Cherimoyas are just coming into season, and this odd-looking fruit is something to look forward to. Heavy and and heart-shaped, the fruit has dark green skin with ridged tiles that turn bronze as it ripens. Like avocados and bananas, the fruit softens rapidly after being picked. In fact, this speedy ripening is one reason the cherimoya and its close relatives the custard-apple and pawpaw have never gained wide popularity in the United States.
But the fruit inside that scaly skin is something wonderful...
It has the softness of a ripe pear, the rich sweetness of banana, the tang of pineapple and the creaminess of avocado. The most common description is custardlike. The best way to eat a cherimoya is to split it in half and eat the creamy flesh with a spoon, setting aside the large dark seeds.
Start looking for cherimoyas in November; they are mostly imported from South America, especially Chile. Some are grown in California, but those are usually not available until January. Avoid very soft or brown specimens and let hard, green fruit ripen at room temperature until it is quite soft and the color has turned bronze.
I grew up in the Caribbean and we use to make a drink with this fruit or at least something similar looking and tasting called "sour sap". The drink was very smooth and "creamy."
Are they available on the east coast?
we get 'em in Brooklyn!
Hi Quest,
Caribbeans refer to the fruit as soursop. It doesn't surprise me that you may find it in Brooklyn, but I am surprised by this.
I love soursop, and the soursop drink.
Soursop ice cream! The best.
oops, right Pierre I meant "soursop" hmm maybe I'll do a little searching for it this weekend. Leeds, who makes the soursop ice cream? That might be worth a try too.
I've always wanted to try one, but the one grocery store that carries them around here charges around $6-7 for one. Way too expensive for me. :(
Quest - sorry if I misled you, I had soursop ice cream in Jamaica and it was so excellent that it stands out in my mind as the best ice cream I've ever tasted.
All ice creams I've tasted in the Caribbean and Latin America have been amazingly good. That soursop though....!
A popular way to eat these in Chile is with oranges (called "chirimoya alegre")--whether chopped with oranges, just with orange juice, or orange liqueur, or as ice cream ("chirimoya alegre" flavor is a swirl of orange and cherimoya flavors).
Anesly, I had no idea what chirimoya alegre meant in this recipe:
http://www.martita.cl/index.php?menu=receta&id=322
You've helped me discover something. Thanks!
(Alegre means happy, so my Chilean friend thought it meant chirimoya with liquor of some type, guess he's wrong...!)
Well, a lot of the recipes do call for some sort of liquor--whether something orange-flavored or not. I've seen people say that cherimoyas are also tasty with white wine, but have never tried it myself.
Soursops may be related, but they are a completely different fruit altogether. Rather than an olive-colored scaly-looking skin, soursops have a darker green, spiky skin.
I've seen cherimoyas in Asian stores here, but have never, ever seen a soursop. Probably banned just like the mangosteen.
I've never tried a cherimoya... guess that'll be this weekend's project. :)
In Central America we call them guanabas or guanabanas. Check out soursop/guanabana photo below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop
I meant we get cherimoya in Brooklyn
Qwest mentioned two things.
I've seen soursop drinks in roti shops on Flatbush, but never the fruit itself.