Cooked quince has a sweet, delicate musky aroma with a flavor somewhere between an apple and a pear. Quince is often used in jams, jellies, and preserves. You can also use quince in cobblers or tarts or add it cubed to beef stew or roast poultry. The quince is not good to eat raw. Give […] More
The guava is a large plum-sized tropical fruit with yellow, red, or purple-black skin. Guava can be round or pear-shaped and look a bit like a quince. The guava stands 2 to 3 inches tall. Its sweet, aromatic flesh can be yellow or bright pink, or red and is moist and sometimes embedded with small, […] More
Fannie Farmer’s cookbook has been around since 1896. It gets to the essence of mango preparation when it suggests: “Cut in half lengthwise and remove the stone. Eat with a spoon.” The mango—many would say–is the world’s most delicious fruit. Its delicate flavor is a cross between a pear and an apricot. Or is that […] More
Apriums are juicy, sweet eating out of hand. An aprium is a hybrid fruit—¾ apricot and ¼ plum. The aprium is bright orange on the outside with just a hint of skin fuzz. Its bright orange flesh is dense and surrounds a stone similar to an apricot’s. The aprium is about the size of a […] More
The flesh of the pineapple is sweet and juicy and is best eaten raw in slices, wedges, or cubes. Pineapple harvest season The peak season for pineapple is late spring to mid-summer. How to choose pineapple Select a pineapple that is plump, large, heavy for its size, and slightly soft to the touch, with fresh […] More
Cranberries are bright red to reddish-orange berries that grow to about ¾ inch in diameter. The cranberry plant is a low-growing trailing vine that grows best in low-lying sandy bogs. Cranberries are native to North America and northern Europe and take their name from the shape of their pale pink blossoms that resemble the heads […] More
The stalks of lemongrass are commonly used in the kitchen. Lemongrass is a subtropical plant. Lemongrass is flavorful fresh rather than dry. It is popular in Southeast Asian cookery. It can be used to season soups, vegetables, curries, poultry, shellfish, fish, and marinades. Use lemongrass to make herbal teas. Lemongrass is a member of the […] More
There are bananas for eating out of hand, and there are bananas for cooking, and then there are bananas for eating out of hand and for cooking. If you think of a banana as simply a long, tapered, yellow fruit then you are missing out on some very colorful and very tasty bananas. Some bananas […] More
There are all different, shapes, sizes, and colors of plums to be tried. Ripe plums can range in texture from firm to slightly soft. They can range in flavor from deliciously sweet to tasty- tart. Plums can be pink, red, scarlet, purple, blue-black, green, yellow, or amber-skinned. Their flesh can be yellow, green, pink, red, […] More
The prickly pear is a cactus fruit that is actually a berry. The pulp of the prickly pear is sweet and moist with an aroma and flavor similar to a combination of the tastiest tropical and subtropical fruits, strawberry, watermelon, honeydew melon, fig, and banana. The salmon or pink to magenta-colored flesh of the prickly […] More
Olives are fruits. They are either cured for table consumption or pressed for cooking oil. Black olives are ripe. Green olives are not. Green olives have a salty, tart taste. Black olives have a smooth, mellow taste. Ways to serve olives Olive fruit is most often served as an appetizer or added to salads, meat, […] More
Olive oil is made by gently crushing and pressing olives until the oil is separated from the fruit pulp. The flesh of a ripe olive is about half oil. When the skin of a just ripe olive is broken, the first oil to flow from the flesh is called “virgin”, “sublime” or “first expressed” oil. […] More
Stephen Albert