A Heat-Beating Treat

While the folks back home in New England are buried under masses of snow, here in Melbourne we've had three high-30 degree days in a row. To keep cool and nourished, I'm drinking this:

Come here glass of yumminess, I'm going to drink you...

It's a banana-date-almond frostilicious glass of cold creamy joy. Takes about 1 minute to make, so it's perfect for a hot day when even moving is an effort. You could also add any superfood powders that you like for an extra boost.

Banana-Date-Almond Frostilicious

Serves 1

1 frozen banana

4-5 dates, pitted

small handful of almonds

water

Chop the frozen banana into a few pieces. Toss it in the blender with the pitted dates, almonds, and enough water to cover. Blend until smooth.

Coconut Lucuma Cake with Mango and Coconut Vanilla Creme Swirl

I've been having fun creating superfood recipes lately, and this one was inspired by a box of ripe mangoes and a dinner party invite. Almonds, coconut, lucuma, honey, mango, banana, macadamias, vanilla - this cake is more chock-full of nutrients than most people's meals. Protein and mineral rich almonds, immune-system and weight-balancing coconut, vitamin-C packed lucuma and mango, enzyme-rich raw honey, and much more.

All that goodness and three delicious, complex textures and flavors to tantalize the taste buds to boot! The bottom layer is a dense, cakey coconut lucuma extravaganza, topped with smooth mango puree swirled with a beautiful coconut macadamia vanilla creme. This is why raw desserts are amazing. Every bite is packed with yumminess and vitality.

Coconut Lucuma Cake with Mango and Coconut Vanilla Crème Swirl

Cake Layer:
1 cup almonds, ground to powder
1 cup dried coconut, ground to powder
½ cup lucuma powder
6 dried apricots
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Tbsp water

Mango Puree:
4 cups fresh diced mango (2 large)
2 dried bananas
1 Tbsp coconut oil

Coconut Vanilla Crème:
1 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup Thai young coconut meat (1 large)
½-1 cup young coconut water or plain water
1 vanilla bean
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp coconut oil


Method:

Grind the almonds to a powder in a coffee grinder or high powered blender. Set aside. Grind dried coconut to a powder using the same method. Combine the almond, coconut and lucuma powders in a food processor and add apricots, honey, coconut oil and water as needed. Whir until combined. Press into a springform cake pan and place in the refrigerator.

Combine mango, dried bananas and coconut oil in food processor or high powered blender and whir until completely smooth. Place in a bowl and set aside.

Rinse your food processor or blender, then combine coconut vanilla creme ingredients and whir until smooth. Add more coconut water or water as needed to achieve a very smooth, creamy consistency.

Spread the mango puree over the cake layer. Then make little wells and add the creme a little bit at a time until it is well distributed. Using a chopstick, swirl the mango and creme together. Place the entire cake in the freezer to set for about an hour, then remove to the refrigerator. Serve chilled and eat within 4 days.

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

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.

Fun with Figs: five ways to enjoy my favorite fruit

This post is so late in coming! I've been obsessing over figs over the past few months, and sadly they are no longer on offer at my local farmer's market. But I have spied a few juicy specimens hanging from some of my neighbors' trees, and there's nothing like a fresh fig sneakily plucked from over the fence. If they're still available where you live, enjoy my suggestions on ideas to jazz up these perfect gems. If not, enjoy my homage to my favorite fruit, and let it be an inspiration to you for next fig season (the only good thing about the end of fig season is that it means it's almost time for persimmon season). With no further ado, I give you my meditation on figs.

I’m a cook (or un-cook), so what I’m about to say is a little bit hard for me. I’d like to suggest that there are some foods out there that are already perfect just they way they are, and can’t be improved upon through kitchen tampering. I’ve come to this decision after many attempts to write an article about my favorite fruit, figs. They’ve just come into season in Victoria, and I can’t get enough. But each time I buy or pick some ripe, juicy specimens to bring home and experiment with, I encounter the same problem. They never make it home. I just can’t help myself – I love fresh figs so much that I always eat them all straight away! I can’t think of any preparation I can do that could possibly improve upon the pure pleasure of a fresh fig. So you know what? I give in. Mother Nature, you win. You are the ultimate chef, and with the fig you’ve created the perfectly balanced food.

That being said, I feel that I’d be letting you dear readers down if I didn’t at least try to conceive of a few ways to dress up your figs. So while I don’t expect any of my inventions to rival those of my muse and culinary hero, Nature, they are still worth a try for a little variation, particularly if you happen to be one of those lucky folks with a fig tree in your backyard (if this is you, please invite me over! I can offer zucchinis, pumpkins, rocket or lemons in trade). Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to blend, dehydrate, or otherwise adulterate your perfect figs. The recipes are only ideas, playful flavor combinations. If you feel inspired, have fun with them - if you can get your figs home without eating them all!

1. Fresh figs au natural (courtesy of Mother Nature)

Eat them right off the tree, sun-warmed. Best recipe ever, though I can’t take credit for it!

2. Fresh figs with pistachio mousse

16 fresh figs
1 large, very ripe avocado
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp light agave
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup raw pistachios, roughly chopped
1/2 cup dark agave or raw honey
Freshly ground black pepper

Cut figs into quarters from the top downward, leaving the base intact. Arrange on a platter.

Combine avocado, vanilla extract, light agave, salt and water in a food processor, and whir until smooth. Add 1/2 cup chopped pistachios and pulse until well combined.

Place a dollop of mousse in a the center of each fig. Sprinkle with the remaining chopped pistachios and drizzle with dark agave or honey.

Variations: Replace the vanilla extract with rosewater. Decorate the plate with edible rose petals.

3. Watercress, pickled onion, fig and candied walnut salad

For the pickled onions:
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp agave
large pinch himalayan salt

combine and marinate at least 8 hours at room temperature

For the candied walnuts:
1 cup walnuts
2 Tbsp agave
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon

Toss walnuts with agave, oil and cinnamon. Spread on teflex sheet and dehydrate for 2 hours.

For the vinaigrette:
2 T apple cider vinegar
¼ cup walnut oil
1 T agave
¼ t salt
grind of fresh black pepper

Whisk together all ingredients, or combine in food processor.

For assembly:
1 bunch watercress, stems removed
1 head endive, sliced thinly
12 fresh figs, cut into quarters

Mix watercress and endive together and arrange in a large bowl or platter. Top with pickled onions and fresh figs. Sprinkle nuts over top. Drizzle with vinaigrette, toss lightly, and serve.

4. Fig, Almond and Cream Parfait

A bunch of figs
A handful of raw almonds, roughly chopped
Your favorite raw whipped cream recipe

Cut figs into quarters. In parfait dishes (I use old-fashioned champagne glasses for great presentation) layer a dollop of whipped cream, chopped figs, chopped almonds. Repeat with as many layers as you like.

5. Red Fruit Salad with Spiced Floral Syrup

A bunch of figs
A handful of red grapes
A few little blood plums
Seeds from ½ a pomegranate
A few dried figs

Syrup:
2 Tbsp Agave
Juice of 1 lemon
Dash of rosewater
Dash of vanilla extract
1 tsp minced fresh lavender, or 1 drop lavender oil
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cardamom

Cut figs into quarters, grapes into halves, and blood plums into quarters. Remove seeds from ½ pomegranate. Chop dried figs into slivers. Arrange all fruit in a bowl.

Combine syrup ingredients in a bowl and whisk by hand. Drizzle over fruit salad and let marinate for 1 hour before serving.

Blueberry White Chocolate Cheesecake

If that title doesn't have you salivating yet, how about this photo?

Yeah, this recipe is a stunner. I'm not going to bother with too much chatter here, because I think it really speaks for itself. Let's just say I had two dinner guests last night, and I served them a main course of salad because I didn't want to detract any attention (or room in their tummies) from these blue babies.

Credit where credit is due: the inspiration for this dish came from Vanessa Sherwood over at G Living. I opted for blueberries in my version because they are absolutely perfect and abundant right now in Victoria. I also cheated a little and used cashew butter instead of whole cashews because I don't have a Vitamix yet (I'm saving up).

So use my version, or use Vanessa's, or come up with your own creative variation. Go forth and make cheesecake!

Blueberry White Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust
1/2 cup brazil nuts, soaked 4-6 hours and drained
1/2 cup shredded dried coconut
1 heaped Tbsp cacao powder
1/2 vanilla bean, or 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 generous Tbsp raw honey/agave
1 Tbsp cacao nibs

In a food processor, combine brazil nuts, coconut, cacao powder, vanilla and salt. Pulse until you achieve a fine, crumbly consistency.

Add honey or agave and cacao nibs. Continue to pulse until the mixture comes together into a crumbly dough. If necessary, add more honey/agave.

Press the dough into the bottom of either a small (9 inch or smaller) springform cake pan, or six cupcake molds. Put into freezer to chill while you make the filling.

Filling
1 punnet blueberries
2/3 cup cashew butter, or 1 cup soaked cashews
2 Tbsp melted cacao butter
1/4 cup honey or agave
juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch of salt

Blend all of the filling ingredients in a vitamix or food processor until smooth. Fill your cake or cupcake molds with the filling, then lick every last yummy morsel (I like to give this last job to my dog - he waits so patiently at my feet throughout the whole process, sweet little thing)!

Place in fridge to set at least one hour. Can be frozen, just take it out 15 minutes before serving.

Durian Appreciation 101

The durian is a bit of an enigma. Just look at the thing. Weighing in at 2-4 kg and covered with precarious spikes, it's not exactly screaming "eat me!" Yet here I am, eagerly watching as Sufiyo breaks into the precious commodity. All I can think is, how did I get here?

Peaches and apricots adopt lovely orange and pink hues to encourage consumption, leading one to rightly assume that the flesh will be soft and sweet. Berries shine in the sun and tempt with obvious juiciness, while mangoes and other tropicals emit tantalizing aromas. But the durian plays no such tricks. Its color is a dull brown, the countless spikes are actually quite sharp, and a fresh one smells like old gym socks (I kid you not). Why on earth does anyone eat this thing?

The fact is, the durian is a sort of raw food holy grail. If you like durian, you're a true raw foodie. Now I was having my first taste with veteran raw foodies and durian obsessees, so I must admit I felt a lot of pressure to actually enjoy this strange fruit. And strange it was. Ours had been frozen, which is, unfortunately, the only way they are available in Melbourne. So it didn't give off much of its infamous odor, which was probably a good thing for my first time. As I listened to Sufiyo explain how to choose a good durian (make sure it gives only slightly to touch, peel away the spikes a bit while the shop owner isn't looking and inspect the texture of the flesh), I felt a mixture of excitement and revulsion. But when she cracked the thing, I thought that the large, custard-colored pods looked rather inviting. So I went for it.

The taste is really something indescribable, but since I'm a writer, I'll give it a shot. My first observation was texture - creamy, smooth, custard-like. The initial flavor impression that I got was mildly sweet, sort of vanilla with a hint of almond, but slowly something that didn't seem to belong crept up. I can only describe it as fried onions. Not offensive, but really strange and hard to get used to.

"It tastes...strange."

Between four of us we polished off about 1 1/2 durians. I don't know if I could have eaten as much if it hadn't been for Sufiyo's amazing cacao sauce. She actually used Loving Earth's coconut cacao butter as a base, adding some agave and melting it in warm water, but it would be easy to make a homemade version with coconut oil, cacao powder, and agave. Dipping the durian flesh in the cacao sauce was like heaven, and took some of the oniony edge off of the fruit's flavor.

Durian + cacao = tryptophan heaven

About ten minutes into gorging ourselves I started to feel really giddy, giggly and silly. This was followed by waves of calmness. I can only attribute this to the high tryptophan content of the fruit (tryptophan is a seratonin precursor, as well as an essential amino acid). In fact, cacao is also relatively rich in tryptophan. So not only does this stuff taste good (well, interesting, at the very least), it also makes you feel good. Raw food is amazing.

So was it worth it? Well, I'm glad that I went with my animal instinct and had a chomp of this forbidding fruit. My experience was closest to that of the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who described the fruit in 1856 as, "A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds...but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes," but I must admit I do understand why chef Andrew Zimmern thinks it tastes like "completely rotten, mushy onions." I'm not rushing out to buy anothe durian tomorrow, but I am eager to taste one fresh off the tree next time I can make it to tropical paradise. In the meantime, I'll let myself be lured by the fruits that flaunt their flavor. Excuse me while I go have a mango.