Friday, March 27, 2009

Trop[ical salad

Tropical Fruit Salad from Southern Living

Yield

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 (20-ounce) cans cored pineapple, undrained
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon grated orange rind
  • 1 teaspoon grated lime rind
  • 6 medium oranges, peeled and sliced
  • 4 kiwifruits, peeled, halved, and sliced
  • 2 papayas, peeled and cubed*
  • Garnishes: 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, fresh mint leaves

Preparation

Drain pineapple, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Cut pineapple into cubes.

Stir together reserved juice, honey, and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl; add pineapple and remaining fruit, tossing gently to coat. Cover and chill 8 hours. Garnish, if desired.

*2 mangoes, peeled and cubed, may be substituted.

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Aggregate fruit

Dewberry flowers. Note the multiple pistils, each of which will produce a drupelet. Each flower will become a blackberry-like aggregate fruit.

An aggregate fruit, or etaerio, develops from a flower with numerous simple pistils.[14] An example is the raspberry, whose simple fruits are termed drupelets because each is like a small drupe attached to the receptacle. In some bramble fruits (such as blackberry) the receptacle is elongated and part of the ripe fruit, making the blackberry an aggregate-accessory fruit.[15] The strawberry is also an aggregate-accessory fruit, only one in which the seeds are contained in achenes. In all these examples, the fruit develops from a single flower with numerous pistils.

Some kinds of aggregate fruits are called berries, yet in the botanical sense they are not.

` Multiple fruit

A multiple fruit is one formed from a cluster of flowers (called an inflorescence). Each flower produces a fruit, but these mature into a single mass.[17] Examples are the pineapple, edible fig, mulberry, osage-orange, and breadfruit.

In some plants, such as this noni, flowers are produced regularly along the stem and it is possible to see together examples of flowering, fruit development, and fruit ripening.

In the photograph on the right, stages of flowering and fruit development in the noni or Indian mulberry (Morinda citrifolia) can be observed on a single branch. First an inflorescence of white flowers called a head is produced. After fertilization, each flower develops into a drupe, and as the drupes expand, they become connate (merge) into a multiple fleshy fruit called a syncarpet.[18]

There are also many dry multiple fruits, e.g.

Fruit chart

To summarize common types of fruit (examples follow in the table below):

Types of fruit
True berry Pepo Hesperidium False berry (Epigynous) Aggregate fruit Multiple fruit Other accessory fruit
Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Gooseberry, Tomato, Eggplant, Guava, Lucuma, Chili pepper, Pomegranate, Kiwifruit, Grape, Pumpkin, Gourd, Cucumber, Melon Orange, Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit Banana, Cranberry, Blueberry Blackberry, Raspberry, Boysenberry, Hedge apple Pineapple, Fig, Mulberry Apple, Apricot, Peach, Cherry, Green bean, Sunflower seed, Strawberry, plu

Seedless fruits

An arrangement of fruits commonly thought of as vegetables, including tomatoes and various squash

Seedlessness is an important feature of some fruits of commerce. Commercial cultivars of bananas and pineapples are examples of seedless fruits. Some cultivars of citrus fruits (especially navel oranges), satsumas, mandarin oranges table grapes, grapefruit, and watermelons are valued for their seedlessness. In some species, seedlessness is the result of parthenocarpy, where fruits set without fertilization. Parthenocarpic fruit set may or may not require pollination. Most seedless citrus fruits require a pollination stimulus; bananas and pineapples do not. Seedlessness in table grapes results from the abortion of the embryonic plant that is produced by fertilization, a phenomenon known as stenospermocarpy which requires normal pollination and fertilization.

Seed dissemination

Variations in fruit structures largely depend on the mode of dispersal of the seeds they contain. This dispersal can be achieved by animals, wind, water, or explosive dehiscence.

Some fruits have coats covered with spikes or hooked burrs, either to prevent themselves from being eaten by animals or to stick to the hairs, feathers or legs of animals, using them as dispersal agents. Examples include cocklebur and unicorn plan

The sweet flesh of many fruits is "deliberately" appealing to animals, so that the seeds held within are eaten and "unwittingly" carried away and deposited at a distance from the parent. Likewise, the nutritious, oily kernels of nuts are appealing to rodents (such as squirrels) who hoard them in the soil in order to avoid starving during the winter, thus giving those seeds that remain uneaten the chance to germinate and grow into a new plant away from their parent

Other fruits are elongated and flattened out naturally and so become thin, like wings or helicopter blades, e.g. maple, tuliptree and elm. This is an evolutionary mechanism to increase dispersal distance away from the parent via wind. Other wind-dispersed fruit have tiny parachutes, e.g. dandelion and salsify.[20]

Coconut fruits can float thousands of miles in the ocean to spread seeds. Some other fruits that can disperse via water are nipa palm and screw pine.[20]

Some fruits fling seeds substantial distances (up to 100 m in sandbox tree) via explosive dehiscence or other mechanisms, e.g. impatiens and squirting cucumber.[23]

Uses

Nectarines are one of many fruits that can be easily stewed.
Fruit bowl containing pomegranate,pears, apples, bananas, an orange and a Guava

Many hundreds of fruits, including fleshy fruits like apple, peach, pear, kiwifruit, watermelon and mango are commercially valuable as human food, eaten both fresh and as jams, marmalade and other preserves. Fruits are also in manufactured foods like cookies, muffins, yoghurt, ice cream, cakes, and many more. Many fruits are used to make beverages, such as fruit juices (orange juice, apple juice, grape juice, etc) or alcoholic beverages, such as wine or brandy. Apples are often used to make vinegar.Fruits are also used for gift giving, Fruit Basket and Fruit Bouquet are some common forms of fruit gifts.

Many vegetables are botanical fruits, including tomato, bell pepper, eggplant, okra, squash, pumpkin, green bean, cucumber and zucchini.[25] Olive fruit is pressed for olive oil. Spices like vanilla, paprika, allspice and black pepper are derived from berries.[26]

[edit] Nutritional value

Fruits are generally high in fiber, water and vitamin C. Fruits also contain various phytochemicals that do not yet have an RDA/RDI listing under most nutritional factsheets, and which research indicates are required for proper long-term cellular health and disease prevention. Regular consumption of fruit is associated with reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging.[27]

Nonfood uses

Because fruits have been such a major part of the human diet, different cultures have developed many different uses for various fruits that they do not depend on as being edible. Many dry fruits are used as decorations or in dried flower arrangements, such as unicorn plant, lotus, wheat, annual honesty and milkweed. Ornamental trees and shrubs are often cultivated for their colorful fruits, including holly, pyracantha, viburnum, skimmia, beautyberry and cotoneaster.[28]

Fruits of opium poppy are the source of opium which contains the drugs morphine and codeine, as well as the biologically inactive chemical theabaine from which the drug oxycodone is synthysized. Osage orange fruits are used to repel cockroaches. Bayberry fruits provide a wax often used to make candles.[31] Many fruits provide natural dyes, e.g. walnut, sumac, cherry and mulberry. Dried gourds are used as decorations, water jugs, bird houses, musical instruments, cups and dishes. Pumpkins are carved into Jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween. The spiny fruit of burdock or cocklebur were the inspiration for the invention of Velcro.

Coir is a fibre from the fruit of coconut that is used for doormats, brushes, mattresses, floortiles, sacking, insulation and as a growing medium for container plants. The shell of the coconut fruit is used to make souvenir heads, cups, bowls, musical instruments and bird houses

Simple fruit

Epigynous berries are simple fleshy fruit. From top right: cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries red huckleberries

Simple fruits can be either dry or fleshy, and result from the ripening of a simple or compound ovary with only one pistil. Dry fruits may be either dehiscent (opening to discharge seeds), or indehiscent (not opening to discharge seeds).[13] Types of dry, simple fruits, with examples of each, are:

Lilium unripe capsule fruit

Fruits in which part or all of the pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy at maturity are simple fleshy fruits. Types of fleshy, simple fruits (with examples) are:

Fruit development

The development sequence of a typical drupe, the nectarine (Prunus persica) over a 7½ month period, from bud formation in early winter to fruit ripening in midsummer (see image page for further information)
Fruits are so diverse that it is difficult to devise a classification scheme that includes all known fruits. Many common terms for seeds and fruit are incorrectly applied, a fact that complicates understanding of the terminology. Seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels that contain the seeds. To these two basic definitions can be added the clarification that in botanical terminology, a nut is not a type of fruit and not another term for seed, on the contrary to common terminology.

A fruit is a ripened ovary. Inside the ovary is one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the mega gamete or egg cell.[9] The ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination, which involves the movement of pollen from the stamens to the stigma of flowers. After pollination, a tube grows from the pollen through the stigma into the ovary to the ovule and sperm are transferred from the pollen to the ovule, within the ovule the sperm unites with the egg, forming a diploid zygote. Fertilization in flowering plants involves both plasmogamy, the fusing of the sperm and egg protoplasm and karyogamy, the union of the sperm and egg nucleus. When the sperm enters the nucleus of the ovule and joins with the megagamete and the endosperm mother cell, the fertilization process is completed. As the developing seeds mature, the ovary begins to ripen. The ovules develop into seeds and the ovary wall, the pericarp, may become fleshy (as in berries or drupes), or form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). In some cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the flower fall off. Fruit development continues until the seeds have matured. In some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules.[12] The wall of the fruit, developed from the ovary wall of the flower, is called the pericarp. The pericarp is often differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the exocarp (outer layer, also called epicarp), mesocarp (middle layer), and endocarp (inner layer). In some fruits, especially simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower (such as the floral tube, including the petals, sepals, and stamens), fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. The plant hormone ethylene causes ripening. When such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit. Since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms.


Botanic fruit and culinary fruit

Venn diagram representing the relationship between (culinary) vegetables and (botanical) fruits. Some vegetables, such as tomatoes, fall into both categories.


Although a nut is a type of fruit, it is also a popular term for edible seeds, such as walnuts and pistachios. Technically, a cereal grain is a fruit termed a caryopsis. However, the fruit wall is very thin and fused to the seed coat so almost all of the edible grain is actually a seed. Therefore, cereal grains, such as corn, wheat and rice are better considered edible seeds, although some references list them as fruits. Edible gymnosperm seeds are often misleadingly given fruit names, e.g. pine nuts, ginkgo nuts, and juniper berries.


Many true fruits, in a botanical sense, are treated as vegetables in cooking and food preparation because they are not sweet. These culinary vegetables include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin, and cucumber), tomatoes, peas, beans, corn, eggplant, and sweet pepper; some spices, such as allspice and chilies, are botanical fruits.Occasionally, though rarely, a culinary "fruit" is not a true fruit in the botanical sense. For example, rhubarb is often referred to as a fruit, because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only the petiole of the rhubarb plant is edible. In the culinary sense, a fruit is usually any sweet tasting plant product associated with seed(s), a vegetable is any savoury or less sweet plant product, and a nut any hard, oily, and shelled plant product.[

Fruit

Fruit basket painted by Balthasar van der Ast

No single terminology really fits the enormous variety that is found among plant fruits.[2 The term 'false fruit' (pseudocarp, accessory fruit) is sometimes applied to a fruit like the fig (a multiple-accessory fruit; see below) or to a plant structure that resembles a fruit but is not derived from a flower or flowers. Some gymnosperms, such as yew, have fleshy arils that resemble fruits and some junipers have berry-like, fleshy cones. The term "fruit" has also been inaccurately applied to the seed-containing female cones of many conifers.

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened ovaries of flowering plants. In many plant species, the fruit includes the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants disseminate seeds, and the presence of seeds indicates that a structure is most likely a fruit, though not all seeds come from fruits.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Soup from pumpkin on milk.........yummy!

Indispensable components:

1/2 kg cleaned yellow dyni of, 3 glass of milk, 3 - 4 spoon of grated roll of, 2 spoon of butter, salt, 6 spoons of chopped the parsley's top leaves

Procedure of preparation
To clean the pumpkin, to peel, to clean from stones and the scraps of flesh. To brown grated roll on dry frying pan lightly. In this time to cut pumpkin. to browned roll to add pumpkin and to strangle butter, to mix, to softness, to wipe through sieve or to mix, to mix from hot, reboil milk and parsley.

To spice to taste with salt. To pass after preparation with addition of change of pasta directly.
Lovers can soup pass on słodko, replacing salt sugar.

Salad from broccolis or courgette

Indispensable components:

1/2 the broccolis' kg or the chopped dill's, 6 spoons of, 40 the tomatoes' da, cooked on hard 1 glass of mayonaise sauce, 6 the garlic's little teeth, 4 egg small cukini from the parsley's top leaves, the juice from lemon, the salt, sugar, pepper

Method of preparation:
Broccolis or to clean zucchini, osączyć. To cut the ends the cukini ( the remainder of floral bottom and the stalk). To cook vegetable, putting to boiling, salted water. Boiling it adds the broccolis the bit of sugar. To strain soft vegetables, to cool. To clean tomatoes, to burn with boiling water, to peel from skin, and when they cool to cut in slices and to arrange on dish. On tomatoes' layer to put cut in slices zucchini or cut broccolis. To mix from finely mayonaise sauce chopped garlic, to spice to taste with juice from lemon, salt, sugar pepper.
To pour with prepared sauce salad, to pour with chopped dill, to cover with eggs cut in particle dekoracyjnie or slices.
It was can decorate with naciowej parsley's leaflets or curlykale.

Raspberry foam

Indispensable components:

2 egg, 3 crested spoons of sugar of powder, of 3 teaspoon of lemon juice, 300 g (fresh or chilled) raspberries, 50 g (half the glass) thickly chopped nuts, 2 crested spoons of sugar


Procedure of preparation:
We mix from sugar vitellus, we add (gradually!) juice from lemon, raspberry ( we can cut it on half) as well as nuts. We from proteins beat stiff foam and still beating we add to her sugar powder. To mass żółtkowo - raspberry we add from sugar foam, very gently stirring gradually (attention! foam at all does not like violent movements because it is with nature gentle!).
We put on to bowls or pucharków and we decorate with several particularly good-looking, and left in this aim raspberries.
We serve wychłodzić, alternatively from sponge-cakes.
It similar was can make from berries also foam, strawberries, blackberries, etc.

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Omelette from apples

Indispensable components:

6 eggs of, 2 spoon of sugar, half teaspoon of salt, spoon of oil of, 2 apple, 2 spoon of butter, sugar the powder from vanilla sugar to pouring, alternatively the cherry-trees or the konfiturowe strawberries to decoration

Procedure of preparation:
We peel the apple, we cut on half, we remove the seminiferous nests and cut on thin, in measure the even half-moons, which seal from both sides on standing on small fire of frying pan from melted butter ( the apple does not was can nor to cook nor to scatter!). We take off apple. We pour the frying pan the salt, we throw in the salt, and we wipe the frying pan the paper, we lubricate with oil, we warm up on average fire and we pour out salted and the rozkłócone the fork of egg, so propeling the frying pan, to to distribute it after whole surface. In measure how banks set, we wrap up it fork or shoulder - blade to centre, propeling simultaneously frying pan, to omelette did not cling. We arrange in moment setting omelette at the top apple and we pour sugar with powder richly.
When omelette is finished, we fold him on half and we translate on dish with shoulder - blade, pouring yet after top alternatively sugar powder or decorating cherry-trees or strawberries.

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Instant lemon cream

Indispensable components:

The packaging the vanilla foam or the cream of type "light" of, 2 egg, of 2 spoon of lemon juice, 2 teaspoon rubbed off lemon skin, red fruit from jam or the liquor to decoration.


Method of preparation:
We prepare cream with recipes on packaging peaceably. When it is already thick, we add to her vitellus, skin as well as - gradually and carefully - lemon juice, continuing beating, until " we will let go" to her whole juice. We from proteins beat stiff foam and we unite her from cream gently (stirring spoon!).
We distribute to bowls the whole or the cups, we decorate with fruit and we pass immediately or after maximum 3 hours of stay in refrigerator ( the foam later will begin " to sit").

Gooseberry jam

Indispensable components:

The vanilla's, cane 1000 the mature gooseberry's g, 800 g of sugar (or the vanilla sugar)


Procedure of preparation:
Shapely, mature, but not we rinse overripe fruit and we clean from stalks and perianth. Remaining we rinse, we crush with wooden spoon, we overcook in glass of water and we wipe through sieve. we to threadbare mass pour sugar, we add vanilla ( vanilla sugar) and we boil. We to boiling mass put whole fruit gently. We fry on small fire, until jam stands up transparent, we do not to leave behind near you about gentle confusion from time to time, because jam likes burning.
We take out vanilla, and we translate to scalded jars hot jam ("twistów") we turn and we place "on head", leaving in this position to cooling. We keep in cool place and dark.

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