What is a Pummelo?

Food.

On Saturday night, my husband and I entertained one of our long time friends who is of Indonesian descent and has recently moved from NYC to Detroit. He mentioned that one of the things that he misses about NYC is the ease at which one can acquire foods from the East.

He specifically missed that Pummelo’s are in season now. When he said this I didn’t let on that I was completely baffled….Pummelo? But as any good host I started researching and below is what I discovered.

This round-to-pear shaped citrus fruit looks like a very large grapefruit but is sweeter, without bitterness. It's often firmer fleshed and less juicy than its more common relatives. Inside the smooth, golden yellow skin, the fruit is buried beneath a very thick layer of spongy white pith. Remove this layer, then peel away the thick membranes encasing each segment. The flesh may be pink or white, and its texture varies in different fruit. Sometimes it is so firm that the segments readily fall apart into separate juice sacs, or it may be almost as cohesive and juicy as a grapefruit.

We served the below salad as a first course and the result of the sweet, tart citrus, complementing the garlicky spinach was definitely a hit.


Sunkist Citrus Scampi
Serves 4

Ingredients:
12 Sunkist fresh orange segments
12 Sunkist fresh lemon segments
12 Sunkist fresh pummelo segments (use Sunkist grapefruit segments when the pummelos are not in season)
20 Raw, large shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails on
4 tablespoons Butter
4 tablespoons Olive oil
2 teaspoons Garlic, minced
8 cups Baby spinach leaves (Sunkist Citrus Scampi can also be served over 1 cup rice)

Procedure:
Take shrimp and butterfly them, slicing down the back and almost in half. This will make the shrimp curl when cooking.

Melt butter and olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Stir in garlic and shrimp.

Cook shrimp 4 - 5 minutes until they turn pink and tails curl.

Add Sunkist fresh orange, fresh lemon and fresh pummelo segments to pan, and stir gently to heat through.

Place baby spinach leaves on serving plate. Arrange shrimp on top of spinach. Pour garlic butter with Sunkist fresh orange, lemon and pummelo segments over shrimp.Serve immediately.