Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Tropical apples?


The Malay apple known as a mountain apple in modern Hawaii and as ‘ohi‘a ai or  ‘ohi‘a lehue in the Hawaiian language.  It was an important fruit of the Polynesians, and was later distributed to the America's on one of Captain Bligh's voyages. The fruit is pink to deep rose in color and has a texture similar to a pear or apple, it is incredibly juicy, hydrating and high in Niacin.
We discovered a cache of mountain apples at the Maui Swap Meet.   This being our first season we are preserving fruits in their season on Maui we took a simple approach to our first preparation.   We really like the texture of mountain apples and find it to be one of the most unique traits it has, for a tropical fruit.  It's not that we can't find apples or pears on island but when it comes to island grown produce this is a rare find.   To keep this in tact we simply preserved slices of fresh mountain apple in vanilla cane syrup.  We are always happy when we can make anything that is 100% island grown ingredients and this one fits the bill.  Hmmmmmm..... what can we use these with; ice cream, pancakes, fruit salad, cocktails, crepes, cheese pairing.  That's all for right now; we'd love to know what you do with them!