Kitchen helper – how to peel a lychee
There’s a trick to getting inside these hard-shelled, red bumpy fruit. Read on to learn how.
The hard outer shell of these red, bumpy fruit hides a white, sweet and juicy interior.
But getting inside them is an art in itself. It’s tempting to just dive in and crack off the hard outer shell. This can get messy and there is a better way.
We’re big fans of Nagi Maehashi, the creator of popular cooking website RecipeTin Eats and several cookbooks. So scrolling through her Facebook page we came across this brilliant tip for peeling lychees.
Lychees are in season right now until March. They’re a summer fruit native to South China, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. They’re grown very successfully up and down Queensland, and Australia has the longest lychee season in the world, running from October to March.
They’re a delicious fruit to eat on their own, and in fruit salads where they pair beautifully with other tropical fruits like banana, mango, pineapple and passionfruit. In Asian cuisine they are used in sweet and sour sauces to accompany savoury dishes and are also included in stir fries. Made into a syrup, they make a delicious cocktail.
So onto Nagi’s tip. She says to look closely at the red scaly skin, and, her words not ours: “Look for the bum crack”. Then squeeze on either side of this line and the shell should just pop in two, and is easily removed, revealing the sweet, white lychee inside. But don’t pop the whole thing in your mouth at once - there is a pip in the middle which you will need to discard.
If you want to see Nagi do it, here’s the link to the post on her Facebook page.
