LTH Home

What to do with a Rambutan?

What to do with a Rambutan?
  • Forum HomePost Reply BackTop
  • What to do with a Rambutan?

    Post #1 - November 9th, 2007, 7:50 am
    Post #1 - November 9th, 2007, 7:50 am Post #1 - November 9th, 2007, 7:50 am
    I picked up some rambutans the other day and, aside from eating them raw, was wondering how to incorporate them into my cooking.
    It's my first experience with them. They sort of remind me of a cross between a white grape and a mangosteen.
    One of those dishes on Top Chef (that the jamaican chick cooked) was halibut with grapes, and that got me thinking that, if i can offset their sweetness, they might work well in a fish dish. Or maybe paired with scallops, if i can make a vanilla-bean and cracked pepper brown butter to counter them. Though, these may be terrible ideas.
    Any ideas from people that have worked with them before?
    "Who says I despair?...I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?"--Walker Percy
  • Post #2 - November 14th, 2007, 11:44 am
    Post #2 - November 14th, 2007, 11:44 am Post #2 - November 14th, 2007, 11:44 am
    I too have thought about putting them use in dishes. I've put them in with chicken and pasta salads. I have purchased freeze-dried rambutan at Trader Joe's and have served them with sorbet. I have made lychee sorbet and I imagine you could do the same with canned rambutan. Also I could see a panna cotta made with rambutan and served with fruit like mango or peach. I am sure one could make preserves as well from rambutan. maybe even a rambutan jelly which one could use to glaze pork roasts or duck. Hmmmm, the wheels are spinnin'! :)
    Moses supposes his toeses are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously. Moses, he knowses his toeses aren't roses, as Moses supposes his toeses to be.
  • Post #3 - November 14th, 2007, 4:00 pm
    Post #3 - November 14th, 2007, 4:00 pm Post #3 - November 14th, 2007, 4:00 pm
    Rambutans have similar flavor and texture like lychees. So, you can browse through on the Internet the recipes that use lychees as ingredient and substitute them with rambutans.
  • Post #4 - November 14th, 2007, 10:18 pm
    Post #4 - November 14th, 2007, 10:18 pm Post #4 - November 14th, 2007, 10:18 pm
    I've never tried 'cooking' a fresh rambutan, but one common thing many Cambodians I know (and I would hazard a guess that this is common across Southeast Asia) do with canned rambutan (or lychee, or longan, or jackfruit, or sugar palm nut, or bananas, or beans, or many other kinds of fruit, canned or fresh) is to make a simple little soup dessert.

    It consists of using the syrup from the can, or a homemade simple syrup, adding the peeled fruit, cut into pieces if they are too big, and adding a dollop of coconut cream on top.

    I prefer this dessert served just slightly warm, with an extra helping of little tapioca balls for a little extra thickness and just the lightest smidgen of salt too for depth.

    When we are really being fancy, though, we also add a little bit more coconut milk to the simple syrup (not a lot, though, because of the high fat content), add a dollop of the head of the coconut cream, and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and a little shaved coconut too, for texture.

    But it's perfectly delicious as well served on ice with the simple syrup, the fruit, and the ice all melding together as a nice cool, watery-sweet refreshing snack (and, I can't help it, just a dollop of coconut cream). Some people also add tapioca in any of its many forms--as tapioca noodles or as the regular pearls. When I'm feeling exotic, I add a little bit of vanilla extract to the mix too.

Contact

About

Team

Advertize

Close

Chat

Articles

Guide

Events

more