paws and pantry

It is probably best to eat fruits in season since they are at their freshest.  But in the middle of the winter, the “fruits in season” section is pretty scant. Now markets stock fruits in or out of season all year long, so that you can enjoy strawberries, cherries and mangoes anytime.  Don’t expect the midsummer refreshing taste, however.

What should we do if we’ve been enticed into buying a mango in January and it tastes hard and sour?  Throwing out is a complete waste, especially since you paid more for it this time of year. My solution: try cooking with it.

Here is a list of ideas for sour, unripened, unwanted, or way-past-due-date fruits:

• Mangoes: Mango goes well with most type of meats and seafood since it gives them some tartness.  Also, cooking allows you to add honey or sugar to sweeten or lemon juice to tenderize the mango.  Try cutting it into slices and stir-frying it with some chicken and onions.  You can also make a mango salsa, which can be served with seafood as an entree, or tortilla chips as a snack.
• Bananas:  Over-ripened bananas are unsightly but edible.  They are perfect for making banana bread because of its sweetness and mushiness.
• Apples:  Apples are available all year-round and they can last for a long time.  But at some point, they lose their freshness and crispness. When that happens, they are great for cooking. Since cooked apples become mushy anyway, using powdery apples beyond its peak time is fine.  You can make apple pie, apple tart and apple pancakes.  They also go well in oatmeal with some cinnamon and brown sugar.  For entree dishes, baked apples and pork chops make a wonderful combination.
• Pineapples:  I love pineapples but they don’t last once they ripen, especially during this time of year.  So use it up quickly.  But if you are done eating fresh pineapple chunks and are now left with half a pineapple, you can reserve that for cooking.  Try pineapple fried rice with shrimp.  Pineapple and chicken also goes well together in a dish.
• Oranges/Tangerines/Grapefruit:  If you have more oranges than you care to eat, you can juice them. Fresh-squeezed orange juice tastes better than your Tropicana.  It can also be used as a sauce base for meats such as chicken, duck or beef.  Finally, peeled orange, tangerine or grapefruit slices go well with salads.  Just toss them in with some olive oil and you won’t even need to add dressing.

Let me stress this point:  there is a big difference between overripe and rotten fruit.  DON’T EAT ROTTEN FRUIT.  A banana with black dots on the peel is just overripe.  If it is so black it starts oozing liquid, it’s rotten. A sour mango won’t make you sick but a moldy one might.  The bottom line is that anything with mold or blackened insides should be thrown out.