'GUAVA CHEESECAKE with JABOTICABA GELEE.'

Guava Cotten-soft Cheesecake with Jaboticaba gelee, served with a Tamarillo, red wine & honey sauce, Passionfruit tuile, Lemon balm and Edible violet pansy.

                      This dessert uses four fruits from the south american region that we have been harvesting since the start of last month. We have a guava cheesecake, a jaboticaba gelee, a tamarillo sauce and a passionfruit tuile. For a few months now I've been collecting the ripened fruit from these four varieties and freezing the pulp, as the fruit ripens at various times, sometimes it may mean picking the odd berry here and there to beat the birds and have enough at the end of season to use them for something, only while our fruit trees are still in their early years and not bearing much fruit. This dish I guess is one of those end of season uses I was talking about, this is the rewards of our south american fruit harvests. The odd passionfruit is still falling from their vine and people have ice on their car windows in the morning, I don't understand. The peach and fig tree have gone into winer dormancy but I've got a rogue bitter melon cucumber plant flowering in the veggie patch. My coffee plants are holding the worst season of cherries by yield in the 6 years they been fruiting and the local strawberry farmers here are bracing themselves for a record high season, so try and plan for that.                                                          
                     Below is a scaled recipe and detailed method for each prep, you can have fun with this one and change up the fruits, like have a strawberry cheesecake with a sour cherry gelee or something. This is a cotten-soft cheesecake meaning the texture is soft and melts in your mouth. The recipe uses a combination of the traditional cheesecake with the fluffy texture of the sponge chiffon cake, with the flavour coming from added fruit puree.                                                                                                          
COTTEN-SOFT GUAVA CHEESECAKE- To make this cake I first preheated a 160C oven and greased and lined a 6" square and 1" high cake tin. I then halved and scooped out the pulp of 6 guavas into a blender and blended to a puree, making 1 cup of strained puree. Over a saucepan of gently simmer water I placed a heat proof bowl, adding to the bowl 125g of chopped cream cheese, 25g of chopped butter and 50ml of milk. I then mixed with a whisk until melted and smooth, removing the bowl from the heat and allowing to cool. I then added 35g of plain flour, 20g of cornflour, 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice, 3 egg yolks and a pinch of salt, stirring to incorporate. Using an electric beater, in a separate bowl I whipped 3 egg whites and a 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar until foamy, continuing to whip I added 70g of caster sugar in 3 batches to form a soft peak stage. I then folded the guava puree through the cream cheese mixture and then folded in the egg whites, this was then poured into the lined tin and baked for 40 minutes. The oven was then switched off and the cheesecake was left to cool completely in the oven before being removed from the tin and sliced into portion sizes.                                                                                                        
JABOTICABA GELEE- To make the gelee which is the purplish jelly film you see on top of the cheesecake, I washed and deseeded 12-14 small jaboticaba, placing them into a small saucepan with enough water to cover ( about 1 1/2 cups ) and a 1/4 cup of caster sugar. This was brought to a simmer for about 20 minutes, reducing the liquid to 1 cup of purplish coloured thin syrup. The syrup was then strained and the fruit pulp and skins discarded, the liquid was returned to the the saucepan and brought back to a gentle simmer. I then added 1 tsp of agar agar to the syrup, while whisking to dissolve the agar agar. This was then removed from the stove and poured out over a flat oven tray and allowed to set on the bench top. When the gelee had cooled and set I cut out appropriate sized rectangles to fit on top of the cheesecake portions.                                                                                                                              
TAMARILLO, RED WINE & HONEY SAUCE- This sauce actually came from the poaching liquids in the baked tamarillo dish and was reserved to eat with custard or ice cream or something. The sauce was made by simply baking tamarillo fruit in 1 cup of red wine, star anise and 2tbsp of honey. The remaining poaching liquid was further reduced and reserved for later preparations.                                      
PASSIONFRUIT TUILE- To make the tuile I gently heated 50g of glucose in a saucepan on low, once the glucose was running freely I added 60g of passionfruit puree without seeds and mixed the two together to form a syrup. This was then removed from the heat and poured into a mixing bowl, to which I added 75g of icing sugar and 60g of flour, mixing together to form a stiff batter. I then added 30g of melted butter and mixed through completely, I then placed the mix in the fridge to firm up a little. To make the tuile shape I spread the tuile mixture 1mm thick, between two strips of masking tape 5mm apart on a flat baking tray. Once I was happy the mixture was spread evenly and thinly from end to end, I removed the strips of tape to reveal a perfect straight 20cm long, 5mm wide and 1 mm high strip of uncooked tuile batter. This was then baked in a 190C oven for about 4-5 minutes until the edges began to colour and working very quickly and carefully while the baked tuile is still warm I was able to manipulate it around a pole to form a spiral, within twenty seconds of being out of the oven the tuile is crisp and vulnerable to humidity and moisture.

 
   

' SCAMPI , GOOSE LIVER & PASSIONFRUIT .'

Grilled Scampi tail meat , Pate de foie gras , Passionfruit curd  , Passionfruit pulp and toasted macadamia nuts.

                       Well I must admit cooking scampi is a first for me and may seem rather odd to the europeans out their but the fact of the matter is scampi is just not readily available here in Australia and especially the waters of south east Queensland. I guess our scampi would be banana, red spot or tiger prawns or the unusual Moreton bay bug. The closest anatomically would be the fresh water Red claw but with an entirely different taste all together. All in all scampi tastes very much like prawn and looks very much like an oversized prawn but with claws instead of nippers. This flavour combination of scampi, pate and passionfruit sounds odd to say the least but surprisingly works perfectly. Pate de foie gras is pate or paste made from duck or in this case fattened goose livers, foie gras meaning fat liver. My intentions originally were to accompany the scampi tail with foie gras entier which is the geese livers served cooked and sliced but this is yet another hard sourced ingredient and I was only able to get a hold of foie gras in a tin imported from france. The presentation and effect would not have been the same so I turned the livers into a pate instead. In the past and the practise still goes on in some corners of the globe, the geese were raised on a force fed diet. Handlers would hold the necks of the geese and force figs down their throats to fatten them up in turn fattening their livers for the production of foie gras. This method no longer exists in modern day animal raising due to the up roar of the activists and was stopped, but many countries claim to have held on to the traditional methods and revived them. Below is a depiction of this method of geese raising in early Egyptian times, chefs of the late 1800's claim to have seen livers of up to three pounds in weight by using this method. As I've seen many times in nature, when something is enlarged artificially or oversized crops on the one plant are produced the yield becomes greater but quality is compromised. I would tend to say this would be the case in fattening livers by force feeding, not to mention the stress on the animal and what that does to the taste and the overall texture of the product. I've seen this first hand while vine pruning for a boutique vineyard in the McLaren vale region. The viticulturist had specifically asked me to reduce the budding points or fruiting points on each vine to improve the overall quality of the berries. As a result of this technique, that vintage of shiraz one a gold medal in a few wine shows which gave me great satisfaction that my hard work had been rewarded and I'd lent a big hand in achieving a quality product.  
                     I set out making the pate for this dish by melting some butter in a fry pan, I then added onions and sauté until soft. I then turned the heat up and browned of the livers, in my case the livers came already cooked so I was basically just adding some caramelisation to the pan. Once ready I deglazed the pan with some brandy lifting off any bits stuck to the pan to this I added some more butter and some cream and this was placed into blender and pureed until smooth. I then tasted for seasoning and corrected accordingly before pouring into a greased mould and placed in the fridge to set ( about 3 hours). During this time I melted some more butter and poured it over the semi set mousse to seal. The passionfruit curd was made by simmering some passionfruit puree with a little agar agar, whisking to dissolve the agar. The puree was then removed from the heat and swiped on to the plate with some fresh pulp and seeds. I then cut the tail off the scampi and removed the shell leaving the tail flap. I brushed the meat with garlic butter and grilled for about 10 minutes or just as the meat starts to take colour of which I then removed and chilled. In a hot skillet I toasted off some chopped macadamia nuts to give the dish some textural contrast.
                    To plate I swiped the sauce on the plate adding some seeds and pulp. I then arranged pieces of the pate de foie gras and top them with the scampi tail meat, drizzling sauce over the meat. I then scattered the macadamia nuts on the plate to accompany.

' DRAGON-FRUIT & PASSIONFRUIT .' dessert

Dessert of Passionfruit Tartlet , panna cotta , gelato , fruit pulp & fruit leathers , Dragon-fruit Chiffon cakes , sorbet , fresh red and white fruit , Shortbread crumble , Chantilly cream and micro mint leaves. 

                    This is a little fruit demonstration uses just 2 fruits as apposed to the two 16 fruit medley posts earlier on. But in this I have demonstrated 3 or more preparations for each fruit varying the textures and visuals in each to keep the diner from straying. Both these fruit grow in my backyard and the passionfruit  used for this dessert is backyard harvested, frozen from last season. About 5 or 6 years ago, quite a large tea tree on the side of our property snapped in half during a summer storm. The bottom half of the tree plays host to some staghorns and fortunately the tree kept growing and from that day on the tree was not only host to staghorns but a rouge panama gold passionfruit vine. Never knowing the origin of the vine or even where the vines root system is, to be able to water it. The vine continued to grow and engulf the tea tree giving us seasons of gold large full fruit. That is until a year or so ago the vine died off and now we may get the odd fruit here and there. So the pulp used for this dessert was he last harvest from the mysterious panama gold vine. Our dragon fruit cactus were grown and reared from seed about 8 years ago, they've recently been transplanted outdoors from out of the green house they haven't given us any fruit just yet, so the red and white varieties you see on this plate have been store bought.    

                    The preparations for this dish are listed below in order of method.                                            
  Passionfruit Tartlet :- First in a food processor I brought flour, butter and sugar together to form a fine crumb, to this I added egg yolks and chilled water processing to a dough of which I turned out on to a floured work bench and rolled out to about 3-4 mm thick. I then placed the pastry disc between two sheets of baking paper and placed into the fridge for 30 minutes. While this is in the fridge I made a custard of egg yolks, sugar and cream, this was simmered while whisking until the sugar dissolves and the mixture coated the back of a spoon. I then added to this passionfruit pulp mixing to incorporate. The pastry was then removed from the fridge and circles were cut out using an upturned glass, the pastry was then used to line the inserts of a greased muffin tin. The filling was then poured into the pastry liners and the tarts were baked at170 deg. c. for about 20-25 minutes before being allowed to cool.                      
  Passionfruit Panna cotta :- I brought milk, sugar, passionfruit juice and agar agar whisking to dissolve the agar and sugar this was then poured into a greased tubing with a stopper on the end and placed in the fridge to set before being un-molded and sliced in portions to serve.
  Passionfruit Gelato :- In a saucepan I brought milk, cream, eggs and sugar to the simmer for about 15 minutes whisking to dissolve the sugar, the custard was allowed to cool before adding passionfruit juice and mixing to incorporate. This was then poured into a glass bowl and placed in the freezer for about 8 hours, forking the gelato every 2-3 hours to churn it.
  Passionfruit Leathers :- Simply passionfruit juice and sugar reduced over a low to medium heat then poured onto a baking paper lined tray and placed in a 100 deg.c. oven to dry for around 3-4 hours.
  Dragon-fruit Chiffon :- In a bowl I beat egg yolks and caster sugar until pale and fluffy before adding dragon-fruit pulp, corn oil and vanilla essence and mixed to incorporate. To this I gradually added some self raising flour and a little corn flour, lightly mixing in. In a separate bowl I beat egg whites, caster sugar and cream of tartar until fluffy and thick. I then gently folded the dragon-fruit mix into the egg whites and poured into a muffin tin lined with cup cake inserts and baked at 170 deg.c for 10 minutes, before turning the oven down to 150 deg.c. and baking for a further 20 minutes.
  Dragon-fruit sorbet :- In a saucepan I brought water, sugar and glucose to the boil reducing to a simmer, whisking until all the sugar has dissolved. Removed from the heat and allowed to cool before adding lemon juice and dragon-fruit puree mixing to incorporate. In a separate bowl I whisked egg whites lightly and added this to the sorbet mixture before pouring into a glass container and freezing for about 3-4 hours, forking the mix every hour for a silky finish.
  Shortbread crumble :- Simply pulverised macadamia nut shortbread with toasted sesame seeds and mixed with a little olive oil.
  Chantilly cream :- Whipped thickened cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract.