There’s no better time than now with our majestic trees across the island laden with fruits to get those delicious fruit salads going; add fruit such as pineapple to your savoury dishes and simply eat as much as you can. Nothing is as satisfying as eating produce in its natural season and at its peak flavour. Various fruits have a myriad of taste factors, from very sweet, to refreshing, to tangy and sour to fresh on the palate. Textures differ as well, from crunchy apples, firm mangoes to gritty naseberries. Fruits can be eaten alone or combined with others. I’ve often heard that when preparing fruits you ought to stick to one specific type of fruit, acidic or alkaline. I was told never to mix the two, but we constantly do. I really should do more research in order to fully understand the reasoning behind this. I also know that some people cannot eat fruit too late in the evening, as they find it difficult to digest.

As I mentioned last week, we need to have at least two to three servings of fruit in our daily nutritional intake as they are rich in the vitamins and minerals our bodies need. Other ways to incorporate fruit outside of juicing or eating in their natural state is by making smoothies and cutting them up into cereal. They are great as a snack for a sugar fix instead of reaching for chocolate or candy. Most fruits are adaptable for culinary uses; however, nothing beats peeling or biting into a freshly picked fruit, unadorned and in its purest state. If you do not have any fruit trees in your garden, plant one today.

Juicy Chef’s Asian Style Coconut Banana Fritters

Luckily, we have bananas all year round and some of the most delicious in the world to boot! Try these Asian-styled fritters which are prepared differently to our Jamaican ones, but just as delicious. An old classmate from the Philippines taught me how to make these. Typically they are made with rice flour which you can find in some health food stores, but all-purpose flour will suffice if you can’t access it. Make them extra special with the addition of sesame seeds or lime peel or ginger.

Ingredients:

6 ripe bananas cut into halves (sliced lengthways)

2 tbsps desiccated coconut

400ml/2 cups coconut milk

250g/1 cup rice flour

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsps caster sugar

1 level tsp baking powder

Light vegetable oil for frying

Icing sugar for dusting

Vanilla ice cream for serving

Method:

Prepare batter with desiccated coconut, coconut milk, rice flour, sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder, whisk to incorporate until smooth and then rest for at least 30 minutes.

Fill a large frying pan with enough oil to immerse the fritters, eyeball it depending on the size of your bananas. Dip banana slices into coconut batter and deep-fry until golden brown about three minutes in batches, remove and drain on kitchen paper.

Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm in bowls with vanilla ice cream

Juicy Chef’s Tart with Naseberries

I just received a glut of naseberries from the countryside. I confess that I never used to like them because of their gritty texture, but as I’ve matured my palate has grown to appreciate this butterscotch caramel-like-flavoured fruit with its brown sugar-like grit. I’ve been feeling lazy of late, so this is pretty straightforward.

Ingredients:

Naseberries

Prepared custard

Pastry shell

Mixed spice

Method:

Preheat oven to 350ºF

Half-bake tart shell according to package directions

Peel and slice naseberries

Pour prepared custard in baked tart shell

Top with arranged naseberries, sprinkle with mixed spice and bake until fruits are caramelised and pastry is fully cooked.

Serve warm from the oven.

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Bon Appétit!!