18.2 Grapes, melons, pomes and exotics

Exotics

Better transport has made unusual fruits easier to find, though supply can still be patchy. Figs, persimmons, pomegranates, prickly pears, rhubarb and star fruit are now fairly common. Breadfruit, durian, feijoa and loquat still come mostly from specialist suppliers.

• Figs grow on ficus trees. They are small, soft and pear-shaped, very sweet, with a rich, moist flesh full of crunchy tiny seeds. Slice them into a salad or serve them beside prosciutto and other cured meats, or bake or poach them, or cook them into jams and compotes. Dark Mission figs have thin skins and small seeds. Among the light-skinned kinds, the White Adriatic is mostly dried or baked and the Kadota is all-purpose. The large, yellow Calimyrna, with big nutty seeds, is the most important home-grown fig in the United States and the best for eating fresh. Figs taste best fully ripened on the tree, but ripe figs are so soft they travel badly.
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• Gooseberries come in several farmed kinds. The European gooseberry is part of the currant family and grows on spiny bushes. Its berries are usually under 1 inch (2.5 cm) across, with a firm skin that may be green, gray-green, yellow or red, and a sour taste. They are eaten fresh, made into jellies, preserves and tarts, or served beside rich, fatty foods like goose or mackerel. The North American kinds are smaller and rounder and have less flavor.
• Cape gooseberries (also called physalis, ground cherries or poha) are no relation to other gooseberries. Each is about the size of a cherry, wrapped in a papery husk, with a waxy, bright orange skin. They taste a little like coconut and orange, but more sour. Eat them raw, make them into jam, or use them in desserts; fresh, they make a striking garnish.
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• Guava is small, oval or shaped like a pear, strongly scented, with mild, slightly gritty flesh. It makes excellent jams and preserves, and guava paste, a firm gel you can slice, is popular in Central America and the Caribbean. Guava ripens at room temperature and tastes best when it is a little soft.
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• Lychees (also spelled litchi) grow on a large tree that first grew in southern China and Southeast Asia. They are round to oval, red, and about 1 inch (2.5 cm) across. A tough skin covers juicy white flesh around one big seed; you eat neither the skin nor the seed. They are eaten fresh or juiced, and are easy to buy canned or dried.
• Rambutans are close cousins of the lychee, bright red and covered in long, soft spines, which earns them the name "hairy lychees". They darken as they age, so choose bright fruit with soft, fleshy spines.
• Mangosteens (no relation to mangoes) are about as big as a small orange. They have a hard, deep red-purple rind. Inside, the snow-white flesh sits in segments, juicy and slightly astringent. They ripen only on the tree and keep a short time, so they are usually eaten fresh.
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• Persimmons, also called kaki or Sharon fruit, are bright orange and shaped like an acorn. A ripe one is very soft, with a skin you can almost see through, and a jelly-like flesh that tastes of honey and plums. Peel them and remove any seeds. An under-ripe persimmon is close to inedible: it is strongly tannic and chalky. Refrigerate them only once they are fully ripe.
• Pomegranates came from Persia, now Iran. Under a hard pink-red shell, hundreds of small red seeds sit in juicy pulp, divided by a yellow membrane you do not eat. The seeds are sweet-sour and crunchy and make a bright garnish. Grenadine syrup is made from the concentrated juice. Choose heavy fruit that is not rock-hard, cracked or badly bruised; whole pomegranates keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.
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• Prickly pears, also called cactus pears or Barbary figs, are the berries of several cacti. Their thick skin carries small spines and almost invisible stinging hairs, so they must be peeled. The pink-red flesh is sweet and spongy, with small black seeds. Dice it raw, or purée it for jams, sauces, custards or sorbets, which it turns bright pink. Ripe ones keep a week or more in the refrigerator.
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• Rhubarb is a vegetable to a botanist but is cooked as a fruit. Only the pink-red stalks are eaten. The leaves are poisonous, because they are high in oxalic acid. The stalks are very sour and need a lot of sugar. Cinnamon, ginger, orange and strawberry suit rhubarb well, and it makes fine pies, cobblers, preserves and stews. Young stalks need no peeling. Choose crisp stalks without marks. Frozen rhubarb works well in pies, tarts and jams.
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• Star fruit, or carambola, has five ribs down its length, so a slice is shaped like a star. The waxy skin can be eaten, and it needs no peeling or seeding. It tastes mildly sweet, a little like plums. Slice it into fruit salads or use it as a garnish; unripe ones can go into stews or chutneys. A ripe star fruit is deep golden-yellow, with brown along the edges of the ribs and a full, flowery smell. Green ones ripen at room temperature and then keep up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Grapes

Most of the world's grapes become wine, but cooks deal with table grapes, grown for eating. Grapes are berries that hang in large bunches on vines. They are sorted by color: "white" grapes are really green, and "black" grapes are really red. White grapes usually taste milder, with thinner skins and firmer flesh. Most of a grape's color and flavor is in its skin.

Grapes are mostly eaten raw, on their own or in fruit salads, or served with desserts and cheese. Choose firm, unmarked grapes held tightly to the stem. A dusty bloom on the skin comes from yeasts and means the grapes were picked recently. Wrinkles, or brown spots near the stem, mean they are past their best. Rinse and drain all grapes before you use them.

• Thompson Seedless is the most important table grape in trade: pale green, crisp and sweet. Many are sun-dried in California to make dark raisins. For golden raisins, the grapes are treated with sulfur dioxide so they do not brown, then dried by machine.
• Red Flame is a large, round, seedless grape with a slightly sour taste and patchy red color, second in importance only to Thompson Seedless.
• Concord, Ribier and Emperor are the main grapes with seeds, light red to deep black, all in season in autumn. Concord, one of the few grapes native to the Americas, is used mostly for juice and jelly.
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• Dried grapes go by three names: raisins (often from Thompson Seedless or Muscat), currants (from Black Corinth grapes, sold as Zante currants) and sultanas (from sultana grapes).
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Melons

Melons belong to the gourd family, with pumpkins and cucumbers. There are two broad kinds. Sweet melons, also called dessert melons, have a tan, green or yellow rind that is netted or ridged, and dense, scented flesh, with seeds in a hollow in the middle. Watermelons have a thick, dark green rind and crisp, watery flesh.

A melon is almost 90 percent water, so heat ruins it fast and turns it to mush. Serve melon sliced, perhaps with a squeeze of lemon or lime. It also suits fruit salads, and prosciutto or other rich cured meats. It can also be puréed into a sorbet or a cold soup that is never cooked.

Melons should ripen on the vine. Press the blossom end, the end opposite the stem: a ripe melon gives a little and springs back, and it smells strong. Avoid melons that are very soft or damp at the stem end. Ripe melons can go in the refrigerator, though they taste better at room temperature, and slightly under-ripe ones can sit at room temperature to build flavor and aroma.

Pomes

Apples grow in temperate places all over the world. You can eat them raw, or use them in breads, desserts and vegetable dishes, and they suit pork, poultry and game. Classic apple dishes often carry the name à la Normande. Apple juice, or cider, becomes drinks with and without alcohol, and cider vinegar.

There are hundreds of apple varieties, but only about 20 matter in trade in the United States. Most have creamy white, moist flesh under a thin yellow, green or red skin. They run from very sweet to very sour, and from crisp to soft and mealy.

Choosing an apple for cooking is about what you want at the end:

• In Europe, apples are split into eating apples and cooking apples. A cooking apple is one that falls apart into a purée when cooked. American apples are not sorted so strictly.
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• When the look of the slices matters, pick an apple that holds its shape.
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• Apples high in malic acid break down easily, so they suit applesauce and juice.

Apples are picked slightly under-ripe and kept in cold storage with very little oxygen until they are sold. That is why fresh apples are found all year, though their true season is autumn.

Buying and keeping apples:

• Look for firm fruit with smooth, unbroken skin and no soft spots or bruises.
• Throw out badly bruised or rotting apples at once: they give off a lot of ethylene gas, which makes the fruit around them spoil faster.
• Keep apples chilled for up to 6 weeks.
• Wash them just before use, peeled or not, to remove pesticide and any wax put on to make them shine.
• Sliced apples can also be dried, or frozen, often with added sugar or citric acid to slow spoilage.

Pears are an ancient tree fruit of temperate lands. Thousands of varieties are known, but only about a dozen matter in trade. Two of the best known:

• Anjou (Beurre d'Anjou): greenish-yellow skin, egg-shaped with a short neck, sweet and juicy. A red kind is also sold.
• Bartlett (Williams): thin yellow skin, bell-shaped, very sweet, buttery and juicy. A red kind is also sold.

Pears are eaten raw, baked or poached. They are very good with cheese, blue cheese above all, and in fruit salads, compotes and preserves. Pears do not ripen well on the tree, so they are picked firm and left to soften. Under-ripe pears can sit at room temperature. A ripe pear smells good and gives a little when you press gently near the stem. Choose pears with smooth, unbroken skin and the stem still on. Store and prepare them as you would apples.

Asian pears, also called Chinese pears or apple-pears, are a different species. They have the sweet juice of a pear with the round shape and crunch of an apple.

Quince looks like a big, lumpy yellow pear, hard and full of pips, with a lovely scent. It is too astringent to eat raw. Cooked with sugar, it turns sweet and pink. Quince goes into meat stews, jellies, marmalades and pies. It is high in pectin, so a little added to other fruit helps a jam set. Choose firm fruit with good yellow color; cut away small marks before cooking. Quince keeps up to a month in the refrigerator.