'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.

 
   

' CHESTNUT & MAPLE CREME BRULEE .'

Chestnut & Maple Creme brulee, Spiced Pumpkin tuile, Callebaut Chocolate decor and Roasted chestnuts.

                    When I think of chestnuts, for me its very much a winter thing. With fond memories of the big chestnut trees in Melbourne and the aroma of roasting chestnuts from the street vendors, wafting through the main streets and side alleys of the inner city hub or the sunday markets. Its a very comforting aroma that instantly makes you feel warm inside, despite the weather. For me the aroma from roasting chestnuts is such an association trigger for the city streets of Melbourne, as popcorn is for the movies. When I moved up to Queensland, where the sub-tropical climate and low chill in winter doesn't allow chestnuts to grow I noticed that the nut of choice for street vendors was the macadamia nut. The macadamia nut was virtually unaffordable for people of Melbourne and the thought of it being sold by street vendors, is that similar to Queenslanders and chestnuts, it just doesn't happen. So when I saw these chestnuts on the shelf I just had to purchase them for the nostalgia. This is a very simple recipe and you could be sitting down to eat your rewards in just over an hour, so below I've added A scaled recipe and detailed method for those that would fancy trying the recipe. Both the chestnuts and the maple syrup give the custard a real lift to an otherwise plain vanilla flavour.                                      
                    Into a blender I added 75g of chestnuts peeled and chopped together with 120g of milk, 15g vanilla extract, 15g of maple syrup an a pinch of salt. This was blended to a puree and set aside. In a bowl I whisked together 105g of egg yolks and 105g of caster sugar vigorously but without aerating the mix. To this I added 270g of heavy cream and the puree, these were mixed to incorporate and then poured into ramekins, this recipe makes 6 serves. I then placed the ramekins on a tray filled with water and baked them at 160 degree C. for about 55 minutes or until the brulee no longer trembles when gently shaken. The brulee's were then removed from the water bath and in a small saucepan I melted some sugar until syrupy and amber in colour. This was poured thinly over each creme brulee and allowed to set, giving the custard a thin caramel crust as apposed to the traditional technique to brulee sugar with a blow torch.                                                                                                                            
                    To accompany the dessert I made a spiced pumpkin tuile by melting 50g of glucose in a small saucepan over a low heat. To this I added 60g of pumpkin puree and this was then poured into a mixing bowl with 75g of icing sugar, 60g of flour, 1tsp of mixed spice. This was mixed to form a stiff batter and spread organically over a lined baking tray, these were then baked for 5-6 minutes in a 190 degree oven until the edges of the tuile's start to brown. While they were still warm I was able to shape them and then allow them to cool. To make the callebaut decors I simply melted the good quality Belgium couverture chocolate in a bowl in the microwave in 30 second stints, checking each time. This was then poured into a decorative mould and placed in the fridge to set before being sliced into decors. Below I've shown a few variations of plating up, using different shaped ramekins, tuile's and decors.

' MINTED PEA PIE with COCONUT ICE-CREAM .'

Cream Pie of Sweet Pea & mint on Oreo biscuit base , Coconut ice-cream , Pea puree , Hazelnut whipped cream ,  Coconut shortbread crumb , Coconut tuile , peas & mint leaves.

             This dish here is a classic example of using a common flavour combination in mint and peas, more renown as dinner or lunch ingredients being used in a dessert. I would say this dessert would fit better after a lunch rather than evening meal but none the less works well as a sweet dessert. I was fond of the pie as my wife commented that the ice cream was to die for and there needed to be more.                
             I started with the coconut ice-cream and the tuile the night before as these are the time consumers. For the ice-cream I brought equal parts milk and full cream to the boil with a little coconut essence, this was then removed from the heat and set aside for 10 minutes. During this time I beat egg yolks and sugar until pale adding the the milk to the eggs and mixing then returning to the stove in a clean pot I cooked the custard over a low heat for about 5 minutes until it became thick and coated the back of my spoon. This was then poured into a metal container and placed in the freezer over night, churning with a fork every 2-3 hours. For the tuile I made the batter by mixing sugar, egg whites, melted butter, coconut extract and all purpose flour in a bowl, this was then placed in the fridge for 4-5 hours. The mixture was then spread out ultra thinly using a icing spatula onto a baking paper lined flat tray then placed into a 160 deg.c. oven for around 7-8 minutes until just taking colour. These were then removed from the oven and allowed to cool. To make the pie I first made the base by crumbling Oreo biscuits into a crumb and adding melted butter, this was then pressed into a lined container mould and placed in the fridge to harden. To make the filling I boiled peas, strained them and placed the peas into a blender with a little water and blended to a smooth puree. Some of this puree was kept for plating and with the rest I added some cream and blended to incorporate. The mix was then poured into a small saucepan with a little sugar and 1. 5 % agar agar and brought to a simmer while whisking to dissolve the agar powder. The mixture was then removed from the heat and poured into the hardened base mould, this was hen levelled and placed in to the fridge to set before being sliced with a hot knife to be served. The biscuit crumb is a mix of desiccated coconut and crumbled shortbread biscuits. And to make the last preparation the hazelnut cream I simply whipped cream, panela and hazelnut essence together to form a stiff cream. Two types of mint were used in the garnishing of this dish, common mint and ginger mint, the later being darker.