Fruit Feasting in Far North Queensland

Banana tree growing free

There's something romantic about nature in Far North Queensland. The sun seems to nurture rather than scorch, the ocean to soothe rather than rage. The sky seems bluer, the plants greener, the flowers more vibrant. Life bursts all around, and I can loose myself walking on a glorious stretch of beach or exploring in the dense rainforest, in sheer awe of nature's perfection.

Of course the other side to the extreme beauty of the tropics is the intense humidity and rainstorms of the wet season. But it's the special combination of heat and rain that produce what I consider the best feature of the tropics: the fruit. Rare and wonderful gems of the tropics like star apple and abiu thrive in conditions that are enough to drive most human beings insane.

Tropical Fruit Bowl of Yumminess

As a tourist, the place to sample some of these goodies is the Cape Tribulation Exotic Fruit Farm. It produces a commercial crop of mangosteens, but the orchard is dotted with a wide assortment of fruit trees producing their various bounty in their own seasons. Even visiting at the end of the dry season there's an exciting assortment to taste and view in the stunning orchard, set just at the foot of the rainforest.

Today's Menu

Our tasting guide is Trish, who nurtured a passion for fruit growing up in Brazil. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and she soon has us gasping and mmming our way through a gigantic bowl of exotic goodies. We start with water spiked with West Indian lime, to cleanse the palate, and then we dive right into the tasting.

Pummelo is first, a fruit I remember from my travels in Israel. It's sweeter than a grapefruit, but still retains a hint of tartness. It reminds me of my childhood breakfast of a halved grapefruit sprinkled with brown sugar. Interesting, but not exotic enough for me yet. Next is longan, which is similar to a lychee. The skin is thinner and brown, but when peeled away it has that eyeball texture and mildly sweet juicy flesh with a slight sour tang.

Pummelo

By this time I'm eying off some of the more unsual fruits in the bowl, and my wish is granted. Trish holds up an abiu fruit, which she calls the "guardian of the mangosteen" because of the trees' big, shady canopy that protects the young trees but which can pruned back to practically nothing when it's the mangosteens' turn to shine. The abiu is a tropical exclusive; it can't be transported because it is incredibly fragile and oxidizes quickly. It's like nothing I've ever tasted - gentle and approachably sweet with a soft texture. It's so good that we all eat it down to the skin, only to be left with a strange sticky residue on our lips as though a big bubble of gum as been burst in our mouths. It's a strange sensation, but tasty enough to leave us wanting more.

Abiu - sweet and lovely

Moving on the sapote family, we have a taste of the sapodilla or sapote chico. It's not a fibrous fruit, and the texture is smooth and avocado-like. The flavor is reminiscent of a ripe date - lots of sugar and hint of spice. Imagine Christmas pudding in a fruit and you ahve the sapodilla.

The yellow sapote is possibly even less fibrous, with a texture like crumbly cheese and a color like the yolk of a fresh egg. I'm in love with this fruit - the flavor is sweet, but there's something more, something lusty. This is a fruit for grownups, it's mature and a little bit dangerous. Add it to my list of aphrodesiacs.

Yellow Sapote, you naughty thing

The star apple is a bit of a misnomer. It's related to the apple in color only, though a cross section of the fruit does reveal a glorious star. Hailing from Haiti, this big round dark orb is mildly sweet and refreshing on the inside. It's an easy to eat fruit, but again it leaves that sticky-lip feeling when you eat too close to the skin (and you do, because it's so good).

Trish with a glorious but misnamed star apple

Our only Australian native of the day is the Davidson plum. Again, it's not a plum, it only looks like a plum. Seems the English had a propensity to name things for things they looked like back home - a sentiment I understand, because whenever I travel I always find myself searching for a familiar point of comparison. It's taste, however, is not plum-like. It is one of the tartest things I've ever tasted, but not necessarily unpleasingly so. While everyone's faces pucker up as if we'd eated a bowl of lemons, we agree that it would make a nice chutney for red meat or could be cooked up with sugar to make a paste for a cheese plate (a la Maggie Beer), if you go in for that sort of thing. In the raw kitchen, I could see it adding a piquant bite to a sauce or salad, and I'm interested in getting my hands on some to have a play with. By itself it's full on, though I do spot my dad going back for seconds (I suspect he was alone in chosing this as his favorite of the day).

The final two fruits belong the custard apple family. First is rollinia, a South American native that closely resembles the custard apples I find in Victorian markets both inside and out. The taste is remarkable: lemon meringue pie, with the texture of, well, custard. The rollinia is a big hit, and it's followed by guanabana, also known as soursop. It's the only fruit in the custard apple family that has juice, so the pulp can be frozen, or the juice can be extracted for those who don't like it's overly fibrous texture. It tastes like a really sweet pineapple, minus the acidity, and with a faint hint of bubble gum. A bit too sweet for my taste, but truly exotic.

Rollinia (left) and Soursop aka Guanabana (right)

After the tasting I spend the rest of the week trying any tropical fruits I can get my hands on. Black sapotes turn out to be a bust, as the only ones I can find are full of seeds, but I do gorge myself on several pawpaws (aka papaya) and enjoy amazing local avocadoes and some dried mango.

I guess I'll have to go back in the wet so I can feast on the holy grail of tropical fruits: a fresh durian.

Mom and I basking in tropical glory

Cool Rawkin' Aussie Stuff

Wanna make your raw life better? Here are few fantastic raw enterprises recently rolled out by a couple of amazing Aussie lasses which I think are worth checking out, supporting, and generally showing some love to. They'll love you right back!

#1 - Monkey Mike's Raw Food Cookbook: an Un-cookbook Book for Kids. By Melbourne's own Joanne Newell! Those of you who follow the blog at RawMom.com will be familiar with Joanne's work, and let me tell you, she's one passionate, lovely lady. Her book looks really well laid out and easy to follow for kids from about 7-years-old and up. Also a nice reminder that raw food prep needn't be overly complicated to be delicious, and that's it accessible for everybody. Get it for kids in your life that you care about (including your inner child).

#2 - Passionate Gourmet Uncooking School. Just launched in Perth! How I wish I were in Perth right now so I could attend one of these classes offered by the talented, passionate and endlessly inspiring Kate Quinn (also the creator, editor and publisher of Living Raw). She also does catering, coaching and about a million other things. Catch her if you can!

There are so many other amazing things happening on the Australia raw scene now as well. I welcome anyone to post other great Aussie raw stuff in the comments section so we can all benefit from the snowballing creative energy going on here.

Goji and Blueberry Cheesecake

When life hands me blueberries, goji berries, and "really raw" cashews, what do I do? Why, make goji and blueberry cheesecake, of course. Silly question.

The colors and textural interplay in this cake are amazing. Bright orange cream filling, violet blueberry sauce, and dark chocolatey crust create a striking image - and we eat with our eyes first. I love using blueberries in the filling because combined with the "really raw" cashews (not steamed to remove the shells), they create an airy cream filling. The combination of brazil nuts, vanilla, cacao and coconut in the crust reminds me of a darker, richer version of oreo cookies. I add some more textural interest by sprinkling a crust layer in the middle of the cake, and drizzling a blueberry syrup over the finished cake. This leads to a cheesecake that is flavorful and light - so you can eat it and feel totally satisfied, not sick.

I got nearly all of the ingredients for this cake from the Melbourne Living Foods Co-op this month. We are so lucky to have this group, because it allows us to buy loads of fantastic organic, raw products each month at a low price, and to support local farmers and enterprises in the bargain. I highly recommend joining a co-op like this if you have one in your area.


Goji and Blueberry Cheesecake

Crust:

3/4 cup brazil nuts
3/4 cup dried coconut
pinch Himalayan salt
1 heaped Tbsp cacao powder
1-2 Tbsp honey or agave
1 Tbsp cacao nibs or 7 cacao beans
1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:

1/2 cup goji berries
1 cup cashews
1 1/2 fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup melted cacao butter or coconut oil
1/4 cup honey or agave
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
pinch Himalayan salt

Topping:

1 cup blueberries
3 dates
water as needed
a handful of gogi berries

Method:

To make the crust, combine brazil nuts, dried coconut, Himalayan salt and cacao powder in a food processor. Whir until ground well. Add honey or agave, cacao nibs or beans, and vanilla extract. Pulse until large crumbs form. If not sticky enough, add a bit more honey or agave.

Press 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan. Refrigerate to set.

For the filling, grind goji berries to a sticky powder in a spice/coffee grinder. In a food processor or high speed blender, combine goji powder, cashews, blueberries, melted cacao butter or coconut oil, honey or agave, lemon juice and salt. Blend/whir until totally smooth. *If you are using frozen blueberries and they are not totally thawed, blend the other ingredients first until really smooth and somewhat warm. Add the berries one at a time to keep the temperature constant so that the melted cacao butter or coconut oil doesn't seize up.

Spread 1/2 of the fillling over the crust. Sprinkle the remaining crust mixture on top and refrigerate for 10 minutes to set. The spread the rest of the filling over the top and refrigerate or freeze until ready to eat - at least an hour.

To make the topping, combine one cup of blueberries with the dates in a food processor or high speed blender. Blend/whir, adding water as needed to achieve a thick syrup. When serving, drizzle the sauce over the cake and top with a few goji berries.

Emerald and Ruby Grawnola

This is the best grawnola ever! Its base is crunchy and nutritionally-dense buckwheat, which makes for a really satisfying raw breakfast cereal. Then its studded with gorgeous little jewel-like cranberries, apricots, pistachios and pumpkin seeds. The contrast of the deep ruby cranberries and dark amber apricots with the glistening green pistachios and pumpkin seeds is visually stunning - and don't forget, we eat with our eyes before we even taste a morsel.

What really makes this grawnola shine - both in appearance and taste - is a coating of olive oil and a dark/light sweetener combination. The oil and sweetener act as a glue to hold the mixture together, and they really amplify the flavors of the ingredients. I've used two sweeteners to give more depth to the flavor and to create a more broad mineral profile. I used a beautiful local raw honey with a sweet, mild flavor and dark agave in my mixture, but feel free to experiment with the fruitier flavor of yacon syrup or the complex sweetness of maple syrup.

You could use another oil if you prefer, but I like the savory flavor of olive oil (along with a bit of Himalayan salt, my favorite) in contrast with all the sweetness in this recipe. I'm a big fan of combining sweet and savory - I love the big punch of a broad flavor profile on my tongue. I guess I'm a bit of a flavor junky! Try it for yourself and see if you don't become an addict, too.

Emerald and Ruby Grawnola

3 cups buckwheat, soaked overnight
1 1/2 cups pistachios, soaked overnight
1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dried apricots, cut into quarters
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup strong sweetener (dark agave, B or C grade maple syrup, yacon syrup, strong honey)
1/2 cup light sweetener (light agave, A grade maple syrup, mild honey)
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Drain and rinse buckwheat, pistachios and pumpkin seeds. Combine in a large bowl. Add olive oil, both sweeteners, salt, cinnamon and cardamom. Toss to coat thoroughly. Mix in cranberries and apricots. Spread over teflex dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for 36-48 hours, until buckwheat is crunchy and mixture is mostly dry (will still feel a bit sticky). Place in a cool spot for a couple of hours, and the granola should harden so that is is completely crunchy and no longer sticky.

Stored in airtight containers, it will keep for a few weeks. Serve with nutmilk and fresh fruit, or just eat it on its own as a snack. Yum.

Stir-Dehydrate - or, an impromptu weeknight dinner

I learned to appreciate vegetables at a young age. In fact, there was not really any learning to be done - I have always instinctively loved all things veg. Unlike most food-fussy children, I had no problem gobbling up broccoli, and I salivated at the mere mention of spinach. While I shunned anything that was of recognizable animal origins (I could handle hamburgers but balked at steak or chicken), I happily snacked on raw veggie sticks and filled my plates with seconds of peas, potatoes and parsnips.

One of my mom's staple weeknight dinners was the classic stir-fry, and as a vegetable lover this was always a favorite of mine. Hers tended to be very onion-and-pepper centric, but I did learn from her the beauty of throwing a bundle of whatever vegetables are on hand into a big ole' frypan and making them taste delicious by topping them with assorted savory sauces. As I learned to cook for myself, particularly as I appreciated the beauty of healthy vegetarian eating, I relied more and more on the stir-fry for a quick, easy and yummy weeknight meal. In fact for ages my favorite post-yoga dinner was a big bowl of stir-fried greens and tofu.

Transitioning the stir-fry to the stir-dehydrate takes a tad bit more planning, but it's just as forgiving and delicious as its cooked counterpart. I say it takes more planning simply because I like to warm it for at least half an hour in the dehydrator, but you could eat it totally fresh if you're short on time. In winter I really need to eat my food slightly warmer than room temperature for comfort reasons - my old house is really cold, and warm food really seems to help me keep the chills at bay.

The only requirements for this recipe are a lot of asian greens - in fact, today's inspiration is some lovely local bok choy with gorgeous little purple streaks and an intensely cabbagey flavor - and a good savory sauce. Other than that, you can play around with the veggies you add or subtract - just use whatever you have on hand. I even tossed in some tempeh here to bulk it up a bit more. I serve this one with strips of coconut meat as noodles because I like to add a bit more fat into my winter diet, but you could lighten it up with zucchini or kelp noodles instead. Either way, definitely try this sauce - it's a winner that I keep coming back to again and again.

Stir-Dehydrate

3 bunches bok choy, chopped width-wise into thin slices
1/4 head of cauliflower, cut into tiny florets
4 large swiss brown mushrooms, sliced thinly
3 spring onions, chopped into 1cm pieces
meat of 1 young Thai coconut, cut into ribbons
drizzle of olive oil (or use sesame or other oil of your choice)
big pinch of himalayan salt

Sauce:
2 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp tamari
1 Tbsp miso paste
1 tsp honey
3 Tbsp olive oil (or sesame, or other oil of your choice)
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp minced fresh garlic
a few drops toasted sesame oil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2-3 Tbsp sesame seeds

Mix chopped vegetables, coconut noodles, oil and salt in a bowl and toss to coat. Place bowl in dehydrator, or spread veggies over teflex sheet, and leave at least 1/2 hour to warm and soften veggies.

For the sauce: combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine thoroughly. Adjust seasoning to your taste - remember, the taste should be intense but balanced as it will be spread over all those veggies.

When veggies are warm enough for you, toss with sauce in a bowl. Top with sesame seeds and eat with chopsticks! Serves 2 as a main meal.

Celeriac

A relatively lovely specimen, from marcwomm on flickr

Celeriac is one ugly bugger. It's a knobby, tangly, dirty root hiding beneath a mop of straggly greens. Why I selected it from the assortment of root vegetables adorning the winter vegetable display at the farmers market is a bit of mystery - perhaps I felt sorry for the homely little guy. All I can say is, I'm glad that something prompted me to bring this sad specimen home. Because hiding beneath the gruff exterior is a unique and enjoyable flavor experience.

I decided to try my hand at adapting a traditional French preparation for celeriac - the remoulade. It took a bit of work, but I didn't mind. I lopped off the greens and made myself a green juice (celeriac tops, 1 apple and 1/2 a lemon) to fuel me up for a culinary task at hand. Then I simply cut away all of the gnarly exterior. What was left resembled a turnip or swede. The celeriac was treated to a quick grating (I used a box grater, but I sure am missing the grater attachment to my food processor that is buried in a box somewhere from my last move) and set aside.

A traditional remoulade is dressed with a garlicky mayonnaise. Since I'm not averse to the idea of raw egg, I've tried this before. But I found the results to be so rich that eating it made me feel kind of sick. So I decided to make a lighter version of the creamy, garlicky dressing using avocado as the base, with an assortment of seasonings including parsley from the garden and fresh raw organic garlic (I'm definitely going through a garlic phase at the moment, eating about 1 clove a day...hopefully nobody's noticed). The resulting dressing packs a lot more nutrition and is easier on the stomach than the original.

I tossed the dressing with the grated celeriac and, voila! A lighter, brighter version of celeriac remoulade. Yeah, it looks a little bit greener than the traditional type, but in the raw food world we're used to our food having a slight tinge of green.

Light, Bright Celeriac Remoulade

If you haven't tackled celeriac yet, I urge you to try it. Its flavor has hints of celery, but nuttier and sweeter. Once you cut away the exterior, it is really easy to handle, and has such an unusual taste that is really surprising. Don't let its funny looks deceive you.

Light, Bright Celeriac Remoulade

1 celeriac root, trimmed
1/2 avocado
3 Tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp himalayan salt
1 tsp tamari or nama shoyu
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp mustard
1 clove garlic
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Grate celeriac into a bowl. Set aside.

Combine avocado, olive oil, lemon juice, himalayan salt, tamari, nutritional yeast, mustard and garlic in food processor. Whir until smooth. Add parsley and pulse until just combined.

Toss dressing with grated celeriac. Serves 2 as a side or 1 as a big meal.

Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart

This is a celebration cake! It features a chocolate cookie crust filled with layers of rich chocolate ganache and orange cream. I actually made it about a month ago for a raw potluck that got canceled at the last minute, so instead of attempting to devour the whole thing myself, I stuck it in the freezer. It worked a treat. With Jayson's birthday in mind, I pulled it out the day before our family celebration. Then we all gorged ourselves silly on this incredibly rich tart for his birthday dessert.

This amazing cake comes with a word of warning: do not eat late and night, and do not eat in large quantities. It is insanely delicious, but so rich and packs quite a punch of cacao power. So make sure to share it with people you love!

The idea for this cake is a combination of Matthew Kenney's Chocolate Hazelnut Tart from Everyday Raw, and Raw Goddess Heathy's Chocolate Orange Cake. I didn't really plan for it to be that way - basically I couldn't find hazelnut extract, and I felt that I needed a bright, clean flavor to cut through all that chocolatey-ness. So I tweaked the tart recipe a bit, stuck an orange cream layer in the middle, and voila! Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart. Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart

*This recipe requires a few days of advance planning, as you need to make the cookie crumbs at least 3 days before the tart. Since the whole thing is pretty labor intensive, I recommend making it in advance for a special occasion and then refrigerating or freezing until ready to serve. If freezing, take it out of the freezer the day before you're going to serve it.

Crust
2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
1/4 cup melted coconut oil

Sub-recipe: Chocolate Cookie Crumbs

2 cups cacao powder
2 cups oat groats, ground to powder in a spice grinder
3/4 tsp himalayan salt
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup raw honey
1 1/2 Tbsp melted coconut oil
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients (cacao powder, oat powder and salt) in a large bowl. Add agave, honey, melted coconut oil and vanilla and mix well. You'll probably have to get your hands in there! Crumble into small pieces onto dehydrator screens and dehydrate for 3 days.

Now you have lovely cookie pieces to do with what you will! You'll want to pulse about 3 cups of the pieces in a food processor to get small crumbs to use for the above crust, but you can use extras in lots of fun ways - crumbled over raw ice cream, mixed into raw chocolate or white chocolate base recipes, in other raw cookies, or just munch on them! Store in a sealed jar.

Back to the Tart...

Chocolate Ganache Filling
1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp himalayan salt
1 cup cacao powder

Orange Cream Layer
3/4 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
3 Tbsp agave
1 Tbsp melted cacao butter
1/2 tsp melted coconut oil
tiny pinch himalayan salt

Garnish
Dark Chocolate glaze (melted coconut oil, cacao powder and agave)
Orange segments
A bit of orange zest

To assemble the crust, mix chocolate cookie crumbs with melted coconut oil in a bowl until the crumbs hold together. Press the mixture into the bottom of a tart pan and place in the freezer while you make the filling layers.

Make the chocolate ganache by combining all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor (often these creams require a high speed blender, but mine came out totally smooth in my trusty old battered food processor) and processing until completely smooth. Spread half of the mixture over the cookie crumb crust, and put the rest aside. Place the half-filled tart into the freezer to set while you make the orange cream.

Make the orange cream by combining all ingredients in high-speed blender or food processor as above. Spread the cream layer over the bottom chocolate ganache layer. Place in freezer to set. After about 1/2 hour, remove from freezer and top with the rest of the chocolate ganache. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve, or freeze if not using with a day or two (remove from freezer one day prior to serving).

I made a quick dark chocolate glaze by mixing about 2 Tbsp melted coconut oil with 1 Tbsp cacao powder and a bit of agave, then drizzling over tart just before serving. Decorate with orange segments.