Ever find yourself shying away from buying mangoes and pineapples because you're not sure what to do with them? Culinary Adventurer Christian Pritchard shows you the best way to slice and dice your mangoes, pineapples, oranges and strawberries, with a little help from the guys.

Mangoes

[mangoes]

This technique produces nice tasty cubes, perfect for fruit salad, and works best with ripe mangoes (it's not so great with the raw, green mangoes you might use for mango salad).

1. Using a paring knife, slice off the bottom to stabilize the mango.
2. Slice off one "cheek" of the mango, parallel to the pit.
3. Score the flesh side of the cheek in a cross-hatch pattern.
4. Invert the cheek to create a flower shape.
5. Run your paring knife between the flesh and the skin to slice off cubes of flesh.

Pineapples

[pineapples]

Use this technique to create pineapple rings or little bite-sized chunks.

1. Holding the pineapple vertically, slice down toward the cutting board to remove skin (you can grip the fruit by the leaves on top).
2. Turn the pineapple on its side, and cut into 2 cm slices.
3. To remove core, place each slice flat on the cutting board, and use the paring knife to remove a circle in the middle, creating a ring.
4. Cut rings into bite-sized chunks, if desired.

Strawberry Fan

[strawberryfan]

These pretty strawberry fans are the perfect garnish for just about any dessert.

1. Hold strawberry by the leaves, and place on its side on the cutting board.
2. Using a paring knife, create a series of parallel slices along the long side of the fruit, taking care not to cut through the top.
3. Press down on the strawberry to fan out the slices.

Segmenting Oranges

[oranges]

Orange slices are great in salads. Orange membranes? Not so much.

1. First, slice off the bottom and top of the orange with a paring knife to stabilize.
2. Place orange flat on the cutting board, and remove the skin and pith, always slicing downward.
3. Lift orange off board, and carefully slice on either side of the membrane separating each segment.
4. The slices should fall right out of the orange (they may need a little help).

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