By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

Here on the Jabbo Homestead, we enjoy strange fruit. And I don't mean the kind hanging from southern poplar trees.

We've already delved into the world of blood oranges and apple cider, which I think, regardless of what your doctor tells you, should count as a daily serving of fruit. We tried mangoes, which are devilish to cut, and papaya. We couldn't decide if the papaya tasted sweet and delicious or like vomit and bubblegum. It was a toss up.

Here's the good stuff.

Star Fruit
Carambola. A native of south and southeast Asia. We started growing them domestically in Florida as recently as the 1970s.

I've heard the texture described as similar to either an apple or a grape. People say it tastes like an apple, a pear, or a nondescript citrus. To me it has the taste and texture of a star fruit. You'll just have to try one.

To prepare it, you lop off either end and stand it upright, like you would a honeydew, then slice the edges off the lobes. Then slice it up and serve it. This is an expensive fruit, at least in Illinois, but so tasty.

Red Bananas
Red Daccas. Quite a bit different from the standard yellow Cavendish you're used to seeing in stores.

Funny story about that. Up until the 1950s, the predominant banana eaten by Americans was the Big Mike (Gros Michel). Big Mikes are fat and round (sorry, Kirk Cameron, so much for the ridges... also, in other countries, they eat the banana from what we consider the bottom, which is actually the top). If you remember pictures of the fruit salad on Carmen Miranda's head, those are Big Mikes. In the 1950s, most of the Big Mike trees in South America were wiped out by a fungus called Panama Disease. Which is the problem with growing a monoculture, that is, relying entirely on a single genetic strain of a food crop. See also Potato Blight. The Cavendish bananas were seemingly resistant to the Panama Disease fungus and they filled the vaccuum.

Today, bananas are still one of our favorite fruits. In fact, Walmart stores sell more bananas than any other item.

Red Daccas are a cultivar of Cavendish, only they're red and the flesh, when ripe, is pink. These took forever to ripen. They aren't as obvious as their yellow cousins. You have to squeeze them. They can turn black and still be green inside. These sat on my counter for a week and then I put them in a paper bag for almost another week before they turned soft.

But then they were delicious. Like the blood oranges, they had a faint hint of raspberry in the aftertaste. Aine thought they just tasted like bananas, though. She was not impressed.

Strawberry Pizza
Since we are now the proud owners of a pizza stone and a pizza peel, we decided to make pizza pretty much all the time. The dough takes an hour and a half to make in the bread maker, but after that it's a matter of rolling it out, slapping the ingredients on it, and heating it up. So, like twenty minutes total. It's one of the easiest meals to make if you plan ahead.

I found a recipe for Strawberry Basil and Balsamic Pizza on Cookie and Kate.

Instead of the balsamic reduction, we used balsamic vinaigrette, and instead of goat cheese we used feta. But you just sprinkle mozzarella and feta over the top, slice up fresh strawberries and spread them on like pepperoni. Then when it comes out, you add the fresh basil and sprinkle on the balsamic liquid of your choice.

It sounds weird, but it gets five stars. Delicious.