It's Atherton Nut Time Again

It's Atherton nut time again. Athertonia diversifolia is a rainforest tree closely related to the macadamia. The proteaceae is endemic to north-east Queensland, but produces generously on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Nectar eating birds love the food tree.

The Atherton oak tree still has its name from a colonial pastoralist who associated it with the English oak back home. The Yidinji people of north-east Queensland who most likely have cultured the nut have their own name that might soon awake from the amnesia in the botanical nomenclature. 

The task is to get the seeds from the ground as quickly as possible. After spending some time admiring the colour/s and patterns, peel off the blue/white coat surrounding the shell. A very short time of airing the seeds and then cracking the woody seed with a hammer. The nut then has a tight coat like an almond. Pour some boiling water on them for a quick soak. Blanch like almonds.
The cripy white/ivory like nut is best consumed immediately. If they need to be stored, make sure they are dry and are kept in a sealed container in the fridge.

The taste it is said is similar to macadamia. But the oral tactile sensation of chewing the fresh nut is nothing like a macadamia or almond. Both of these nuts are quickly reduced to a mush in the mouth, whereas the Athertonia nut has different stages of decomposition. The end result is reminiscent of coconut fiber. It is delicious and like no other nut.

Should you have to store the nut for some time it might be best to roast the nuts to regain their crispness.
The empty woody shells could make for decorative mulch or craft projects.
Jan and Ross made a cake with Athertonia nuts. It was most likely the first Atherton nut cake in the universe.

Chard Cheese Casserole

 

GET
2 bunches of chard/ silver beet
2 onions
Some Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano)

Cheese for topping
Some Feta
2 eggs
Some rosemary and nutmeg
olive oil
Cheese for topping

all organic

DO
Wash chard very well. Separate stems from greenery. Chop onions and fry in olive oil. Cut the stems into small pieces and add to the golden onions. Cut the green of the chard rather finely and add to the pan after the stems  have a glassy appearance. Cover with lid and simmer on a low heat. When the bulk has collapsed stir in the finely chopped rosemary. Cool dish a little.

Beat the two eggs and mix with the finely grated Parmesan cheese. Add a bit of the cheese and nutmeg. When the vegetables are cooked place them in a casserole and mix under the egg and cheese mixture. Crumble a little bit of feta on top and cover with remaining cheese. Bake in oven at medium heat for 20 minutes.
Serve with potatoes and a green salad.

Quiche with Herbs

Pastry
180g organic spelt flour
50g organic cheddar cheese
50g butter
5 tbsp water

Filling
100g butter
7 - 8 tbsp flour
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup milk
eggs (2 to 5)
75 ggrated parmesan
200g grated cheddar
a big bunch of fresh herbs 

optional: (some quantities given here for an asparagus quiche)
asparagus
shallots

do
Put flour in a bowl. Grate in cheese. Mix. Grate in the butter. Mix (shake the bowl). Slowly add a little water. Knead to a pastry. Add more water as necessary for a firm but not sticky or dry pastry. Cool wrapped in a tea towl.
Chop herbs finely. 

Put butter in a small saucepan on medium heat. Add 7-8 tbsp flour when melted. Fry a short time. Gradually add boiling water while stirring vigorously. Avoid lumps. When the mixture is smooth but still firm, add cold milk while stirring. It will thicken as it gets warmer. Stir from time to time until it starts to bubble. Add more milk if it is too thick and heat it again. Turn off. Stir while cooling.
Beat eggs in the bowl. Add the mixture while beating. Add the parmesan.
Sprinkle a little flour on the tea towel. Roll out the pastry and put it into a buttered 28cm form. Bake at 180°c on the second shelf for 15-20 mins. 

Add some filling to the bottom of the pastry shell. Sprinkle some grated cheddar on it. Add whatever vegies, eg steamed asparagus chunks, or the fried white parts of shallots etc. Mix the herbs into the remaining mixture. Add it on top of the veges. Sprinkle grated cheddar on top. Bake at 180c for 45 - 60 mins till golden. Turn off oven and leave it in for a while.

Remove from form and cool.
Serve individual slices reheated on oven-proof dishes. Refrigerate. Best on the 3rd day.
Goes well with tomato salad and garlic.

Note: the quantities in this recipe can be varied a lot. Use more cheese or herbs. 2 eggs works nicely and so do 5. If you are using asparagus use a lot and add in layers. 5 bunches is delicious.

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.

Hot chocolate with Davidson’s plums

 

This recipe is inspired by the Warndu Mai (Good Food) Cookbook, by Damien Coulthard and Rebecca Sullivan. This contemporary cookbook is showcasing Australian native foods with many recipes. Their Davidson Plum Hot Chocolate is altered here to suit our needs. The plums are fresh off the tree.

In the foreword Bruce Pascoe writes:  “You can’t eat our Aboriginal food if you can’t swallow our history.”

get

75g dark chocolate (90%, organic & fair trade)
¼ l milk
4 large Davidson’s plums
2 tbsp honey

do

Press the juice out of the plums through a sieve.
Heat the milk in a small saucepan.
Add the chocolate in pieces.
Stir.
Add the plum juice and honey.
Stir while heating until hot but not boiling.

Serve hot in cups.
This rich chocolate drink will be enough for 3-4 cups. 

Cheese Cake from Yoghurt Quark

Yoghurt

Get  

1 liter organic full-cream milk
1 tbsp live yoghurt

do

Heat the milk in a small pot slowly until bubbles appear. Turn the stove off but allow the milk to stay hot for another hour or so. This can be automated with a timer on an electric stove to switch itself off after a given amount of time (e.g. 47 minutes on setting 4).
Cool to body temperature.
Mix in the yoghurt starter culture and whisk it.
Pour into a yoghurt maker and turn it on for about 10 hours.
Cool.
Cooking the milk produces milk solids and keeping it hot promotes more solids for a thick yoghurt. The amount of time in the yoghurt maker may influence this too. When in doubt leave it longer. 

 

Quark

Pour 1 liter of refrigerated yoghurt into a large fine sieve over a large bowl. Cover it. Allow the liquid to drain off into the bowl in the fridge for 24 hours. From time to time pour off the clear liquid (whey) into a cup and continue draining.
Tip the quark from the sieve into a bowl, cover and keep cool.
Eat it fresh or use to make a cheese cake.
 

Cheese cake without pastry

Get

2 portions of quark
4 eggs
8 tbsp agave nectar
sultanas soaked overnight in lime juice (or blueberries)
9-10 tbsp spelt flour 

 

do

Preheat the oven to 180°c.
Butter a baking dish.
Drain the quark and put it in a mixing bowl.
Separate eggs.
Add egg yolks and 4 tbsp agave nectar in the middle of the quark and mix well.
Lift the flour under.
Lift the sultanas under. 

Click to enlarge

Beat the egg whites in another bowl with 4 tbsp agave nectar. Lift under.
Put mixture into the baking dish and bake on the 2nd shelf for 50 minutes. Turn the oven down to 130° and bake for a further 25 minutes until lightly golden. Turn off the oven and cool in the oven without rapidly or suddenly cooling. The cake will rise when baking and sink again when cooling.
Let it settle down for a day in the fridge. Best on the 2nd and 3rd days. And the 4th if there is any left.
Serve with blueberries.

The above cheesecake variation was created by Ross. Quark made with lemon and topped with Davidson's plum jelly.

More cheesecakes: here, here and here

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

Almond chocolate balls - Marzipankartoffel

Get
300g organic almonds
1 tbsp honey (Prickly box honey, Bursaria spinosa)
2 tbsp organic cocoa powder

Do
Blanch almonds.
In a saucepan or bowl, use a puree stick to make a smooth paste from the almonds and the honey. Kneed the paste to marzipan. Cool for some time in the fridge.
Put the cocoa in a bowl.
Roll into small balls and roll them in the cocoa.
Place them on a baking tray.
Put into a preheated oven and bake at 180°c for about 10 minutes on the second shelf from the bottom.

By keeping the amount of honey small, the marzipan is dry. If it is too moist the powdery cocoa becomes moist and the outcome is more like truffles. They should feel powdery to the touch. Refrigerate.

Macadamia truffles

Four black Macadamia truffles with a red Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia and a blue Atherton Oak Nut

Get
300g organic macadamia nuts
1 tbsp honey (Prickly box honey, Bursaria spinosa)
2 tbsp organic cocoa powder


Do
In a saucepan or bowl, use a puree stick to make a smooth paste from the macadamias and the honey. Kneed the paste to marzipan. Cool for some time in the fridge.
Make small balls and roll them in the cocoa powder.
On a baking tray, bake the truffles for 15 minutes at 180°C.

Use more honey for a moister result. Serve with a fork. Refrigerate!

Baked Marzipan Biscuits

These biscuits are pure nuts and honey. They can be very brittle.

Get
300g organic almonds
2 tbsp honey (Prickly box honey, Bursaria spinosa)
Some (macadamia) nuts for decoration
2 tbsp organic cocoa powder optional
1 egg yolk

Unglazed

Do
Blanch almonds.
In a saucepan or bowl, use a puree stick to make a smooth paste from the almonds and the honey. Kneed the paste to marzipan. Cool for some time in the fridge.

Take a clean (pure linen) tea towel and role out the ball of marzipan. Use cookie cutters to get the desired shapes or make a roll and cut into pieces and decorate with nut pieces. Mix the egg yolk and paint biscuits. Put into a preheated oven and bake at 180°c for about 10 minutes on the second shelf from the bottom. They should be golden.

One traditional shape is little cones, called Bethmännchen ("a little Bethmann"). They have been around since 1393 on Christmas markets in Frankfurt. They usually contain powdered sugar, rosewater, flour and egg as well.

Click to enlarge

For our cones we made a ball, flattened it with an indentation in the middle, and added a fresh macadamia nut in the centre. Pinch the top to close around the nut.
When little bits are left over that cannot be rolled out at the end, cocoa was used to hand kneed them into shapes.
Refrigerate if done anywhere on The Mid North Coast at this time of the year.

Chocolate Nut Biscuits

Designed and baked by Ross in Bellingen

GET:
1 cup macadamia oil

2 eggs (reserve yolk of one to glaze)

0.33 to 0.5 cups of honey (to taste)

100-200g of chipped chocolate (90% cocoa)

5 cups flour (w/meal wheat or spelt - or replace with a % of nutmeal of choice to taste and may need to adjust total flour to get nice crumb consistency)

1 tsp ground cinnamon or more to taste

Here with chocolate chips

DO:
1 Mix oil, eggs and honey.

2 Add flour, cinnamon and chocolate chips and to make a biscuit crumb consistency

3 Press and smooth into papered baking tray

4 Cut to desired shape/s and size/s

5 Glaze with yolk, reserving a little

6 Garnish each biscuit with almond or nut of choice

7 Glaze nuts with remaining yolk

8 Bake in 160 C oven for 15-20 minutes

9 Remove and cool in tray for 10 minutes then recut shapes.

10 When firm remove biscuits and cool on rack

Bunya Tree Seasonal Celebrations

This living Bunya tree makes a beautiful recyclable x-mas tree. Providing food for the next 1000 years. All chocolate wrappers can be reused in the next season. No waste! Patented by Jan.

Atherton Oak Nuts

12 o'clock: Citrus australasica, 1, Cissus hypoglauca, 4, Davidson plum (Davidsonia spp.), 7, Athertonia diversifolia, 9, Linospadix monostachya, 11, Macadamia tetraphylla, centre: Athertonia nuts

The Athertonia diversifolia tree (Atherton Oak) is endemic to the North East Queensland rainforest. It is a tall tree with large lobed leaves and large blue edible fruits. Inside the most unusual blue fruit is a woody kernel that contains a nut. The nut has a brown skin like the almond. The white nut has a taste that is slightly reminiscent of macadamia nuts and coconut. It is delicious and unique.

Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia and Athertonia

"Caution should be exercised and any seeds with the flavour or odour of bitter almonds should be completely avoided." (link)

Athertonia fruit and nuts

DO:
Pick up the blue fruit as early as possible, as wildlife and fungi like to move in on them. Admire the multitudes of blues, violets and red of the fruit.

Athertonia nut shells and leaf

Peel the pith, which is white and fluffy underneath as close as possible to the kernel. Let them dry for a day. Once the pith remains have gone, crack the woody nut with a hammer.

The shell will usually split into two beautiful wooden halves with craft potential. Blanch the nut as for almonds. The white Athertonia nut is thin and flat. A light dry roast enhances the flavour even more.

Links:

Bush Tucker of the Wet Tropics, The Ma:Mu Rainforest Aboriginal people’s  traditional lands are around Innisfail, Palmerston and Millaa Millaa areas.  The area’s volcanic soils and high rainfall have produced some of the most diverse tropical rainforest in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. (PDF)

"But we now know, thanks to Bill Gammage,  Bruce Pascoe and other writers, that Aborigines deliberately shaped their environment through firestick farming and various kinds of cultivation." Jeff Sparrow, What I’m Reading

Click to enlarge

All depicted fruits were grown on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Thanks to Jan for passing on the knowledge about the endemic flora.

Celery Salad with Brazil Nuts

GET
4 celery sticks
5 Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa)
1 garlic clove
Oil, lemon

Do
Clean vegetables. String celery sticks and chop them finely. Mash garlic and add oil and lemon to the dressing. Slice the Brazil nuts very thinly. Add celery, nuts and mix with the dressing. Let it rest covered for more than 30 min.

The Brazil nut grows in Amazonian forests. They do not grow in mono-culture plantations. "Brazil nut trees produce fruit almost exclusively in pristine forests"  (source) Local people collect these nuts in the rainy season.
Just as the southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) distributes Australian rainforest fruit and nuts,  the agouti is active in the seed dispersal in the Amazon of the Brazil nut.

"The production of Brazil nuts more than halved between 1970 and 1980, apparently because of deforestation. .. Trees remaining in the vast cattle ranches of Pará and Acre are neglected and dying." (source)

One can of course take any local nut, like macadamias...

Salad goes with
Chickpea Capsicum Casserole

Chickpea Capsicum Casserole

GET

Main Dish
4 cups of cooked chickpeas
5 capsicums, green
2 leeks
2 onions
2 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Vegetable stock, hot
Herbs: lemon thyme, sage

Topping
4 Tsp. Macadamia paste
4 Tsp. Tahini
3 garlic cloves, mashed
2 Tsp. Olive oil

Do
Wash and chop the vegetables. Fry the onions and the capsicums until they are 'golden'. Add the leek and the tomatoes. Cook for a while, then add some hot stock, the cooked chickpeas, garlic and chopped herbs. Cover and let it simmer for approx. 30 min. There should be very little liquid left.

Preheat the oven. Mix the topping. Place chickpea mixture into a casserole. Distribute the topping evenly and heat for 1 hr. at 180 °C

Serve with
Celery Salad with Brazil nuts