Fruits and vegetables are filled with different useful vitamins. The more we get vitamins from fresh vegetables and fruits the better life we have. Vitamins help us cope with stress, maintain a positive mood, and stay healthy throughout the year. Anytime you feel bored or stressed, grab a plate of delicious fruits and test your luck with Bizzo Casino. Remember, stress is just a part of our life. We are going to talk here about magnificent lychees.
Lychee is an unusual tropical fruit. Its pulp has the consistency of grapes or ripe pears and contains a high water concentration. It makes the exotic fruit an excellent source of moisture. Let’s get to know it better and talk about the history of lychee.
Interesting Notes About Lychee
Lychee is also known as Chinese lychee or Chinese plum. It is the only representative of the genus Lychee of the Sapindaceae family. it includes rambutan and longan among exotic fruits, and maple and horse chestnut among well-known trees.
Lychee trees originated in the northern tropical and southern subtropical regions of Southern China. Wild trees can still be found as one of the dominant tree species in tropical rainforests in the southern provinces of Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan.
Lychee is a fruit. It grows in large clusters. Lychee fruit matures in 80–112 days depending on climate, location, and variety. They vary in shape. You can find it from round to ovoid and heart-shaped, up to 5 centimeters long and weighing about 20 grams. Lychee has hard pimply red skin. There is aromatic, tender translucent pulp of a whitish or pinkish hue, with a large inedible stone, smooth and shiny.
According to people who eat lychee, it tastes like watermelon and strawberry at the same time. Some feel a mixture of citrus and rose water. But many note floral notes all because of the sweet and rich smell of lychee.
How To Pick The Right Lychee
When buying fresh lychees, choose fruits with a diameter of more than 2.5-3 centimeters with bright red skin. Check ripeness by pressing lightly with your thumb. The skin should be slightly firm and without any dents.
The peel of a ripe lychee should be easy to pierce and slide off almost effortlessly.
It is very important to know! Once harvested, lychee fruits stop ripening, so they must be sold as fresh as possible. If the fruit is cracked, the juice is oozing from it. The fruit smells unpleasant, then the lychee has already deteriorated, having lost its taste and health benefits.
When the color of the lychee skin changes from bright red to dark red, it means the fruit is overripe.
After purchasing, wrap the fruit in a paper towel. Place it in a bag and store it in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. However, it is better to use fresh lychee quickly to enjoy its unique taste. For longer storage, lychees can be frozen.
Cooking Tips
To peel an exotic fruit, remove the peel and pit. If you decide to just eat the fruit, you can put a white ball of pulp in your mouth and then spit out the seed. Lychee lovers believe that the thumbnail is best for piercing the fruit’s uneven outer skin. Once the pulp is exposed, carefully remove the skin, similar to peeling an orange.
If you are willing to cook lychees, peel the fruit and carefully cut it in half to expose the pit. Then open the two halves of the fruit. The pit usually sticks to one part of the fruit, like an avocado. Use your thumb and forefinger to grab it and remove it. This trick works quite well with ripe lychee, but don’t worry if the flesh becomes a little deformed.
Inside the white flesh, there is a soft light brown shell that was part of the seed. Without experience peeling lychees, attempting to remove the pit usually ends in failure. You will lose juice and tear too much pulp. It’s better to eat the pulp and just spit out the bone.
Since the floral scent of lychee is lost during the canning process, people try to eat the fruit fresh. Use the pulp to form a cheese board, complementing cheddar and soft chevre goat cheeses.
You can add lychee and cashew nuts to your oatmeal for a delicious breakfast. Incorporate ripe lychee into a fruit or green salad to add a tangy sweetness. The fruit can also be used to make stir fry with sweet and sour sauce.
Boil fruit with sugar to create syrup for cocktails, ice cream, sorbet, and sweet summer tea. Fruits are especially good as a decoration and aromatic addition to fruit puree soups. For cocktails, lychee can also serve as a decoration and a valuable ingredient.
Where Lychee Is Used
In Asia, lychee is very popular fresh and as an ingredient in various desserts. You can find lychee nuts. It means dried lychees, a popular Chinese snack. They are eaten as dried fruit and used as an additive to soups, sauces, and poultry dishes.
Lychee jelly is a popular addition to bubble tea. It is also known as pearl milk tea or “Bubble Tea”. The drink originated in Taiwan but soon became popular throughout the world.
In France and the Netherlands, lychee liqueur is produced. It is a sweet distilled spirit with the taste of tropical fruits. This drink became fashionable in the 2000s. The drink is usually clear or pale pink. But there are also rose-red liqueurs identical to the color of the lychee peel. Most likely, dyes are used for them. The strength of the drink is from 36 to 42%. Like the fruit itself, the liqueur’s flavor is unique. It is an intoxicating juicy blend of sour grapes with hints of watermelon, strawberry, and beautiful flowers.
If you ever have a great opportunity to try something new, try out lychee. It is delicious and useful. Use our tips to gain as many benefits from the fruit as possible. Stay healthy and enjoy your life!
