK but for some reason never took off over here!  A friend gave me some Sharon Fruit the other day, a fruit she used to love to eat growing up in Algeria (top on the photos).  Here we know it as Persimmon too and its easy to cut as it has no hard core.  I thought it tasted a little like a mild pear and it offset the tangy mango quite well on my fruit plate.  I also tried Papaya or Pawpaw (the yellow one in the top photo) which has a lot of black pips to scoop out first (you can eat them but they are quite bitter and peppery).  It is much used in Thai cooking but raw it doesn't smell very appetising close up although the taste is quite mild.  Together they made a delicious healthy finish to a meal, full of antioxidants and vitamins.  My favourite though will always be the mango.

Mind you exotic is a matter of opinion, my father-in-law recalls seeing a banana for the first time as a child after the war and biting into it skin and all which he thought disgusting and wondered why there was such a fuss about them being back in the shops!