sweet davidson plums

Get

8 Davidson plums 

200ml agave syrup light


Do 

Wash the plums. Put in a small casserole. 

Pour the agave syrup over them. 

Bake in a wood-fired oven until the syrup turns pink/red. This may take hours depending on the temperature of the oven. About 220 degrees is good for about 1 hour or more. The syrup becomes very thick. Discard any plums which become dry and hollow.

Cool

Pour into a glass jar including the juicy plums and store in a refrigerator for a few days. 

Serve whole with semolina and the syrup.

Rice Pudding with Davidson's Plum Syrup

GET

1 cup of Arborio rice 

2 cups of water

1 cup of milk (animal or vegetable)

A pinch of real vanilla and salt

Some Agave syrup 

and

Davidson's Plum Syrup 

DO 

Wash the rice. Add the water and the rice in the pot and boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 20 min. Should it become 'pudding' like add the cup of milk, salt and vanilla. Turn the heat down and stir regularly. When it gets sticky cover the rice with a lid, turn the heat off and let it rest for another 20 min. Mix in the agave syrup and refrigerate.

Serve with the davidson's plum syrup, fruit compote or cinnamon.

Rhubarb Dessert

GET

One cup of oats
2 cups of ground almonds
One egg
5 tablespoons of yoghurt
Agave syrup
1 bunch of rhubarb 

Do
Preheat the oven at 180°c.
Grate almonds coarsely to flakes
mix egg and yoghurt and sweetener
add most of the almond flakes mix in.
clean, trim and finely cut the rhubarb.
Distribute the oats evenly on the bottom of a baking dish
Pour the mixture on and spread it out evenly.
Arrange the rhubarb on top and pour more sweetener onto it.
Cover with the remaining almond flakes
Bake on the 2nd shelf of the oven for 45 mins, turn the oven off and leave it in there for another 15 mins. 

 
Tips
The oats will cook to form a pastry base so it can be cut up like a fruit flan. You may like to bake it in a baking form.
Try it also with plums (maybe Davidsons plums) or apple halves, scored with a knife

Davidson's Plum Syrup

This year the Davidson's plum syrup is of a very translucent quality. It can be made with Davidsonia jerseyana or Davidsonia pruriens. This syrup method is very time saving and contains agave nectar and no sugar. Also, the absence of the tough skins seems to make it less sour. The syrup goes well with joghurt or most desserts. Davidson's plum sauce is thick with skins and requires more work.

1 o'clock: finger limes, 5 o'clock Davidson plum, 11 o'clock Atherton Oak Nut

Roast Apple and Davidson's Plum Essence

GET

2 organic (pink lady) apples

10 Davidson's plums (Davidsonia jerseyana or Davidsonia pruriens)

Some agave nectar

DO

Wash the fruit. Place the two apples in a hot oven dish and the plums in another dish. Pour some agave nectar over the plums. Add to a preheated oven. The pervasive scent of the apple will fill the space. When the apples are split and turn golden, they are done. Note there might be a little pink jelly at the bottom of the dish. Scrape it off and add on top of the apple. Leave the plums for a bit longer till a clear liquid forms at the bottom of the dish.

Gently pour off the translucent essence of davidson's plum. Serve with the hot apple. The davidson's pulp can be pressed though a sieve and served, after sweetening as a dessert with yogurt another time.

Davidsonia Jelly

Get
15 - 20 Davidson's plums, Mullumbimby plums, (Davidsonia johnsonii)
1 tbsp water
150 ml agave syrup
30 g agar agar flakes

Do
Cook the plums in the water until soft.
Squash them firmly with a potato masher.
Press them through a fine sieve to extract the juice and pulp.
Discard the skins.
Return the juice to the saucepan. Add the agar and stir. Let it soak for 10 minutes.
Heat the pan while stirring. The mixture will gradually become translucent. Stir until the agar is completely dissolved and there is no foam on top. Remove from heat.
Pour into a serving bowl to set and cool.
Keep in the fridge.
Serve the Davidson's jelly with yoghurt and lychees.

Seeds of Davidsonia

More
Davidson's Plums with Cashew Cream

Jostaberry Dessert Sauce

Jostaberries (Ribes nidigrolaria) are a cross between black currants and gooseberries. The name Jostaberry combines the German words for blackcurrant (Johannisbeere) and gooseberry (Stachelbeere). They are much larger than black currants and have a tangy-sweet flavor.


GET
400 g of Jostaberries
1 cup of water
Agave nectar

DO
Boil water, add cleaned and washed berries. The fruit should be almost covered in water. Turn down the heat very low and add the lid for 3 min. Add the agave nectar. Take the pot off the stove and let it stand for another 3 min. Press content through a sieve. Refrigerate and serve with a white dessert like yogurt, ice cream, semolina or milk rice pudding.

Cold Sour Cherry Fruit Soup

Fruit soups are customary in the northern hemisphere in summer. They can be made with any edible fruit, but sour cherries are the best seasonal option. There is no other cherry that has such a distinct flavour like this variety. Tart cherries or dwarf cherries also have many health benefits.


GET
600 g sour cherries (Prunus cerasus)
1 lemon
1 vanilla pod
1 cinnamon stick
Some agave syrup
600 ml of water or orange/cherry juice
(beware of sugar in fruit juices)
all organic


DO
Wash, pluck and pit the cherries. Remove vanilla from pod. Wash lemon and peel the rind very thinly. Squeeze out juice and remove pits. Boil water/juice and add, the vanilla /pod, cinnamon and lemon rind. Boil and immediately reduce the heat. Simmer for 5-7 min. Remove the lemon rind, the cinnamon stick and the vanilla pod. Add the agave, stir and let it cool. Refrigerate and serve cooled with yoghurt or ice cream.

The Australian 'sour cherry' (Syzygium corynanthum) might be an 'equivalent' from the southern hemisphere. I would add a lot of Davidson plum as well for tartness.

Baked Rice Pudding with Pear Compote

GET
1 l milk
250 g rice, round/brown
1 cup of currants or raisins
Some lemon juice
1 vanilla bean
50 g agave syrup
1 pinch of salt
2 Tsp butter
A pinch of cinnamon

6 ripe pears
agave syrup as required
½ cup filtered water
all organic

DO
Rinse the raisins with hot water, then soak in lemon juice and some water.
Wash the rice, heat the milk and add the rice. When it boils, reduce the heat and simmer for 45 min. Take pot from stove and let it stand covered for 15 min.
Add the remaining butter, salt, scraped-out vanilla and the soaked and drained raisins and stir.
Coat the baking dish with some butter and preheat the oven to 200°
Place mixture in the baking dish, sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon and a some of butter. Cook until the crust is golden. Serve hot or cold with pear compote or apple compote.

No Spotted Dick Please, We're British
In England the Spotted Dick is a pudding containing suet and currants or raisins. But rice pudding is enjoyed by many other cultures around the world, even without the kidney fat.

Pear compote

Peel and core pears. Slice into a cooking pot. Add boiling water. Cover. Bring to boil and simmer for a few minutes. Mix in agave syrup while still warm.

Davidson's Plums with Cashew Cream

GET
Plums
15 Davidson's plums/ Oorays
1 Vanilla pod (forget extracts)
10 Tbsp maple syrup

Cashew cream:
120 g cashew seeds
5 Tbsp filtered water
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
A dash of lemon juice
A pinch of salt

Click to enlarge

DO
Soak the cashews 2 - 6 hours before in water. Preheat the oven. Wash plums, cut and remove seeds. Cut the skin very fine and the pulp can be chopped. Mix the content of the vanilla orchid pod and the syrup and add it to the plums. Place in a casserole and roast for 20 - 30 min at 190°C. Keep an eye on the roasting process. Stir if necessary or even add water. It is not to go black!

Place cashews in a sieve and rinse. Pound in a mortar (or blender). Add the remaining ingredients as you go. Taste and add more sweetener or water if necessary.

The plums can be served warm or cold with the cashew cream.

Davidson's plum sauce
Cinnamon biscuits filled with Davidson plum jam

Champagne Melon with Finger Lime 'Caviar'

The Champagne melon (Citrullus vulgaris) is a watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) with yellow flesh. It has seeds just like most of the red watermelons. On a hot day slices of refrigerated melon, sprinkled with tangy finger limes, make a refreshing dessert.

Finger limes (Citrus australasica) are from the Australian subtropical rainforest and make the ideal vegan 'caviar'.

Rather than extracting the ovaries from an ancient survivor (Acipenseridae) and driving wild sturgeons into extinction, it would be wiser to allow the 'living fossils' to continue to be on the planet.

Pink Grapefruit with Finger Limes or Granita

GET
1 Grapefruit
2 Finger Limes (Microcitrus australasica)


DO
Refrigerate fruit. Cut the grapefruit in halves. Cut around the edges with a grapefruit knife, cut along each wedge. Cut finger limes, in this case one of pink, one of lime colour lengthwise and distribute 'citrus cavier' over the grapefruit. Ready to eat on a hot day.

 More time... for a semi-frozen dessert?

Granita from Pink Grapefruit decorated with Finger Limes

GET
4 Pink Grapefruit
5 Limes
4 Finger limes
100 ml Orange juice
5 Tsp. Agave syrup

DO
Juice grapefruits and limes. Add flesh. Stir in the syrup with the orange juice, mix in the other citrus juice. Place in freezer. After 30 min. check for ice crystals. Stir with a fork. Repeat the process... A pleasure on a hot day.

After 4 hours distribute into glasses and serve. Decorate with various colours of finger limes or lime wedges.
If you distribute the mixture into  2 - 3 containers it freezes more quickly.

Dragon fruit - Pitaya Cactus with Lychees

Another fossil fuel powered heatwave calls for just fruit. Pitaya or "dragon fruit" is a night-blooming cactus with an edible fruit of various colours. This Hylocereus is yet again another food developed by Mesoamerican culture.

It has to be just ripe, overripe leaves an unpleasant taste behind. The seeds have a similar crunch to that of the Kiwi. The skin should be bright and even-colored. One can cut it in half and scoop it out (for further dessert processing) or peel it and cut it into chunks. The skin is discarded. When cut into slices, cookie cutters  can make decorative shapes.

The lychee fruit (Litchi chinensis) are best refrigerated and peeled just before consumption. The tastes vary from sweet to sour. Some have very large stones, some hardly any.

Black and White Sapote

Black Sapote

Black sapote, (Diospyros nigra) is like the best chocolate mousse without all the animal matter and sugar. When ripe it is one of the most delicious desserts. The tropical Chocolate Pudding Fruit or Chocolate Persimmon has been cultured in Mexico and Central America, but is now widely grown. A light cooling in the fridge, cut in halves and served with a spoon.

Black Sapote

The white sapote, (Casimiroa edulis) was also cultivated in the same region. When ripe the flesh tastes like vanilla custard. The seeds are larger than in the black sapote. One could use the pulp in a smoothie or desserts. With both fruit over ripeness is to be avoided.
 

White Sapote

Lemon apple compote

Get
5 medium granny smith apples
1 large juicy lemon
1 tbsp agave sirup
1/4 cup boiling water

Do
Peel and core the apples and slice into a saucepan.
Add lemon juice and flesh.
Add boiling water.
Cover the pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the apples break down.
Remove from the heat. Add the agave sirup and mix in.
Cool.
Serve with yoghurt.

This compote has a slightly sour character and tastes a little like lemon sago. It needs a lot of lemon juice.

Winter Banana with Macadamia Nuts

Get
Bananas (Cavendish bananas rather than Sugar bananas)
Macadamia (or any other) nuts
(Macadamia ) Oil
Agave nectar or Maple Syrup

Do
Coat flat baking dish with oil, cut up bananas lengthwise, arrange in dish, sprinkle a bit of syrup over the bananas. Put a few nuts on top and let stand on the winter oven to cook over a long period. When the room is filled with fragrant banana the dish is ready. Beware of letting it go black!
In the daytime watch the King-Parrots (Alisterus scapularis) in the banana plants.

Davidson's plum sauce

get
1 kg Davidson's plums, images of the Australian rainforest tree
1kg organic raw sugar
1 cup water

do
Place the plums with the water in a large pot. Boil. Allow to cook for 15 minutes until the plums break down.
Press the plum mass through a fine sieve to remove the seeds, so that a smooth sour liquid is formed. Return it to the stove and reheat.
Add the sugar and allow to simmer for 10 minutes until the sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally.
Use less or more sugar according to your preference (see tip below).
Bottle it up in jars or bottles and store in the fridge.
Serve cold with yoghurt or ice cream on a hot day.

tip
Because Davidson's plums are extremely sour - too sour to even try to eat raw - they need a lot of sugar. It is always good to reduce sugar wherever possible, but in this recipe quite a lot is used. You can try to cut it back, but test the sauce while preparing it otherwise it may be too sour for you or your friends to eat.

The plums can be frozen for several months before using them in this way. It also is very delicious with ice cream or yogurt.

See also
Davidson's Plums with Cashew Cream

Image 1. Plum sauce 2. Biscuits with Davidson's jam/sauce, Davidson's plum and leaf

Seasonal Fruit Flan

Mix Quark (curd cheese), Yoghurt, Honey, one beaten egg and some real Vanilla.
Top with seasonal fruit (here: apricots, blueberries and apples) and a bit of butter.
Cook in the oven for approx. 25 min.