Fruit recipes

The Cashew Apple or Nut (Anacardium occidentale) bears its seeds outside of the pulp and both parts are used as food, the nut being roasted like chestnuts or used for flavouring, in the making of chocolate or wine. Itis said, however, that care must be taken in roasting the kernel, as from its thin covering a peculiar vapour rises which is apt to affect the skin. The pulp or stalk of the fruit proper is pleasantly tart and varies in both colour and size radically. The red fruit of the Akee Tree, the Cupania sapida, is not considered quite safe to eat uncooked, but cooked, stewed, or otherwise prepared, is both palatable and wholesome. The Mangrove, or Riuzophora, one of the hour-glass-like guardians of the seashore in the tropics, has an edible fruit, sweet and pleasant in flavour, which may be varied in preparation; and the juice, fermented, makes an acceptable light wine. The Carambola (Averrhoa carambola) is also sometimes called the Coromandel Gooseberry in India. It is curiously formed, with five distinct ribs or angles; has a thin, smooth coat, generally yellow in colour, and is about the size of a ‘duck-egg. The flavour ranges from sweet to acid so that it is used variously, for desserts or preserves, cooked or not as rendered necessary by its flavour. The Averrhoa Bilimbt, or Blimbling, is a similar fruit but generally more acid. The leaves of both resemble those of the sensitive plant in irritability. The Emblic Myrobolan (Phyllanthus emblica) is a beautiful plant with delicate leaves, a fruit similar to the plum and equally edible in simple or preserved form. The Durian or Durion (Durio zibethinus: Nat. Ord. Sterculiacee), is a remarkable Malay fruit. The tree is tall and spreading, the fruit, rounding yet oval, ‘‘the size of a man’s head,” is light green and covered with spines. It takes nine months to ripen and the odour from it is very offensive to Europeans till accustomed to it. The creamy pulp, somewhat like a strawberry in flavour, is delicious and contains large seeds, edible when roasted. The Nephelium longanum, or Longan Tree, is handsomely leaved and clustered with fruit, the latter having one large seed in the centre with sweet, translucent pulp surrounding it. It is a near relative of the famous Chinese nut-tree, the Nephelium Litcht (or Leechee), which loses its pink colour (of pulp) when dried and so reaches other countries in brown, shrivelled form. The Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) is semi-tropical but will grow as far north as Ireland. The tree, flowers and berries are all very ornamental and from the edible fruit both sugar and a fermented liquor are made. In Italy and Spain the berries are much liked. The Otaheite Apple, or Spondias dulcis, is a fruitbearing tree whose ‘‘apples’’ are in colour and size like small oranges and in flavour resemble the pineapple. The Otaheite Plum, or ‘‘Jamaica” or ‘‘Hog-Plum” (Spondias lutea or S. cytheria) is related to the Otaheite Apple but its fruit more nearly resembles the larger Loquat (‘Japan Plum”’). The Ximenia Americana is also often called the ‘‘ Hog- Plum”’ and is also an edible, though a smaller fruit. The Adansonia digitata or ‘‘Baobob,’’ known best in Africa, is commonly called ‘‘Monkey’s Bread.’’ The oval [illustration: Tamarind Tree and Mulgoba Mango] fruit is nearly afoot long. The pulp, which is ‘‘a little farinaceous, mixed with fibres,’’ is tart and wholesome and so distinctly refrigerant that it is often given fever patients. The Bengal Quince, Elephant Apple, or Apple-boom