Exotic fruits you'll love

Papaya
Also known as a 'pawpaw', the papaya is a tropical fruit resembling a small, pear-shaped melon. When fully ripe, it has a soft, yellow skin, occasionally with red blushes, that gives slightly when you squeeze it.

The flesh is a creamy orange colour with a delicate, scented flavour and very little acidity. The seeds, which are edible but usually discarded, are a striking grey-black colour.

In the green, unripe stage, papayas can be cooked as a vegetable. As a fruit, they're a tasty part of a tropical fruit salad or eaten on their own with a squeeze of lime. Just slice in half, scoop out the seeds and eat with a teaspoon. Powerful enzymes in the flesh make the papaya an ideal digestive after a heavy meal.

Recipe: Prawn, Lime and Papaya Salad

Persimmon
Available throughout the autumn months, this squarish dark-orange fruit looks a little like a tomato, although when ripe is deliciously sweet. It's best eaten by simply chilling it, slicing off the top and spooning out the jelly-like pulp.

One variety, known as the 'Sharon fruit', can be eaten like a persimmon or used in a fruit salad.

Recipe: Tropical Treat

Physalis
Also known as the 'cape gooseberry', this golden Peruvian fruit is about the size of a cherry. It's distinguished by a rough, paper-like husk (calyx) which surrounds the fruit - this accounts for its other name: 'Chinese lantern'.

The calyx is peeled back from the pointed end, leaving an attractive 'handle', to reveal the yellow-orange fruit. It has a waxy edible skin and a juicy, sweet taste. The many small seeds are also edible.

Physalis are usually eaten raw in fruit salads and make an unusual and attractive addition to a cheese board. You can also make physalis jam.

Recipe:
Tropical Cream Baskets
Pineapple Physalis Pavlova

Over the page: Pomegranate