FRUIT FACTS

APPLES Golden delicious and Granny Smith apples are great for cooking , but will lose their shape and reduce to puree if cooked without sugar. Red skinned apples keep their shape during cooking as they are naturally high in sugar IE Royal Gala or Pink Lady. Apples can be used raw in salads with or without skins. Toss cut apples with lemon juice to prevent them from going brown. FIGS Fully ripe figs should be eaten the day you buy them or pick them from your tree. If you refrigerate figs they will lose their flavour and fragrance. RHUBARB Rhubarb is a vegetable and can be used in savoury dishes and is commonly eaten in the sweet context ...crumbles, pies, tarts, muffins and cakes. All the leaves must be removed from the rhubarb stems as they are poisonous. BLUEBERRIES Bluberries are the accepted 'superfood', but can be a little bland while sweet. Their flavour can be boosted by a sprinkle of lemon juice and let them sit for an hour before use. LEMONS Placing lemon juice in milk is a substitute for buttermilk .You can make your own sour cream by adding lemon juice to cream and whipping . Use about 1 tbs of lemon juice to 1 cup of cream or milk . Lemons quartered,salted and placed in lemon juice with spices in airtight glass jars give you preserved lemon and the best lemon rind to use in savoury or sweet recipes where full flavoured lemon rind is called for. Turn a simple roasting chicken into a master piece by cutting a lemon in half and place both halves in the cavity of the fowl before roasting along with sprigs of thyme and cloves of garlic. To prevent browning of cut fruits and vegetables , brush lemon juice over the cut surfaces. RIPENING FRUIT Place hard unripened fruit in a brown bag with 2 ripe bananas and roll the bag closed. Leave for a couple of days at room temperature, then the fruit will be ready to eat ,sweet and ripe .