Facts and Recipes on Dragonfruit, the King of Fruits.

Dragon fruit, which is also known as Pitaya or Pitahaya; it's been originated in Mexico Central and South America. The dragon fruit is part of the cactus family; which consists also of prickly pears, Nopales, Indian fig opuntia, etc. They have a variety of names; such as Chinese Hu Long GU (fire dragon fruit), Long Zhu Guo (dragon pearl fruit), or Vietnamese Thanh Long (green dragon). Centuries ago French settlers believed that they brought dragon fruit to Vietnam.

The fruits were mostly eaten by royalty and Affluent families. Now, the dragon fruit is the king of fruit exports to Vietnam. They are grown in hot, desert places. Even though it is popular in Mexico, South and Central America; it’s expanding to different countries. Such as; Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. They can also be found in Okinawa, Hawaii, Israel, South Africa, China, New Zealand and Australia. A dragon fruit can stay on the cactus flower for up to 30-50 days. It can have up to six cycles of harvesting per year. The market price for one dragon fruit is approx. $1.99 at any kind of Markets in Ontario. In other places such as Taiwan; it’s sold for 37 NT each ($1.59 CAN). In Hong Kong, they are sold at 6.3 HKD each ($1.07 CAN).

One market in Ontario that's extremely popular when it comes to exported products would be Oceans. Oceans is a local market filled with food products from around the world (mostly from Asian countries). Their food prices are pretty cheap, and there are a variety of products. Such as; fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, frozen products, breads, deli, a hot table, etc. All their food products (meat, fish, and poultry) are fresh, never frozen. The fruits and vegetables are pretty good. They have the basics (carrots, potatoes, berries and apples) and they have a bit of exotic and exported products (Pomelo, Dragon fruit, seedless pomegranates, etc.) They distribute a bit of unique and exquisite foods that you would have never tried before. Instead of buying your boring lettuce, bread and strawberries, they throw in a bunch of wild and crazy new food products to everyone.

I did a sensory evaluation on the dragon fruit to figure out how this fruit really tastes like. The dragon fruit wasn’t that sweet. It didn’t give me a burst of sweetness when I bit into it. When I grilled the dragon fruit, however, that’s when I could really taste the sweetness of the fruit. In addition; it didn’t have a sour taste. When it’s not ripe enough, it does have a bit of sourness to it, but not very intense. When I grilled it, the sourness actually went away, which I found oddly strange. It did have a little bit of bitterness to it. I purchased two dragon fruits to compare; one ripe and one not ripe. The ripe dragon fruit did have some bitterness to it, but not too much. The non-ripe dragon fruit did not have any bitterness; it had no flavour to it.

Here is a couple of recipes on how to cook and prepare Dragon Fruit.

Dragon Fruit Boats:

• Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken breast, skinless and boneless, cut in bite size pieces

• Shrimp, ¼ – 1/3 lb., if large, cut in bite size pieces

• 2 Dragon fruits

• 1 Kiwi fruit, peeled and cut into pieces

• 2-4 Strawberries, cut into pieces

• Sauce Mix

• 1 1/2 tbsp. Premium Oyster Flavoured Sauce

• 1 1/2 tbsp. Sugar

• 1 tsp. Chopped mint, optional

• 5 tbsp. Lime juice

• 2 tsp. Corn starch

Method

1. Cut dragon fruits into halves lengthwise. Scoop the flesh with melon baller. Remove any remaining flesh and keep the skin of dragon fruits.

2. Stir-fry chicken and prawn meat in 2 tbsp. oil until done. Add sauce mix and cook until sauce thickens. Stir in all fruits.

3. Serve hot on skin of dragon fruits

Dragon Fruit Kebabs:

1 Soak some wooden skewers. You will need one skewer for each kebab. Soak as many as you need in a bowl of water for ten minutes. This will prevent the wood from charring when you grill the kebabs. If you prefer to use metal skewers, those will also work fine. They do not need to be soaked.

2 Light a grill. Fruit kebabs should be grilled over even, medium-high heat. Use an electric or charcoal grill. A stovetop grill will also work will for grilling kebabs.If you don't have a grill, the kebabs can be cooked under the broiler in your oven. Light it to high in preparation for cooking the kebabs.

3 Prepare the fruit. Dragon fruit pairs well with any type of tropical fruit. For these kebabs, try mango and pineapple. Cut a ripe dragon fruit in half. Scoop out the flesh and slice it into bite-sized chunks.Cut a ripe mango in half. Remove the skin and slice it into bite-sized chunks.Cut a pineapple in half. Slice off the skin and then slice the flesh into bite-sized chunks.

4 Thread the fruit onto the skewers. Alternate fruits so you have equal amounts of each fruit on the skewers. Leave space on either end for lifting the kebabs.

5 Lay the kebabs on the grill. Cook them until they are lightly browned on one side, then turn them over to cook the other side. If you're using a broiler, place them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven. Allow them to cook for 2 minutes, then remove them from the oven, turn them over, and place them back in the oven to cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove the kebabs from heat. Place them on a serving dish and serve immediately with a bowl of sugar for sprinkling.

This experience made me realize that fruits are very useful when cooking. Whether it consist of bananas, apples, berries, and oranges; all these fruits are essential in the kitchen. Also that there are other fruits out there that are exotic and wouldn’t think you can cook them. I learned that with any kind of fruit (especially dragon fruit) is considered a unique fruit, and are cooked in different methods. Dragon fruit actually comes from a cactus; I would have never guessed that fruit can grow on a cactus. A lot of people don’t know the benefits of a dragon fruit, and how healthy it is for your body. All my life I have always seen this weird looking fruit, not knowing what in the world it was. I like to discover different foods so I have a different experience with certain products.