Top Tropical Fruit Recipes

It's the first day of Spring so it's time to do something to beckon the sunshine. Some of us caught a glimpse of it this weekend, while the rest are still searching for that elusive ball of warmth. Even if Spring hasn't quite sprung for you, you're guaranteed to feel bright and sunny with our pick of the pineapples and our favourite tropical fruit recipes.

We're crazy about pineapples at Sluttery HQ, largely thanks to the Pina Colada. We love a pina colada trifle, too. Sticky pineapple cake is the most wonderful thing to happen to tinned pineapple. Ever. If you've still got a couple of tins of pineapple rings in your cupboard (they seem to multiply in there) give honey and coconut pineapple a go. Have you tried grilled pineapple yet? You really should. 

Pineapple juice makes for amazing cocktails. Apart from the obvious Saratoga, and Tiki drinks, there's  the Hurricane, Havana Beach and Jungle Bird. Herbs and pineapple juice are a great combination in a pineapple and basil Mojito and Veridita. Oh, and don't forget the French Martini and Royal Fusion, either. There are loads of pineapple cocktails to chose from!

Mangoes are in season from April until late summer, but when they're not you can use tinned or frozen fruit. For a shellfish dish with a difference, pair mango with scallop ceviche. Blackened mango turns rice pudding from comfort food into awesome comfort food. Or use sticky rice with your mango for a taste of Thailand. Mango makes a great alternative to pineapple in upside-down cake and the tinned stuff works especially well here. If rice puddings and cake sound too heavy, lighten thing up with mango coulis with white chocolate mousse.

From the outside, passion fruit are a bit wrinkly and a bit funny looking, but open them up and you find beautiful, juicy pulp and seeds. What makes chocolate (and even more chocolate) taste wonderful? Passion fruit! Just try our 5th birthday cake if you don't believe me. If you've never used passion fruit in salad dressing, now's the time to do it.  The juice from passion fruit makes brilliant cocktails, too. Sipping an Early Anniversary in the sunshine, drinking a Crack Baby shooter or going alcohol free with an Innocent Slut with have you feeling spring-like in no time!

Lychees aren't such a popular fruit as some of the others we use, but we think that should change! Our green tea and lychee cupcakes are sure to convert even the most stalwart lychee sceptic. So will a Shanghai Fizz actually. I'd never though about using the syrupy juice that comes with tinned lychees until I tried a lychee martini and our (slightly niche) eyeball jellies. You'll be a fan of these fragrant fruits in no time!

Want more great recipe ideas? Check out the rest of our top ten posts.

Cocktail Hour: Blood Orange Martini

Cocktails are the perfect thing for trying out exotic fruits. Passionfruit works very well. Despite how pretty they look on the outside, dragon fruits are good for nothing, except looking pretty. But blood oranges are perfect. Somewhere inbetween a pink grapefruit and an orange, they're bright, juicy and yummy. And perfect for making cocktails, like this blood orange martini.

You'll need:

• 75ml vodka
• 15ml triple sec
• 50ml blood orange juice
• 1 blood orange slice

Shake it!

Shake the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with the blood orange slice. Try this concoction with all the different exotic fruits you can find. Except the dragon fruit. Leave that on the shelf where it belongs.

Flickr image from misserion's photostream.

Cocktail Hour: Lychee Martini

I've been searching for a decent lychee martini recipe for a while. It's not that the ones I've found aren't very good, but it's more that they're have lychee liqueur in them, and that's not the easiest thing to find. And unless you're really a fan of them, you'll find yourself with a bottle of booze that you have no idea what to do with. And then you'll put it in one of those "what happens if I mix these spirits together?" cocktails. And the less said about those the better.

So this cocktail just has lychee juice in it instead, which works just fine and is much cheaper. Use the best quality vodka you can find and it'll taste yummy.

You'll need these things:

• 50ml Vodka
• 25ml lychee juice (you can use the juice from a can of lychees)
• 1 lychee for garnish
• Ice

Make it!

Shake everything with ice in a cocktail shaker. Then strain and pour into a martini glass. Pop a lychee on top of the drink to look pretty. The sit back, drink all your vodka and eat all of the lychees. The vodka should last as long as the can of lychees does. I think that's called fate.

Flickr image from phunkstarr's photostream.