Late Season Cherimoya

The season for cherimoya is coming to an end soon. This is my second order for cherimoya. They are a little different in sizes and shapes compared to last week order. This could be because this is considered a late season for the cherimoya. I will have to wait until they are ripe to eat. This will take maybe 3 days. I will check them everyday just to make sure my cherimoya is not overripe. Feel and press the fruit to check if they are ripe or not. If it's soft when you press it then it's ripe. Make sure you check a couple spots on the fruit. Usually closer to the stem is where you can press to check. Then check the sides. Remember to wash before cutting the fruit!






The Pierce is sweet with some tart and graininess. Seedy compared to other varieties.

Cherimoya Taste

After waiting for 3 days my cherimoyas are finally ripe. I'm very surprise of how sweet these fruits are. I got three varieties from Cherimoya.com. Now you probably want to ask which on is my favorite. Well, I have to say I like them all. They have a very slightly different taste to them.

Bays- Large, sweet, smooth, some chewiness, juicy. Flesh is white. Seed count is similar to Fino. (Bays can be crunchy when not ripen, but still sweet.)

Fino de Jete- Large-X large, stronger sweet than the Bays, smooth with grainy texture near the skin, a little of acidity, juicy. Flesh is cream color.

Lucida- Medium size, sweeter than Bays but not Fino, smooth, very chewy, juicy, slight acidity similar to Fino but more refreshing. Fewer seeds from Fino and Bays. Flesh is white like the Bays.


My family like the Lucida best because of it smooth, chewy, and sweet flesh even with that slight acidity. The acidity in the Lucida is actually refreshing. The second would be the Bays and then Fino. I think we didn't like Fino as much because it's more grainy. However, the fino is the sweetest of all and a softer fruit. I just placed another 3 orders of the cherimoya and 1 order of the white sapote.

Ok, ate the 3rd Fino and my mom now like the Fino better. So I conclude that each fruit is different even if they are the same variety and all of them are good.

Cherimoya Fruits

I ordered some cherimoya on 4/20 and I got the fruits today. I have to say this is super fast shipping. I ordered from cherimoya.com. They also included 10 free lemons for me to make lemonade. :) The fruits are quite big. The largest one weigh more than 2lbs. The smallest one weigh about 1 lb. I got 2 orders so they weigh a total of 10 lbs. I requested for them to label these fruits but I guess they forgot. So I arranged the one that look alike together. I also numbered them so my tropical friends can help me identify which is which. I will now let them ripe for a couple days at room temperature. You will see how they look like on the inside later.:)

Can you identify them?











After asking Dario from cherimoya.com, he identified the cherimoya as the follow:

1. Bays

2. Bays

3. Fino de Jete

4. Fino de Jete

5. Fino de Jete

6. Fino de Jete

7. Fino de Jete

8. Lucida

Homemade Spicy XO Noodles

This noodle is super good. I like it super spicy. Use less chillies if you don't like it spicy. Actually super hot is even better. So good and so hot it numbed my mouth...lol. Even my husband and sister-in-law like it. Yum Yum





Ingredients:

XO Pork Sauce:
1 cup ground pork
3 stalks green onion chopped
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 cup homemade xo sauce
2 1/2 cup water
2 tbsp ground dry chillies
Dried shallots

Method:

1. Heat pan with some oil then add in grounded dry chillies. Then add in pork. Stir fry until cook.
2. Add in oyster sauce, salt, sugar, dark soy sauce, and water. Cook for couple minutes.
3. Add in homemade xo sauce and stir fry. Do not let it dry, add some water if dry.
4. Add in chopped green onions.

Serve on noodles. Garnish with dried shallots.

Homemade Noodles:
2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 tsp oil
1/3 cup water
couple drops yellow color

1. Combine all ingredients to form a dough. Knead for 15 minutes and let rest for 30 minutes.
2. Sprinkle table with flour. Use a rolling pin and roll dough out to very thin. Sprinkle flour as needed.
3. Roll the flat dough for easy cutting. (see pic)
4. Boil water and then add in the noodles. Boil until the noodles float. Test the noodle by taking a bit. It should be clear in the middle if it's cooked.
5. Rinse with cold water.

My Potted Sapodilla

Time for some update on my two sapodilla trees. They are doing pretty well on pots. But I have to say it took a while for the fruits to get this size. I believe the flowers bloomed around summer of 2009 and then they were indoor for winter. So without the hot sun these fruits can take a year before they get full size.
This is the Hasya sapodilla. There are 12 fruits on this tree right now. The tree is 4-5 tall in a 7 gallon pot.



Hasya

This is the Makok sapodilla and it only have one fruit, but this is the largest fruit compared to the Hasya. The tree was bigger but then most of it was the seedling tree so I pruned a couple months ago. The grafted branches are growing new leaves. I think this fruit should be ready to pick in May. This tree is slower grower so it stayed in the 3 gallon pot for not.

New Indian Jujube

I ordered this Indian jujube in December and it arrived today. I repotted the tree and I'm happy with the height of the tree. I'm somewhat upset with the broken branches. A few branches are broken not due to shipping but the person who tie it bent it too hard. I'm hoping the broken branches will heal later so I didn't cut them off. The leaves on the trees are young leaves so they got beat up during shipping.

I got my replacement gefner atemoya too. I'm a bit disappointed because there are only a couple strings of roots. I hope it will survive.



On the left is the Gefner atemoya.

Couple broken branches

Roots of the atemoya. Very little.

Peach Blossoms

Who needs cherry blossoms when peach blossoms are so beautiful. :) I love cherry blossom and peach blossoms. I planted many dwarf peach blossoms and one weeping cherry blossom tree which it still didn't bloom. I planted 2 weeping peach blossoms and this one on the side of the house is just too beautiful. The blooms are double bright pink color.










These dwarf bonfire peach trees changes color from light pink to darker pink. They also bear edible peaches! So beautiful.

Wife Cakes (Loh Poh Peng)

I love to eat these cakes. I love the coconut and the winter melon candies inside it. The skin of the cake is flaky and inside is chewy. I just love it. Thanks to Lily's Wai Sek Hong for sharing this recipe. I did modified it a little since I love more coconut and winter melon in the cake.



Ingredients:

Water dough

100g cake flour

25g icing sugar

25g butter (soften at room temperature)

40g water

Oil Dough

100g cake flour

50g shortening

Filling

60g Candied winter melon (chopped to bite size)

45g sugar

70g (Koh Fun)

18g shortening

15g roasted white sesame seeds

20g dessicated coconut

120g boiled water

Egg wash
1 yolk + 1 tsp water + pinch of salt

Method:

Filling:

Put all ingredients except winter melon candies into a big bowl and mix well. Then add in the winter melon. If too watery then you can cook it to slightly thicken.

Divide filling into 12 equal portions.

Water dough:

Knead soft butter with flour and icing sugar and then add in water to form a smooth dough.

Wrap dough and rest for 30 minutes.

Oil dough:

Rub shortening into flour to form dough.

Wrap and leave it aside to rest for 30 minutes.

Roll the water dough out and place the oil dough on top. Fold, press and roll out dough.
Fold again and roll out. Roll it up swiss roll-style and divide into 12. Try to form dough into balls. Fatten into a circular shape and place filling in the center.

Wrap it and flatten the cake a little. Preheated oven at 395°F.

Brush egg wash on each cake. Re-brush egg wash again for an even color.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Do not over bake as it will be more flaky and crispy.

Tips: I didn't have cake flour so I mixed all purpose flour with cornstarch. I also didn't have koh fun so I used glutinous rice flour and pan fry it on low heat.

Cake flour= 2 tbsp cornstarch+ all purpose flour=1 cup