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

Strawberry Coconut Shortcake

When I lived i Wellington 42 years ago, I fell in love with this strawberry shortcake from a little organic cafe I found upstairs in Cuba street. I eventually figured out how to make it and all this time later I am still reinventing it. I don't generally do dessert, for pudding's sake, but I sometimes work it in to being part of a meal. This take on the classic strawberry shortcake is made with a base of wholemeal, coconut and almond flours, the topping a mix fresh strawberries, coconut & brown sugar. 

This is the most brilliant recipe because it can be made with almost any fruit. Apricot and coconut are delicious together too. A great way to use up fruit that might otherwise be wasted.

Base: cream 100 gms of softened butter with 1/3 cup of brown sugar

Add an egg and beat again

Fold in 2 cups (total) of an even mix of coconut flour, spelt flour and ground almonds

And a tsp of baking powder 

Press mix in to a greased baking paper lined tin

Pop in to the fridge while you're preparing the topping.

Topping: slice up a large punnet (which I guess is a kilo) of washed strawberries in to a large bowl

Add 1 cup of fine coconut & 1 cup of shredded coconut (or whatever you have on hand)

And 1/2 cup of brown sugar

Lastly a splash of rosewater.

Add a tbsp of cornflour & a tbsp of almond flour if the fruit seems quite moist. 

Mix together 

Spoon the strawberry coconut mix over the base and smooth out

Bake for 40 minutes in a moderate oven until firm

Keeps really well in the fridge 

In the last photo the shortcake is topped with coconut chia pudding made with coconut cream chia seeds, rosewater and honey, red and gold raspberries, white alpine strawberries and pansies from the garden.

So good!

The next version I made was apricot.

 With juicy fruit it's a good idea to turn down the heat and cook for another 5 or 10 minutes until the fruit topping has firmed well and set.

I am thinking that Black Boy peach would be amazing and also pineapple and passionfruit.

Katie X