Kiwano, Banana, and Pineapple Sorbet
Let me start off by saying this: Do not feel that you have to run out and buy a kiwano to make this recipe.
Okay, let me back up and re-start by saying, do not buy a kiwano unless you just like its spiny shape and swirly orange color scheme.
Hmmm...let me try one more time: Do not under any circumstances buy a kiwano if you are hungry and think you might try to eat it. Trust me. This baby's for decorative purposes only!
So why did I buy a kiwano? Sheer ignorance--and a daughter who gets excited about new fruit. E. and I were in the store, she saw the kiwanos, and I didn't want to discourage her interest in anything from the plant kingdom, so I bought it, protesting that I didn't know what to do with it or even how to pick out a good one.
Turns out, there's no such thing as a good one. I got home and Googled it, naturally, and found people saying what I'm saying to you now: This one's a dud. Seriously, if it didn't have such a distinctive appearance, these things would have been allowed to die out a long time ago. Still, I didn't quite believe that they weren't any good; after all, we're importing them from New Zealand--how bad can they be?
Bad, but not all bad. When you cut open a kiwano, you find that it's attractive even on the inside, a bright green color with lots of nicely formed seeds. But when you try to remove the "fruit" from the shell you discover that it's just a gelatinous mass and that those seeds are too tough to eat. Taste it and you find that it tastes decidedly "green"--not bad, really, but not good either. And the one I bought wasn't sweet at all.
But I was determined to use it anyway. I'd spent $2.59 plus tax on the blasted thing, and I just don't believe in paying that much for a fruit that's purely decorative. So I decided to juice it and then mix the juice with other ingredients that would hide the taste. And I'd get one last decorative use out of its horny little shell.
Getting it out of the shell proved difficult, and juicing it proved time consuming. I once again got out my trusty grapefruit spoon (by now I must have set some kind of blogging record for the use of the phrase "grapefruit spoon") and scraped it out into a bowl. What you see in the photo above is what I got out, but the photo doesn't convey the sliminess of the stuff. It looks pretty liquidy, but when I poured it into a fine mesh strainer, practically nothing dripped out. I had to push on it and scrape the strainer repeatedly to get anything to go through. Finally I resorted to pushing on it with the flat bottom of a plastic glass. After working on it for a good 15 minutes (which is more than it deserved), I got about 1/3 cup of slimy juice.
So I took the juice and made the following sorbet. It contributed a light kiwano flavor that wasn't bad at all, mixed with the banana and pineapple. Mostly I was hoping that it would lend the sorbet an attractive shade of green, but it only looks green if you're expecting it to. The shells made interesting bowls, but they're hard to get to stand upright without doing a hornectomy. Next time, I'll use some of those Meyer lemons I picked instead!
Kiwano, Banana, and Pineapple Sorbet
2 bananas, frozen solid
1 cup fresh pineapple chunks, frozen
juice of one kiwano (or use 1/3 cup of any other fruit juice or lite coconut milk)
2 tablespoons agave nectar or other liquid sweetener (may not be necessary if you use other fruit juice)
Put the frozen fruit in a food processor and allow it to thaw for about 10 minutes. Mix the agave nectar with the kiwano juice. Start up the food processor and pulse to chop the fruit thoroughly. Add the juice-agave mixture and process, scraping down the sides of the processor if necessary, until smooth and creamy. Serve immediately in the shells of the kiwano or in small bowls. Serves 2-3.
Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free Eat to Live kiwano
Labels: eat to live, gluten-free
posted by SusanV at 10:35 AM
51 Comments:
I had to laugh when I read your post! I recently had a similar Kiwano experience. My husband and I ended up trying to suck the green slime (eeeww) out of the fruit and spit out the seeds!
Why is it that, with all your caveats and warnings, I still feel the urge to run out and find a kiwano?? Your sorbet looks so gorgeous, that I am totally tuning out the difficulty, the sliminess, and the not so good taste. Awesome photos!
Slimy can be good! Like drinking aloe or flax tea, the demulcent action can be soothing for dry constipation, GI irritation, reflux, etc.
I love your photos, too -- really sharp and vivid!
aaaah! That's what they're called! Thank you! They've got a bunch of these at my local corner shop but I had no idea what they were and I nearly asked behind the counter. Now I'm torn whether to try them or not (they're really cheap here, but they come in a box of 4-6), despite all your warnings. One side of me says to leave them alone, as I hate exhausting fruit (pomegranates, I'm looking at you), but, but, it just looks so pretty!
I have spent more than $2.59 plus tax on a dish that was certainly not even close to that elegant shell. Bravo on the recipe using tropical fruits as well. Your photographs are stunning.
Try this too:
1 frozen banana
1 fresh banana
1 C or so frozen blueberries
2 T ground flax seeds
2 t flax oil
soymilk to process
Blend in food processor, adding soymilk so it processes but stays thick until all smooth. Pour into glasses and refridgerate 4 hours or so. Yummy.
Has a "fool" like consistency but with seeds. Very nice and refreshing dessert.
Carla
Thanks for the tip about the Kiwano. I've seen them, but hadn't been brave enough to try them.
That's funny. I have a habit of buying unique, expensive fruit when I am sick. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad news - like your experience.
http://pics.livejournal.com/webtar/pic/0006gpq8/g3
I laughed all through this post! I can just see myself fighting these little devils. I really got a laugh out of "hornectomy!!" LOL!
For all your efforts, it really does look beautiful and exotic! I'm happy with the gorgeous photos though and don't feel the need to buy the fruit! hee hee!
Yes, I'm definitely stopping by here this weekend! (I read your blog all the time!) Wonder what you are whipping up?! A possible green dessert?! :P
Even with your warning and advice, I think I might be compelled to buy this fruit. It's shape and texture have some luring qualities that I might not be able to fight away. Let's just hope that I never encounter them so that I don't have to suffer trying to eat it. It sounds like you made the best out of this poorly received fruit. I just love how it made great serving bowls for the sorbet. Thanks for all the info.
-Teresa
Thanks Susan, I never thought about making fruit sorbet in this way but from now on... Beautiful photos as always!
How funny! Your post had me cracking up. I'm so impressed that you turned it into such a lovely little dessert. I probably would have just thrown it away. Thanks for the warning. Unlike some of your other bloggers, I feel absolutely no need to buy a kiwano now!
How funny! Your post had me cracking up. I'm so impressed that you turned it into such a lovely little dessert. I probably would have just thrown it away. Thanks for the warning. Unlike some of your other bloggers, I feel absolutely no need to buy a kiwano now!
I bought one of those stinkers too. It reminded me of just eating the seeds out of a cucumber, to which I'm sure they're related. Luckily mine wasn't so expensive, because I bought four just on sight alone. "Horny little shells"; that line left me wanting to get the old banana dirty.
well that was a lot of work. I'll heed to your warnings and not buy a kiwano anytime soon. they do make for wonderful pictures though
teddy
I've never heard of this fruit before, but I want one. That colour is gorgeous....and would look awesome in my orange living room.
Neat idea! :)
Couldn't believe it when I saw the picture-- my husband brought home one of those things yesterday! He wanted to put it in a smoothie, but I wasn't sure. Maybe I'll just admire its good looks for a while, then toss it on the compost pile!
Ruth
We grow them as ornamental fruit in NZ, basically. I don't know anyone who has eaten them. You're braver than I am! Around Christmas time I've seen them sold in crafty shops with the potpouri. I hope for your sake you'll never be tempted again! :-D
Astra (from NZ)
Wow, that is a crazy looking fruit! I applaud your inventiveness!
Your sorbet (and presentation) is beautiful. I'm with Bazu, it's enough to make me want to run out and find a kiwano!
I don't know what it'll taste like but I applaud your creativity.
Turning an Amazon-frog looking fruit into a delicious looking recipe is simply an awesome work!
Now, try do something good with a Dragon Fruit (pitaya)
oh well, at least you tried. at the results are beautiful. I'm sure the kiwano doesn't get any tastier than how you've made it.
I bought this thing for the same reason. I am trying to encourage my son to eat healthier and he said, "Let's try that!" YUK!!! I am not a vegan and I hate cucumbers so you can only imagine how this went over. I'm going back to persimmons. But, my boy had a good time turning them into dessert bowls.
Just came back from the store with one of these strange fruits--also thanks to an inquisitive daughter. Thanks for the enlightening advice.
I think kiwanos are fruits for the eye, not the mouth.
I actually liked the Kiwano, both my boyfriend and my roommate included--definately give it a try, not nearly as bad as the polemic review that comes up on google says it is. And as it takes a while to eat, it is good for staving off hunger, and passing time with friends... and too, the seeds can just be swallowed with the pulp. :-)
Kiwano tastes very good to me! I love it! But it's $4 for one here..
Hee! Great post. I've actually had kiwano before, but I also have a produce book telling me how to eat them. If ever you feel the urge to try again, just sprinkle some sugar on it! And just swallow the seeds, don't try to chew.
Lovely dessert, though! I love the kiwano shell bowls!
I decided to google kiwano while I attempted to eat it and here I am, with a half-eaten spiny orange fruit, reading a post that says exactly what I've been thinking. Anyway, they definitely do make cool little bowls. Maybe it'd be possible to prop them up with a toothpick tripod.
I want to try! I've seen the photos but not a real kiwano. I am tempted to eat one, though everyone said it is terrible to eat. I laughed right out reading your post! Bravo trying the kiwano.
You're nuts, this fruit is great, seeds and all.
For all the people that did not like their kiwano fruits, I suggest ditching the utensils. If you cut it into eighths and sort of suck/scrape with your teeth (like eating artichoke leaves) it is a lot of fun. I can imagine that they would not make very good additions to salads and such as they are too slimy and lack the signature flavor of a passion fruit or something to justify cooking, but I really enjoyed mine a lot.
Also, mine tasted good, like orange, cucumber, and melon or something.
I will say that, in the spirit of trashing exotic fruits, I had a prickly pear (cactus pear) the other day and it sucked balls.
I found your blog while trying to find a use for this melon. I bought one before and tried just opening it up to try it a la carte.
Having almost the exact same experience of trying to eat it as is, scraping it out, separating seeds, straining and finally giving up a couple years ago, I wanted to give this exotic item one more try, with a bit of research to back me up.
From the other notes I've seen, this makes the most sense. One drink recipe called for blending the gel with the seeds along with kiwi fruit for a beverage. I don't know how well the seeds would work in something like that, but I imagine the quality of blender would greatly affect the size of the resultant seed bits. Smaller being obviously better. Another recipe called for mixing with sugar and serving frozen. I really can not imagine how this would taste.
One thought, as yet untested - aside from using a juicing machine, since I don't know how the seeds would work out, I think the best tool for this fruit might be a ricer. Since it's normally used for very slowly pressing potatoes through a sieve, it might be more productive than trying to shove slippery gel sacs through a colander.
Having not tasted your sorbet, I think it sounds good, but I wonder if there might be other fruits that would accentuate the flavor and color of the kiwano? My first thought would be kiwi fruits, as it would keep the green color and some of the flavor better than pineapple. I'm thinking of trying something similar, possibly with starfruit and/or dragonfruit garnish as I can find them.
A "hornectomy!" Hilarious! I love it! But, the end result is nothing short of fabulous. I thought of juicing the gelatinous mixture quickly in the Vita-Mix, but I'll bet the seeds would make it bitter. Oh, well, bring on the meyer lemons! Susan, you never cease to make me smile... -Becky
Weird. This just showed up on my rss feed for this blog, and I *knew* I had seen it last year.
Well, I guess i read this a little too late. I needed to do a report on an exotic fruit and bring it in for the whole class to try. So I picked out the one that looked the coolest and did some reasearch. Then, unfortunately, I found this, too late. And I Spent Over $4 On One Of those
austrian mineral water company "Römerquelle" sells mineralwater with, kiwano taste. now i was assured to not tast it *shudders*
I actually bought a "horned mellon" before I brought it home and looked it up. As a matter of fact, I'm slurping and seperating the goo from the seeds as I type. It's indeed an interesting "fruit". It's not as sharp as a kiwi, eventually mellow like a banana or cucumber. My lips and tongue feel a bit numb but then again I could be mildly allergic, I'm not sure just yet.
I don't know if I would use it in a frozen food. Having friends who brew, I want to know what it would be like in a sweet mead or cidered beer. I'm also wondering if the seeds can be toasted, simular to pumpkin.
Thanks for the info. Always try something new twice.
I actually really enjoyed this fruit when a friend at work brought one into the office and said, "Try it." The flavor reminded me of something between starfruit and kiwi, but none of us agreed on what it tasted like.
I can't imagine trying to cook with it though! Straining it for sorbet is far braver than anything I'd do with it!
i thought it was very tasty and dont know what you are talking about. YAY KIWANOS!
I just bought a Kiwano for the first time, cut it in half width wise, and ate it (the insides) with a spoon. It is delicious!!!! Kind of gelatiny with crunchy seeds. It has a slight banana taste. It is not too sweet with just a tiny bit of tartness. If my husband doesn't want the other half, I will eat it!!!. If I were to save the shells, I think I'd make lime jello and have it jell in the kiwano shell, that would be pretty to serve for dessert with a little whipped cream on top.
great pic
The damned things are just weird looking and expensive tomatoes, because that's what they taste like. I bought one for close to $6 after passing them in the store so many times, thinking that they had to be good at that price. What a rip off! They are just about impossible to eat as each (yes each) seed is surrounded by the goo that you're supposed to eat. I agree with the author of this blog, these things should be allowed to die out.
How can anyone not love them?! I personally like to just cut it open and eat like watermelon. They are by far, my favourite fruit. It's quite a shame they are small, and cost $6.00 in my local shop. I think they are just great. They have an unripe banana-ish taste to them. I seriously can't see how anyone can not love them? Their color and taste, perfect combo.
I'm with jordan on this, I LOVE Kiwano. I slice them in half or in thirds and just suck out the pulp. my mom and I BOTH do this. my fiance didn't enjoy it as much as we do, but you shouldn't tell people to absolutely NOT eat this. some people like us adore it.
I'm not telling people not to eat them. I'm just saying know what you're getting before you spend $2.59 for a 4 ounce fruit! That's all.
kiwanos are from the Galapagos's; and they taste like a lime and banana put together. the seeds aren't too tough to eat, they're just like cucumber seeds. it's a combination of many different fruits. it's actually quite tasty. it's not sweet like strawberries, it's tangy like a grapefruit. if you don't like the tangy-ness of a grapefruit, then you won't like a kiwano melon.
I bought these and became minorly obsessed with them even though they are what I would called a loser fruit. I will buy any fruit once just to try it because I have always liked new experiences. the problem with them is they are not sweet enough. Two years ago, I got the idea of growing them because it is about the closest thing I have seen to an alien fruit (except for maybe a Buddha's hand). I bought two, ate one, and saved the seeds from the other to plant. They came up and started growing vigorously. I thought that I was going to have a bumper crop, but then just as the yellow flowers started growing, they all died. I asked a number of people what happened and they concluded that some sort of caterpillar had eaten through the stems. I tried again this year and had success. I grew six plants and ended up with about thirty melons. However, no matter how long I waited, the melons never turned from green to orange. I finally picked them in early October. I ripened them by putting them in plastic bags along with bananas, which give off ethylene and will ripen other fruit. It worked and all of my melons turned a perfect orange color.
I opened the first tonight and it tasted perfect, well, at least it tastes like all of the ones I have bought in stores. In about ten minutes I will be making horned melon ice cream. I am using them for this because it is a good way to add sugar and hide the slimy texture. I will also try making other recipes that allow you to add lots of sugar and hide the slime such as horned melon cream pie and maybe horned melon jelly.
I will pick the best recipes and invite friends over to share the experience. My friends must really like me because they put up with all of my strange food obsessions. They even ate durians with me.
Gregson Vaux
Haha I recently went on a date where we bought all of the strangest most exotic fruits we could find at Harmon's and tried them all. Most of us actually liked our Kiwano! You can get all tho goo out fairly easily if you cut around it at the skinny part, and squeeze the halves: the stuff squirts out pretty easily, although this does destroy your decorative bowl. And by the way, if none of you have ever dried a Dragonfruit, they are incredible!! I have never seen or tasted anything like it. I even think it was worth the $13 to try the single fruit....
totally cracked up while I read this, my daughter (who talked me into buying one too) was trying to 'scoop' out this mucky stuff while I was reading this out loud. Not sure what we are going to do from here. . . pray!
I was worried about how it would taste but I offered to take the first bite. It tasted a lot like a kiwi. From all the videos and comments, I thought it would taste terrible! But it's not bad at all. It is very good. It is very hard to chew though.
Gabi - age 9 years old
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