Tinned Fruit

Tinned fruit in an Asian grocer is a different shelf from the supermarket one. Alongside the familiar fruit cocktail and peach slices you will find the tropical fruit that rarely travels well fresh: lychees, rambutan, jackfruit, young coconut meat and the translucent jelly-like seeds of the toddy palm, known as nungu in Tamil. Above all there is mango pulp, the smooth, sweet purée of Indian and Pakistani mangoes that most families keep in the cupboard for when the fresh season is over.

The category splits into mango pulp, from Alphonso, Kesar and Chaunsa mangoes, and fruit in syrup, which covers everything else from lychees to palmyra fruit pulp. Mango pulp goes into mango lassi, aamras with hot puris, shrikhand, kulfi and mango cheesecake. Fruit in syrup is the quick finish for falooda, trifle, fruit custard and Thai-style desserts, and a bowl of chilled lychees is a dessert on its own.

Syrup strength varies, so taste before adding more sugar to a recipe, and keep the syrup to sweeten a jelly or a drink. Choose fruit in juice if you want a lighter result. Once opened, move leftovers into a covered bowl in the fridge and use within a few days, or freeze mango pulp in ice cube trays for single lassis.

Tinned fruit sits in the tins and ready meals department. For desserts, pair it with falooda mix, custard powder or jelly.