How would you describe the texture of fresh litchis? It’s probably closest to some traditional grape varieties, but this association might come from its very sweet taste as well. Considering the texture only, to my opinion litchis resemble prawns or scallops. Based on this line of thought, I replaced the prawns to litchis in a simple recipe I developed 2 years ago.

I slightly changed the preparation of the garnish too. First I skipped the butter and the milk in the salsify puree to get a purely vegan dish as final result. Because recently I learned that baked salsify is much more easy to handle and preserves a lot more of its flavor, I baked the salsify roots wrapped in aluminium foil in the oven. In the blood orange sauce this time I skipped the muscovado sugar to get a more tart result which balanced the sweetness of the litchis. The litchis were roasted in a very hot pan for a few seconds only. Prepared this way the cooked hot litchi preserved its texture similar to prawns and scallops. If litchis were just slightly less sweet, they could be applied in endless variations of appetizers or main courses. So, if you have a tip how to tell from a raw litchi its sweetness or ripeness, please share your knowledge as a comment below.

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