Fruit Discovery : CHESA / CANISTEL

CHESA - The so-called "Egg Fruit"

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!  My morning was freed up today because of my cancelled yoga class and that means only one thing... more time in the weekend market! Yay! I love spending time and rummaging through the different little stalls at the FTI complex. This morning, I discovered CHESA or CANISTEL. I have read and heard about this tropical fruit before but never really tasted the actual thing. My helper whose hometown is in the Visayas  said that this fruit is abundant in their region. It's in fact very popular there that visitors treat them as treasured gems when in season. I was sold and ended up getting a kilo for Php 50.00.

Canistel is often referred to colloquially as "eggfruit".. When ripe, it is said to have a texture similar to that of a thoroughly cooked egg yolk. The meat of the fruit is sweet and edible raw. The exterior of a canistel fruit is a polished skin that, upon ripening, varies in yellow color and orange tones. Canistel fruit is soft, rather than hard, and it is not mostly juicy. Fruit insides are a few large polished black or dark brown seeds. While canistel fruits are not available in most markets in North America, they are available in Florida.

Taste
The fruit has a color of orange to yellow thin skin, and the flesh is dry like a boiled egg yolk. They are usually eaten fresh, used for cooking, pies, and they have a excellent taste in ice cream. In milk shakes they taste like eggnog. They are very related in taste to the Lucuma from Andean countries. It has a sweet taste and is a raw edible fruit to eat. The outside of the fruit having a different taste when compare to inside the seed film.

Health Benefits

Like other orange-colored fruits, this eggfruit is high in beta-carotene. This nutrient protects eyes, gives hair its lustrous sheen, and maintains glowing skin. Additionally, carotenoids fight cancers, age related degeneration, depression, headaches, heartburn, and high blood pressure.

One serving of eggfruit provides a good quantity of iron, a mineral essential for blood health due to its ability to facilitate proper oxygen circulation. Iron also promotes good memory, stable energy levels and overall strength.

Taste

Eggfruits are named as such because their texture resembles an egg yolk: soft, starchy, and somewhat creamy. The texture of the fruit evolves as one nears the center of the fruit—while the pulp is slightly tough and mealy under the skin, the pulp nearest to the center is softer and creamier. I actually ate half a fruit earlier as a dessert and I loved it!

Source : http://www.fruitsinfo.com/Canistel-fruit.php

Some ideas on how to eat the fruit besides raw and fresh :

RAW VEGAN CHESA EGGNOG

Simply blend the fruit with soymilk or almond milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla

RAW VEGAN CHESA PIE

Mix 3 ripe eggfruit in food processor
w/ 1 t coconut oil
1T Maple Syrup
a little ginger
a little cloves
a little cinnamon
a little nutmeg

Spread in an almond date crust:

1/2 almonds
1/2 dates
1t coconut oil
vanilla bean
squirt of lime (for preserving)

1. Simply blend up in food processor until it sticks together, use 50-50 quantities of almonds and dates. 

2. Push into pie pan. 

3. Scoop eggfruit (pumpkin pie like) into the crust.

4. Refrigerate.

5. Enjoy! :)

 Hope this little fruit trivia brightened up your day! Until my next discovery...

Always in search for something new,

Pattie