Papaya, Superhero of the Tropics

by Judy Sobeloff, from the September 2006 newsletter

Here come papayas with one hand out,
All for the Fruit Salad Salsa.
- Laurie Berkner, “Fruit Salad Salsa”

Papayas are not mangoes. If you learn nothing else today, consider it a day well-spent. Here’s what happened when I brought our first papaya home for my mango-loving children. Following their initial excitement, they moved quickly through their disappointment and grief into action.

Younger child (outraged): “I don’t like the taste!”

Older child (disgusted): “Me neither!” (Pause.) “Can we plant papayas with these seeds?”

I started small, with a halved papaya wrapped in plastic, unable to resist its beckoning orange-red flesh, its embedded glistening black pearls. Reader, I must admit I didn’t consciously realize these were seeds at first, preferring to think they were capers or caviar arranged in a papaya bowl by an artist in the Co-op deli. While the seeds are technically edible, and some suggest grinding them as a pepper substitute for use in a creamy salad dressing, they do not make a delectable treat when downed by the spoonful. You might prefer the traditional expedience of dumping them.

Native to Central America, papayas were described by Christopher Columbus as “fruit of the angels.” Green when unripe and yellowish when ripe, with a sort of stubby pear shape, they tend to weigh about a pound, with some behemoths weighing as much as 20 pounds.

While I did enjoy the papaya’s tangy sweetness and its comically bulbous exterior, I have to admit that the month I spent living among papayas was a bit of an uphill slog, watching them rot as I waited for them to ripen. The papaya may not have the inherent mass appeal of its fellow tropical fruit, the mango, but it does have some unusual attributes, which in my mind cast the papaya as a potential superhero.

Attribute #1: the secret weapon. Papayas contain the enzyme papain, which helps to digest proteins and is used as a meat tenderizer. Don’t add papaya to your fruit salad too soon, or it will soften the fruit around it.

Attribute #2: the secret alias. The papaya is referred to by some as a pawpaw. However, this is technically inaccurate, as the pawpaw is a different fruit.

Attribute #3: the ability to transform. Like many among us, papayas hold an interesting and shifting place on the gender/sexuality continuum. Papaya plants are polygamous, with three main types: male, hermaphroditic or bisexual, and female. Some papaya plants produce more than one of these types of flower, and some papaya plants produce flowers that fall somewhere in between these basic categories. Most fascinating, the sexual identity of some plants changes, a tendency which “seems to be triggered by climatic factors, such as drought and variable temperatures” (Florida Cooperative Extension Service Fact Sheet).

To avoid the plight of rotting before ripening, the recommended solution is to buy them already yellow, unless you plan to use green ones in cooking. Papayas ripen at room temperature, and faster if placed in a paper bag with a banana. They can be refrigerated to slow their ripening. In addition to color, one test for ripeness is sniffing for sweetness.

Serving suggestions include blending papayas with milk or yogurt to make a smoothie, eating them fresh with a dash of lime or lemon juice, or hollowing out the seeds and putting fruit salad in the center to make a papaya “boat.”

My family all enjoyed the two papaya dishes we sampled, though as is often the case with children, the part they enjoyed was not necessarily the intended focus. With “Yin Yang Papaya Dessert,” they loved both the experience of cooking with the white plastic-like tapioca beads, as well as the taste of the tapioca pudding component of the dessert, once they realized the tapioca beads were in fact edible. Never previously a tapioca pudding fan, I found that the use of coconut milk made this tapioca pudding a real treat.

We all savored the “Black Bean and Papaya Salsa” as well, though for some reason my children most enjoyed the opportunity to drink the “juice” from the black beans along the way.

YIN YANG PAPAYA DESSERT (adapted from Nicole Routhier’s Fruit Cookbook)

1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk, well stirred
3/4 cup milk
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. quick-cooking or regular tapioca
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 medium ripe papayas (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
Fresh mint sprigs, for garnish

If using regular tapioca, soak in water before cooking for approximately 30 minutes. Combine the coconut milk, milk, sugar, and quick-cooking or previously soaked tapioca beads in a medium-size saucepan, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring frequently, until the tapioca is translucent and the mixture is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Do not overcook; the mixture will continue to set as it cools. Stir in the vanilla extract. Let the tapioca cool. Cover and refrigerate until it is well chilled, at least 1 hour.

Halve the papaya and remove the seeds. With a spoon, scoop out the flesh and place it in a blender or food processor. Process the papaya to a puree. (There should be about 2 cups of puree.) Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 1 hour.

To serve, spoon the tapioca pudding into one side of each soup bowl, then add the papaya puree on the other side, forming a yin-yang pattern. Garnish with a mint sprig and serve immediately. 

BLACK BEAN AND PAPAYA SALSA (from Salsas, Sambals, Chutneys & ChowChows by Chris Schlesinger)

1 cup cooked or canned black beans
2 ripe papayas, diced small
1/2 red bell pepper, diced small
1/2 green bell pepper, diced small
1/2 red onion, diced small
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup lime juice (about 4 limes)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. minced red or green chile pepper
Salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix together well. This salsa is recommended both with other foods (e.g. grilled fish or chips) and by itself.

Copyright: Copyright on articles, recipes and images are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective contributors, except were otherwise noted.

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