Starry, Starry Fruit...

Well, it's been a busy weekend and I have to admit I didn't do much cooking. Sally had a house guest from Orlando (Hi Mel!) for the three-day weekend, and we did a lot of outdoor adventure sightseeing at Corkscrew Swamp, and kayaking with manatees at Manatee Park here in Fort Myers.

 I did make a giant Eggplant Parmesan the other day, but I explained how I make that back in the December 8th post. The thing I did differently this time (other use than a much larger pan and six eggplant) was to make the sauce from one jar of Red pasta sauce and one jar of White pasta sauce (Bertolli or Paul Newman brand by preference). The resulting Pink sauce was not as acidic as a conventional Red sauce, but equally tasty.

Starfruit Jam

The one new thing I did this week was to make Starfruit Jam. Local Starfruit or Carambola trees have had a bumper crop this year. Here's a picture of the tree down from Lady Sally's house.

Carambola (Spanish) or Starfruit (English)  is native to southeast Asia and India, and is popular throughout the region. It is also grown around the Caribbean, Latin America, and southern Florida. The 2" to 6" fruit are usually a five-pointed (sometimes 6-point) star in cross-section.   Here in Florida they are ripe from roughly November to March.

Light green and not at all sweet when unripe, they change to yellow and dark yellow- brown as they ripen and sweeten. Best to eat after all traces of green are gone, and the ridges become dark brown and the waxy skin hasn't developed dark splotches.  Very juicy when ripe (as in eat it over the kitchen sink). Not cloyingly sweet, they have a pleasing, slightly sour edge to the taste. The taste has been compared to a mixture of apple, pear, grape, and citrus.   Not a super food, they are still loaded with antioxidants, potassium, and vitamin C.  Low in sugar they also have anti-microbial properties.

Starfruit are great by themselves(see kitchen sink, above), but also make wonderful relishes, preserves, pies, etc. In Asia they are often stewed with cloves and a bit of sugar. I've combined them with Mango in a pie. Frozen cut stars make a great, and tasty garnish for a bowl of ice cream.  Often served with fish, they can also be juiced and turned in refreshing coolers. Not enough pectin to make marmalade, they are stewed down with sugar to become an almost honey-like jam with or without the addition of pectin.

3 lbs Starfruit, chopped fine, with juice

3 cups Splendatm or Sugar

1 lemon, minced, with juice

3 cups Water

Optional -

1/2 tsp Cardamon seed

6 whole Cloves

Pectin

Combine everything in a large pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer (and simmer, and simmer, and simmer... until the jam turns golden brown and thickens.  Store in clean screw-top containers and store in the fridge.  The recipe above made a quart and a cup of jam, with pectin.  Had I kept simmering, without pectin, I might have gotten half a pint of love.