Frozen Fruit

Frozen fruit is picked ripe and frozen within hours, which keeps it sweet and soft once thawed. For South Asian kitchens the most useful are the tropical fruits that are expensive or hard to find fresh in the UK: Alphonso and other mango pulp and slices, jackfruit pods (kathal, chakka or kos), custard apple pulp (sitaphal), chikoo, guava and coconut. Berries, mixed fruit and smoothie blends sit alongside them for everyday use.

Choose by what you are making. Mango slices and pulp go into lassi, mango shrikhand, mango kulfi and smoothies. Sitaphal pulp is the base of a creamy sitaphal rabdi or ice cream, and jackfruit pods can be eaten as they are, cooked into Kerala chakka varattiyathu or used in a payasam. Berries and mixed fruit suit breakfast bowls, cereal and baking.

Frozen fruit loses its firm texture when thawed, so it works best blended, cooked or eaten half frozen. Blend it straight from the freezer for a thick smoothie or lassi with no need for ice. For desserts, thaw it in the fridge in a covered bowl. Seal the bag tightly to prevent ice crystals and freezer burn, and keep it at -18°C. For a cupboard version, see tinned mango pulp, and for a cold dessert with fruit and noodles, falooda. More frozen produce is in frozen coconut and frozen vegetables and coconut.