... when they could be importing soursop? I know, I know, it doesn't sound as nice. And it certainly isn't as pretty as the perfectly spherical and brightly colored orange, with it's perfectly compartmentalized flesh. And I do love oranges, and until now I thought that I tall glass of orange juice was the perfect way to start the day. But now I have learned of the true wonder that is the soursop fruit, I don't know how I ever got along without it. To compare the taste of an orange to a soursop would be like comparing a can of dog food to a sirloin steak.
Yes, it is that good. Soursop is sweet and... well, I am not sure how to describe it. I feel very, very sorry for everyone back in the States who doesn't get to taste the wonder that is soursop fruit. And for once I'm glad that none of you are down here visiting... because I'd have to share my soursop juice. And I really don't want to do that. It's all for me! Well, and Ryan too, I suppose. We both love it and I'm sure we will drink a great deal of soursop juice before the end of its season.
The tale of our soursop adventure starts a few days ago, when I was buying lettuce from Betsy, one of the ladies who sells fruit out of the shacks by campus. I had heard of soursop from a few other spouses, and been told to watch out for it and buy it as soon as I saw it. So when I noticed a green spiky fruit, I excitedly asked if this was soursop... and immediately bought some. The fruit was very hard when I bought it, and Betsy told me that I would have to wait until it was soft before I could eat it. The fruit has been sitting on the counter next to my fruit basket since I bought it- the soursop is so heavy that I worried it would crush and bruise the other fruit if I placed it in the basket. Ryan and I have been checking the progress of the soursop several times a day, and each time... nothing. It was still very hard. The second or third time we checked today though... it was soft!
I was very surprised because this was no gradual softening. The fruit was very hard... and then suddenly it was very soft and I was afraid to squeeze too hard and damage the fruit. The skin is very tough, however, sort of like a banana skin but much thinner, and so the flesh of the fruit is somewhat protected. We were so excited that the soursop was ready that Ryan took a study break this evening to help me prepare it.
We weren't precisely sure how to proceed. I'd been told that soursop is VERY juicy- but it also has a tough flesh and large seeds. When I make grapefruit or orange juice, I simply slice the fruit in half and use my little juice squeezer. But that wasn't an option here, due to the shape of the fruit and the pliability of the skin. So we basically just cut the fruit open and started peeling away chunks of flesh and dropping them into the blender. We had to be careful though, since the seeds are very large and very well hidden! Once we'd removed all of the fruit's flesh, we added some water and turned on the blender to break the flesh up a bit and mix the water and the fruit.
It came along very nicely- although we had missed a few seeds! We ended up running the juice through a strainer to catch the seeds and the remaining pulpy flesh- anything that hadn't broken up in the blender was probably tougher than anything we wanted to drink! The two soursop fruit made an IMPRESSIVE amount of juice- about a gallon's worth. And, as I said before, it is very delicious. Here are a few photos of our soursop adventure!
The outside of the fruit. The spines are tough, but they don't really hurt. This is an average sized soursop.
The fleshy interior. You can see how thin the skin of the fruit is, and if you look closely at the fruit you can see the thick, fibrous center- it's the non-shiny part. Ryan's picking through the fruit here, looking for seeds, before dropping it into the blender.
And here it is, a whole pitcher of fruity goodness! Yay!
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