Spicy Starfruit (Carambola) Raita

Even though the book I just finished, The Last Kashmiri Rose,  by Barbara Cleverly, was set in India, there were no really inspiring food references.  Apparently in the days of the British Raj, local cuisine was not properly appreciated.  Those idiots wanted the stuff of good old England.  Though the novel was authentic in that sense,  I kept wondering what the servants were eating off stage, so to speak, being one who does appreciate the culinary gifts of India.

However, her book was a well plotted, puzzling mystery, filled with intriguing, finely developed characters, and set in a fascinating time and place.  Quite an enjoyable read, and the first in her series with investigator Joe Sandilands.  I believe she's written eleven more featuring Sandilands.

So when carambolas are dropping off trees on the subcontinent, this dish would likely show up.  They have a pretty long season here in Hawaii, and though it has slowed down, they're still available on our tree, which drives me to come up with new uses for the juicy, aromatic fruit.

I made Carambola Mead again this year, we eat them out of hand, and occasionally add one to a salad, but this Indian curry accompaniment, a Raita is a new one for me.   This dish is mostly raw, like a salad, or side dish for an Indian meal.  Also, I was able to use my recently purchased nigella seeds, aka black cumin, kalonji or black onion seed.

Passionate Starfruit Cranberry Chutney

 I normally have passion fruit off and on during the year, but some kind soul dropped off a bag of the purple ones, at our office yesterday, which needed to be used, yesterday.  So, I just whipped up a batch of passion fruit syrup, which is excellent on cheese cake, as well as pancakes.  And, there was a tad extra.....so.....

Next we have starfruit, or carambola, dropping off the tree.  You see where this is going, combined with a smallish basket of imported pricey cranberries, this should make a totally excellent chutney.  Maybe some hot pepper flakes, a bit of ginger and cardamom could be added in. Yes, I do think so.  A different take from the one I made last year.

Stars of the Chutney World

Carambola, or Starfruit, are one of the fruits currently dropping from trees around here, tangerines, lemons, passionfruit, kumquats and grapefruit being the others.  So far we've done: Banana Starfruit wine, Starfruit Marmalade, Starfruit Lemon Mead, and Starfruit Sorbet.  Now here's Starfruit Chutney, a definite star in the sphere of preserves.  I love chutneys and pickles.  They add such a lovely extra dimension of taste to just about any sort of meal.

There was a time when I considered chutney only as an accompaniment for curry.  Last night we were having Beef Stroganoff, made with some leftover veal scallopine, and this chutney was a fine, complementary side, a zap of flavor to the creamy main event.

Sliced crossways, they're very pretty added to a salad, but for the chutney, they need to be in a finer dice.

Starfruit Chutney

Ingredients
4 cups Starfruits, chopped, seeded, and de-ribbed (the tough edges of the stars)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup wine vinegar
3 minced, seeded, kumquats
1/4 cup raisins
1 red chili pepper, minced, and seeded
1 small onion, chopped
1 thumb finely minced ginger
1 teaspoon salt
5 or 6 Roselle Hibiscus buds (optional) good for the lovely color they add
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cardamom powder

Adjust, substitute the spices as you see fit.  Suggestions only here, and what I did.

Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and cook until thick, stirring frequently.  This may take an hour or more.  Unfortunately, I didn't time mine exactly.

As you notice, it acquires a nice red color from the Roselle hibiscus, on cooking.  Let cool slightly before bottling.  Keeps a good while, refrigerated after opening.

Happy Valentines

Chocolate Pretzel and Starfruit Sorbet

Well, there's really no excuse for this frivolity, other than the fact my Valentine's desert was just so special it's got to be important enough to share with the world. Or that minuscule portion of the blogosphere who might happen upon this post. Of course, the sorbet was really too hard for scooping into a nice smooth ball for photo perfection, and I was too impatient to wait, so maybe we'll take another shot at it tonight.

The Chocolate Pretzel recipe was from the very absorbing (meaning I intend to make every single creation in there eventually) Chocolate book by McFadden & France. For the shaping, I changed to less pretzel and more heart. Which incidentally, was probably made more difficult by my using part spelt flour. In fact, my granddaughter was trying to help with them but gave up her attempt. So, I would say, follow the directions.

Chocolate Pretzels

Makes 28
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white, lightly beaten, for glazing
sugar crystals, for sprinkling

1. Sift the flour, salt and cocoa powder into a bowl. Set aside. Grease two baking sheets.
2. Cream the butter, add sugar & beat til fluffy. Beat in the egg. Stir in the dry ingredients. Gather the dough into a ball and chill for 1 hour.
3. Roll the dough into 28 small balls. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Roll each ball into a rope about 10 inches long. With each rope, form a loop (or heart) with the two ends facing you. Twist the ends and fold back onto the circle, pressing in to make a pretzel shape. Place on the greased cookie sheets.
4. Brush the pretzels with the egg white. Sprinkle sugar crystals over the tops and bake for 10-12 minutes until firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For the starfruit sorbet, just juice enough starfruit (carambola) to give you 3 1/2 cups of juice, stir in the juice of 1 lemon, and 3/4 cup sugar, then freeze in your ice cream maker. I think chocolate cookies combine wonderfully with fruit sorbets of any sort.

Surfeit of Stars

Surfeit? Yes, the definition being, too great an amount or supply; excess. So, what do I do with my God-given overabundance of starfruits, aka carambolas? Mine aren't really pretty enough for the market, however, they make an awesome wine. I'm also going to try a carambola & lemon marmalade.

For the last several weeks these little stars have been dropping off the tree continuously. I've been picking them up and off the tree, slicing, freezing and filling my limited freezer space, the freezer at our office, my daughter's freezer, and still they're not done. Looks like two batches will be necessary. Six gallons each. Oh, my word (as they say in some parts) .... that's a lot of wine. Maybe I should get a license to sell it?? What do you think? Don't answer that question if you are a teetotaler. Like my husband.

At the very least I'll finally publish my recipe. Though, not at this time, as I'm still tweaking it. The last two batches - '05 & '07 were a bit cloudy. Great taste, but I probably need to add more pectic enzyme and rack it a few more times.