Creeping Cucumbers, Cucamelon or Mouse Melons

The Mexican miniature watermelons (Melothria scabra) are an edible fruit. They look like 'mouse' melons but appear like little cucumbers when cut up. The skin is rather tough and the center is like a juicy center of a cucumber.

Our mouse peeled them and chopped them into a salad.

Another method was to pour boiling water over them, let them stand for 30 min. Cut the tops off and press out the 'cucumber' pulp into dressings or salads. Capsicums, cut into thin strips were also mixed in a salad with the cucamelon pulp.

The fruit of the pretty, high-yielding vines are also very suitable for pickles.

Yet again another meso-american cultural product.

Bunya Nut and Macadamia Burgers

get
20 bunya nuts
200g macadamia nuts
80 ml tahini
1 small onion
100g organic spelt flour
filtered water
4 tbsp olive oil

do
Steam the bunya nuts in their shells for 40 minutes.
Peel and chop the onion finely. Place in a large bowl.
Mix in the tahini with a wooden spoon.

Medium grate the macadamia nuts and add to the mixture. Mix.
Cut the hit bunya nuts in half with a serrated-edged knife. Removed the bunya flesh and press through a garlic press into the mixture. Mix after each couple of bunya mash is added. It is important to mix the bunya paste in while it is hot or it becomes too firm to mix in. Do a few bunyas at a time leaving the rest in the steamer to keep warm. When they have all been added, mix well. Add some more grated macadamias if necessary to lighten the mixture.
Cool.

Place flour on a large dinner plate. Put some water in a bowl. Put a large flat spoon in the water. Dip your clean hand into the water.
Scoop some of the mixture using the wet spoon and press it hard onto the palm of your wet hand to form a burger. (You can use 2 wet spoons if you don't like to use your hand). Place the firm burger on the flour and turn it. Leave it on the flour and turn occasionally so it becomes covered in flour. Repeat until you have enough burgers. Cover the rest of the mixture and store in the fridge.
Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Fry the burgers at a low heat until lightly coloured.

These burgers will become quite crunchy if fried golden. If you prefer them that way, they also taste good golden.

Also recommended cold and on the next day.

I use the tahini from the bottom of the jar when it is too thick for other purposes.

More Bunya Burgers

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.

Mango with Finger Limes

Failure to act on a habitable climate will bring more unbearable heatwaves across Australia. They are becoming hotter, lasting longer, occurring more often and starting earlier.

In the present heatwave only chilled fruit helps. In this case a gigantic deep red mango is cut in half and sprinkled with green finger limes.

The varieties of mangoes are dazzling, each having a different taste and structure. There is no such thing as 'the mango'. The non-organic fruit tried this season had an awful aftertaste which I think is due to pesticide. Organic seems to be the answer with Australian mangoes.

Another issue is the declaring of native wildlife a 'pest' that might 'steal' suburban exotic mangoes. In the Northern Territory mango farms shoot magpie geese.

As a consumer one should take care that not too much pesticide or blood clings to one's fruit crop.

Bunya and Lima Bean Soup

GET
40 bunya nuts
350 g lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus) or
the burgundy-speckled heirloom variety
5 carrots, finely chopped 
2 leeks, the white bits only finely chopped
Some green beans, finely chopped
2 zucchinis, finely chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
Bouquet garni
Pepper
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
Olive oil
all organic and filtered water

Click 10 kg Bunya pine cone pattern

DO
Wash and soak the 'butter beans' the night before. Add fresh filtered water, the bay, bouquet garni and pepper, cover and boil. Scoop off possible froth and discard. Turn down the heat and cook for 30 min. Add the peeled bunya nuts and cook for another 25 min.

Fry the onion in olive oil golden. Add the leek, the carrots and then the beans. Fry for 15 min and stir. Add the content to the soup pot. Add the zucchini bits and the garlic and some of the parsley. Cook for another 10 min. and remove the bouquet garni.

Both the beans and bunya nuts will sink to the bottom of the pot. Stir before serving, sprinkle with parsley and serve with a baguette.

Lima beans cultured by Meso-American civilisation

All Bunya dishes  
Bunya Nuts Pine Nuts: How to Prepare for cooking
Bunya Pine Nuts with Aubergine
Bunya Spaghetti Napolitana
Kumera Bunya Soup
Bunya Pine Nuts in Coconut Milk 
Bunya pine nuts in green tomato sauce 
Bunya Mushroom Ragout with Buckwheat noodles

Bunya kernels cultured by Australian indigenous civilisation

Cold Drinks from Finger Limes and Passionfruit

Get
1 litre of cold mineral water
or cold filtered water
4 finger limes
1 lime

Do
Pour water into jug. Cut finger limes lengthwise, discard seeds. Scrape vegetarian caviar into water and stir. Cut washed limes into halves. Juice one half and add to the water. Cut the other half of the lime into 6 thin slices and stick a few on the edge of the glass. Pour mixture into glasses and enjoy on a hot day.

Get
1 litre of mineral water
or filtered water
8 passion fruit
2 Tbsp of agave syrup

Do
Cut pulp out of ripe passion fruit and press through a fine mesh sieve. Add agave syrup, stir. Place in jug and pour cold water on top. Mix and serve cold.

More Finger limes