Ingredient: Pawpaws
Category: Fruit
Season: All
Pawpaw (Asimina) is a genus of eight or nine species of small trees with large leaves and fruit, native to eastern North America.
The genus includes the largest edible fruit indigenous to the continent . They are understory trees found in deep fertile bottomland and hilly upland habitat.
Pawpaw is in the same family (Annonaceae) as the custard-apple, cherimoya, sweetsop, and soursop, and it is the only member of that family not confined to the tropics.
The name, also spelledpaw paw, paw-paw, and papaw, probably derives from the Spanish papaya, perhaps due to the superficial similarity of their fruit.
Pawpaw has numerous other common names , often very local, such as prairie banana, Indiana (Hoosier) banana, Kentucky banana, Michigan banana, and Ozark banana.
The fruit is a large edible berry, 5 to 16 cm long and 3 to 7 cm broad, weighing from 20 to 500 g, with numerous seeds ; it is green when unripe, maturing to yellow or brown. It has a flavor somewhat similar to both banana and mango, varying significantly by cultivar, and has more protein than most fruits.
It is a delicious and nutritious fruit , it has never been cultivated on the scale of apples and peaches, primarily because it does not store or ship well. It is also difficult to transplant due to its long taproot. Cultivars are propagated by chip budding or whip grafting.
When ripe, a pawpaw turns yellow and should, like an avocado, have some 'give' when you hold it in your hand and exert a little pressure.
To prepare it, slice it in half vertically, scoop out the seeds, pare off the skin and slice or chop.
Squeeze lime over the orange flesh to serve.
It holds an enzyme that tenderises meat and also aids digestion . |