Lychees

[southern girl]

I went to the Asian market this morning and they had mounds of bags of fresh lychees...so, I bought some...Now, what do I do with them?

[Brad S]

I simply peel back the skin and eat them raw.

Lychee's are also great mixed with pineapples,bananas,mangos as well as other fruits.

Don't eat the pit however.

[Wilfrid]

For a dessert, combine them with fairly obvious things, like ice cream and splashes of suitable liqueurs.

Chill the lychees first.

[SobaAddict70]

Try making eight treasure rice pudding.

Its basically glutinous rice mixed with brown sugar and a variety of fruits and nuts. The "eight treasure" reference is to the amount of fruits and nuts used in the dessert -- loquats, lychees, kumquats, red dates, sesame seeds, longans, etc.

Don't have a recipe for it but someone else might...

SA

[Fat Guy]

There are lots of things you can do with lychees if you first process them into a puree. They make a nice glaze for pork or duck, they make superlative granite, and you can make fun cocktails as well.

[Miss J]

I have been very kindly gifted with a very large box of lychees.

Now, I love lychees. I eat them whenever I can. But I have to say, there's only so many lychees that two people in a small London flat can consume. I've done the cocktail thing with them, and while lychee cocktails are nice it's no way to go through a very large box of them.

So. Ideas. Savoury or sweet, I'm up for just about anything.

Help?

[Vanessa]

Lychee cocktail recipe - please

I made a delicious lychee-papaya salsa a few weeks ago from an old Bon Appetit magazine, eaten with sauteed fillets of red snapper:

2 cups diced papaya

about 8oz lychees (the recipe had an 11oz tin)

1/2 cup chopped coriander

1/2 cup choped red pepper

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup lime juice

Mix & season with salt & pepper

v

v

[Jinmyo]

Clean, puree with lime, lemongrass and ginger, strain. Season. Add grilled shrimp and coriander leaves.

[pixelchef]

LYCHEE WINE

5 lbs fresh lychees

2-1/2 lbs granulated sugar

1/4 oz citric acid

1/4 tsp tannin

1 tsp yeast nutrient

water to 1 gallon

Chablis wine yeast

Put the water on to boil. Meanwhile, peel, destone and chop the lychee. Place the chopped fruit and the sugar in the primary, pour boiling water over them and stir to dissolve. Allow to cool. Add all other ingredients, including the activated yeast. Cover primary with cloth. When fermentation is vigorous, stir daily for 5 days. Strain liquid through nylon sieve into secondary and fit airlock. Discard pulp. Rack every 30 days until the wine clears, then every 30 days until the wine goes 30 days without dropping ANY sediment. Stabilize and sweeten to taste. Wait 10 days and rack into bottles. This wine will store well.

----------------------

OYSTER AND LYCHEE KEBABS

8 oz. oysters, shelled and muscles removed

8 oz. fresh lychees, shelled

1 onion, coarsely chopped

½ cup sunflower oil

1 cup port

1 cup coconut milk

½ cup ginger syrup

a spinach salad to serve

soft crusty rolls to serve

Combine onion, oil, port, coconut milk and ginger syrup. Add oysters and lychees. Coat thoroughly. Cover and chill for 5 hours.

Preheat grill to hot. Using metal skewers, pierce centers of each piece until full. Balance skewers on a grill pan and cook for 5 minutes each side, or until juices run clean. Serve hot with a spinach salad and soft crusty rolls.

[Rhea_S]

Not exactly a recipe and I'm almost embarrassed to post something so simple. Frozen lychees are great! Stick them whole and unpeeled in a freezer bag and eat one whenever you like. Sorbet at its simplest.

[Adam Balic]

Go to bookshelf, take out "Thai Food", make basic red curry, add Roast duck and Lychees in last ten minutes of cooking. Serve with steamed rice and green pawpaw salad. Drink with Gewurztraminer, comment how the lychee flavour in the wine is underlined by fruit in curry. Laugh to indicate self-irony moment.

Make custard using coconut milk, rather then cream and use lychees to make Asian style clafoutis.

Toss lychee in vanilla sugar, roast for thirty minutes, serve fruit, vanilla/fruit syrup with icecream.

[Jinmyo]

Not exactly a recipe and I'm almost embarrassed to post something so simple. Frozen lychees are great! Stick them whole and unpeeled in a freezer bag and eat one whenever you like.  Sorbet at its simplest.

Rhea. This is true. Also nice with two lychee in each ice cube tray with white wine. Crack a few out into a glass bowl with a splash ginger brandy and a sprig of mint.

[torakris]

Okay here comes an unbelievably stupid question.

I bought frozen lychees a little while ago, canthese be eaten the same "sorbet" style?

I guess I could just give it a try myself.

I bought them because i wanted to try a lychee soup in Nigella Lawson's Forever summer and then was torn between that and a recipe in one of Jamie Oliver's books with marinated grilled squid and some type leaf salad with lychees.

I ended up never making either

[Jinmyo]

Kristin, just pop one in your mouth and let's see.

[torakris]

Okay it isn't as exciting as Cabrales and her roast chicken but here goes.................

Good, very very good!

They are a lot harder to peel when frozen and my fingers have lost all feeling, but I have now found a use for this bag!

[Jason Perlow]

Theres a drink the Malaysians make with Lychees, thats basically the fruit in their can juices plopped into a tall glass with some ice and some water or seltzer water.

[Jinmyo]

Oh good.

[Niall]

Lychee icecream. It's what I eat when the little lady is eating her durian icecream on the balcony. puree lychees (As much as they will) and add to favourite plain or mango icecream recipe. And after Mr Balic's suggestion of Coconut custard; I might try using coconut cream in an icecream recipe and throw the lychees in there.

[Miss J]

Drink with Gewurztraminer, comment how the lychee flavour in the wine is underlined by fruit in curry. Laugh to indicate self-irony moment.

All of these ideas sounds great. And as I have eaten lychees for dessert three nights running and again for breakfast and STILL have loads of gorgeous lychees, I've no doubt I'll by trying most of them. (My lychee dessert tonight is frozen lychees - and torakris is right, they are a little trippy to unpeel.)

But I will HAVE to do the red duck curry, if only so I can have a Balic Gewurztraminer moment.

[Louisa Chu]

I'm just curious, I know you received the lychees as a gift, are they very common in London? I'm so surprised to find them all over Paris as there were not any commonly available in southern California. And do you have any idea what the going price is where you are? I've found some really good ones - juicy, small pit - here in Paris on promo for only about 2.50 euros. My mom tells me they're about 10 US dollars in Chicago. Thanks.

[Miss J]

Yes they're quite common - it was a very casual gift, as in "Look, I've brought you a box of lychees! They were only £2.50!"

They're really good. As you describe, they have small pits and swollen, juicy flesh. I noticed that the ones in Chinatown have been better than those in the supermarkets, although apparently my gift box came from a cornershop somewhere in Essex.

[Louisa Chu]

Amazing. The low price and that they came from Essex. And I should mention that the price in Paris was for a kilo and in Chicago a pound. Just amazing. I wonder how they've come to be such a common and cheap item here in Europe and not in the States? I never even had a fresh one until just a few years ago - from Florida. Thanks again for the info.

[Miss J]

I found this in the Waitrose Food Glossary:

"About the size of a greengage, lychees have rough, pink, leathery skins surrounding pearly-white, translucent flesh. The skin should be firm and dry without any bruises. Inside, the flesh is sweet, smooth and really juicy, like that of a grape. Lychees are grown in Madagascar, South Africa, the Far East, Spain and Israel." (Emphasis mine.)

Could it be that there's more easy-access lychee importers for the UK and France? Since moving to the UK, I've been quite aware of the different food import sources (South Africa, Israel, Spain) than those commonly seen in Canada (Mexico, California, Florida).

[torakris]

Amazing. The low price and that they came from Essex.  And I should mention that the price in Paris was for a kilo and in Chicago a pound. Just amazing. I wonder how they've come to be such a common and cheap item here in Europe and not in the States? I never even had a fresh one until just a few years ago - from Florida. Thanks again for the info.

Does anyone know the "season" for lychees?

They are hit or miss in the Japanese supermarkets (in Japan) yet they are a staple in salad bars through out the country.

EDIT:

I should have looked at the link before posting my question

they seem to be produced all year long.

Edited February 4, 2003 by torakris (log)

[Louisa Chu]

But I'd think that it would be easier and therefore cheaper to buy lychees in Chicago from Florida than London from Spain.

Thanks for the link.