Last month my daughter and I were fortunate to tag along with my husband while he attended a medical conference in Maui. As you may imagine, escaping the cold winter blues of the Willamette Valley for weather that was instead very warm, sunny and downright perfect was a dream come true. And if that wasn’t blissful enough … having the addition of freshly harvested tropical fruits and local seafood put our experience over the top. But wait! Why do I bring this up you ask?. … It is to suggest how you too can bring the tropics into your winter drudgery without even leaving home!
While in Maui, I immediately searched out produce stands, and the first couple days we enjoyed the taste of freshly picked papayas, mangos and pineapples, unadulterated and in their natural state. A couple days in, I was lucky enough to run across a #1-rated restaurant that specialized in fish tacos. This was not a fancy restaurant by any means. We ordered at the counter, took a number, sat outside on what resembled a surfboard shaped table with a bench to sit on and was later served our food. However, we quickly learned these were not just ordinary tacos. Each taco included 17 different ingredients, including garden-fresh mango salsa, and they were definitely the best tacos my family has ever eaten.
That being said, the good news is you certainly don’t need to go to Hawaii to eat fresh tropical food, and you definitely don’t need 17 different ingredients to make a great-tasting taco. In fact, the opposite is often more true. Focusing on the true taste and texture of individual foods can be much more rewarding and satisfying than disguising a dish with a lot of hoopla that may end up masking the original flavors and in turn creating a more complicated and over-done entree.
So you now ask, “How do we accomplish this?” By the end of winter, I too find myself easily stuck in a routine of eating the same root vegetables, winter squash and preparing heavier meals. Instead, consider bringing the tropics into your weekly meal planning as a great way to help escape the winter doldrums. This encourages you to try new foods in different combinations while adding variety to your meals. Incorporating fresh fruit and seafood is a great way to lighten up your meals, both in regard to fat and calories, as well as how you feel after eating.
This time of year, we obviously do not have available the plentiful street-side produce stands or farmers markets; however, we do have access to specialty stores and mega markets that do offer year-round ability to purchase tropical foods from around the world. We are of course familiar with the common lemon, lime, kiwi and avocados. But let’s go a step further as surprisingly, the following foods are often quite reasonably priced.
Here are a few suggestions to bring tropical freshness into your home this winter:
1. Grill fruits and serve them on the side or to accompany other dishes. Grilling fruits such as pineapple allows the natural sugars to caramelize and provides additional depths of flavor and texture to your meal.
2. Incorporate coconut into appetizers, entrees and desserts. Fresh coconut is fun to eat right out of the shell; however it also tastes fabulous when grated and toasted.
3. Add fresh mango and papaya into salads, entrees, or desserts. These delicious tasting fruits undeniably say “Tropics” and will help lighten and brighten up any meal.
4. Mix in fresh herbs such as basil, mint, dill, cilantro and even parsley as these can substantially revitalize any everyday dish.
5. Include fish, shellfish and crustaceans into your meals as they have many health benefits and are a great way to incorporate light tasting, heart healthy proteins.
So the next time you are at the market, think tropical! Peruse the produce isles for fruits and vegetables such as pineapple, mango, papaya, star fruit, coconut, lemongrass, ginger and even fresh herbs to help revive and lighten up your next meal. Remember it’s not the quantity of ingredients but quality that transforms a blasé meal into an islands dream.
