Lychee: Peel back the layers of flavour

Come May and it’s all eyes on a stone fruit – lychee! The juicy, sweet fleshy fruit makes for not just a refreshing sorbet or drink, but also lends itself well to savoury cooking. Says Ashish Bhasin, Gurugram-based chef and founder of CB Hospitality says, “Lychee’s unique texture and flavour make it a culinary blessing. It also so versatile and seamlessly integrates into soups, appetizers, desserts, and main courses. It serves as a remarkable accompaniment to a variety of proteins, including fish, chicken, and duck.”
Chefs and are increasingly giving it a modern culinary creative spin. He adds: “Innovatively, lychee has emerged as a stellar substitute for fish in contemporary dishes like sashimi, carpaccio, tataki, or ceviche. Its texture, akin to scallops, offers a delightful bite. Chefs skillfully balance lychee’s sweetness with spices, vinegar, soy sauce, lemon, ginger, and more.”
Celebrity chef and food author Tara Deshpande delves into the popularity of the fruit as she says, “Lychees grow plentifully in Bihar, China and other parts of South-East Asia. Lychees are found commonly in Cantonese and Sichuan cooking and litchi flavour sauce is considered one of the mother sauces in Chinese cooking. Lychees work well in salad dressings and can be used to make jellies, compotes and jus that enhances meat and seafood dishes well.”
 
Use the fruit in traditional Sichuan cooking, when making pickled fish. Explains Vaibhav Soni, consultant chef and founder of Snowy Foods Real, “Just prepare the steamed sea bass with fermented chilli and lychee and top it with homemade caviar of lychee and mint for a burst of flavour.”
Niriksha Reddy, Sous Chef, ITC Grand Central, Mumbai, shares how the sweet, floral taste of lychees offers a delightful contrast with with Indian savoury dishes. 
She says, “Make a lychee kofta gravy where you simply combine lychees to the potato mix for the koftas, along with paneer, corn flour and spices and add that to the kofta curry. They turn the dish around beautifully!”
For a summer al fresco party, Anubhav Moza, Assistant brand chef, Sly Granny, Bengaluru, has a refreshing idea.
He shares, “Lychees make for a lovely seasonal salad. Toss crisp greens, tangy citrus, and crunchy vegetables. The addition of juicy lychee on top totally elevates this dish.” 
How about going the Italian way by making lychee-cheese ravioli, asks Kapil Dubey, Executive Chef, The Leela Gandhinagar. 

“Just whip up a nice ricotta mix with Parmesan cheese, nuts lemon zest and seasoning and add this filling to the pasta sheet then cut it into square shapes. Cook the pasta and dress it with thyme and butter-garlic sauce.”
Traditional mithai gets a fun twist with this Lychee Sandesh. Sharing more, chef Sneha Singhi Upadhya from Kolkata, says, “Lychees are one of my favourite fruits as they’re so versatile. They can be easily stuffed after being deseeded and in this dessert, lychees and vanilla ice cream each other due to their contrasting flavours.”
She adds, “To make it, just blitz together the paneer, saffron-infused milk, vanilla ice cream and sugar. De-seed lychees and stuff them with this. Chill and garnish with chopped pistachios and varq.
Lychee & Caramelized Rice Pudding
Try a comforting dessert, by Executive Chef Santosh Yadav, The Park Indore. 
He says, “This Lychee & Caramelized Rice Pudding is a velvety mix of rice and milk and caramel. It is topped with succulent lychees to make for a smooth-meets-crunchy feel – a perfect summer treat!”
Hard-pressed for time? MasterChef Pankaj Bhadouria from Lucknow suggests, ”These mango lychees are a no-cook, fat-free dessert.”
She adds, “Peeled, deseeded lychees get a filling of raw paneer and mango pulp. Garnish them with chopped pistachios and you have taste, crunch and colour coming together.”