Kawakawa Berries With Apricot~ Desserts

It's quite fun having our own unique native foods that are also medicines here in New Zealand.

Most people are family with Kawakawa, Piper excelsum that can be found in most parts of the country in our native bush & other spots. A member of the pepper family, the leaves are useful as a rongoa medicine plant but are also edible themselves. The female fruits that ripen around Christmas time are also excellent dried & ground as pepper . The ripe fruits are also fascinatingly delicious with a mango flavour but also spicy seeds. Since there are not many recipes out there for using the ripe berries I have been experimenting with them to see what works & what doesn't. My first post you can find just here. 

Now that there is only two of us & Rob works a lot of afternoon shifts we don't always get through the fruit that I buy, harvest so when I spotted a bowl of ripe apricots sitting there uneaten I decided to make a dessert with them & tried pairing them with kawakawa.

I love the result!

I'm not very good with exact recipes because I am mostly winging it as I go.

I cooked my 8 apricots over low heat & the lid on, without any added water.

When cool I added the same number of ripe berries- just slide them off the little stem.

Add 1/2 cup of honey & blended with a sticker blender until smooth.

I then added a cup of thick plain Greek yoghurt.

Then I beat 1/2 cup of cream to soft peaks adding a little vanilla & folding through half the apricot mixture.

Put in to a bowl & chill.

The other option for the other half was to add 1 dsp of  gelatine in a little water. Sit to bloom, then heat to dissolve. Mix in to the apricot puree & pour over your favourite cheesecake base.

Mine is always walnuts, coconut dates & coconut oil with a pinch of salt.

 1/3 cup each of broken cashews, walnut pieces (toast these first if you like) and coconut, 

add 4 or 5 soft dates (remove the stones first) 

Add a tbsp of melted coconut oil and briefly combine in a food processor until mixed to a fine crumb.

I used a little loaf tin for one of the "cheesecakes". Line with baking paper or glad wrap.

In the little green jug is s a simple yoghurt dressing with more Kawakawa fruits, olive oil, sea salt, orange juice & a little honey. Add some seedy mustard too if you like & even a pinch of turmeric. A yummy summer salad dressing- great with seafood.

Catherine X

Fabulous Christmas Cake- So Simple

 This delicious super simple fruit cake has been floating around for a good long while. I remember making it years ago & not being that impressed with it but when a friend shared it recently as a Christmas cake I decided to have another go. And oh my word- it's delicious!

The first one I made we took with us to Apiti on our 44th wedding anniversary.

The second one was an "Oh my goodness we just have to make another one for Christmas" impulse. Since there are no eggs, butter or added sugar this really is a clever treat.

Since I make very few cakes in a year I decided I should fossick through the old (non working) fridge out the back where we store our "dry goods", to see what dried fruits might need using up. 

It's this simple: just put together a kilo of various dried fruits, or use a packet of fruit cake mix, up to you.

Our mix this year included golden raisins, jumbo mixed raisins, Otago dried apricots, crystallized ginger, a few prunes, dried pineapple, peel & red & green cherries plus 1/2 cup of almond slithers or slices.  

Put all the fruit in to a large bowl.

To soak the fruit either make a tea with two fruity tea bags or

Simmer 1/2 cup of dried hawthorn berries & 1/2 cup of rose hips together in 1 litre of water for 20 minutes. 

Strain and pour over the fruit so that's it's just about covered in the liquid.

Add 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cardamom & a dsp of either mixed spice or garam marsala.

Next add a pinch of salt, a dsp vanilla essence and the zest and juice of an orange & leave to sit overnight to infuse and absorb the liquid.

Add 1/2 cup of slithered almonds or chopped walnuts, or both!

Now add 1 cup of ground almonds, 1/2 cup of flour and 2 tsps of baking powder.

Mix altogether and spoon in to a tin of your choice- make it fat or thin or make several small cakes.

Line the tin with baking paper and bake the cake in a moderate oven for around an hour.

It's that simple.

Really it's just like the old boiled sultana cakes that Granny used to make back in the day.

I haven't decorated ours. It's fine just as it is, but of course you could if you'd like to.

We liked the second one best with the ginger & the mostly ground almonds.

Thanks to Cath's Kitchen for the recipe.