We featured this story in Off The Leash’s “Community Cooks”
The Recipe is also available in the “Eat My Words” community cook book.
Ben is a wonderful Bininji man from Murdudjurl country, growing up on his homeland which is now Kakadu. After some years living in Darwin and beyond Ben is back on country and has cofounded “Kakadu Kitchen”, a business that promotes indigenous food with a modern twist. Ben’s first memories of food were collecting bush tucker and eating fruit from trees grown on his farm. One tree that was planted on his farm was a star fruit tree that was gifted to his family from a Greek family in Darwin. This tree represents a connection to Darwin and last year created a dish to tell this story of friendship and connections as well as the story of a connection to country.
The dish is a Greek inspired fruit salad and includes symbolism of indigenous stories, sitting under the stars (star fruit) by the campfire (red capsicum). The dish was created for the GULP story telling event “Eat my Words” and appears in the cookbook featuring community cooks. If you would like to get involved or find out more recipes and stories please email us at gulpcommunity@gmail.com
For more information about Kakadu Kitchen https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/taste/events/kakadu-kitchen/
Greek inspired star fruit salad
2 ripe but firm (and sweet) local star fruits
1 cucumber
1 capsicum
½ red onion
A small bunch of mint
150 g Danish feta (optional)
Dressing-
2 Teaspoons of Olive oil
One teaspoon of cider vinegar
Juice of one local lemon
One teaspoon of local honey
One small chili, chopped
One clove of garlic- crushed
A pinch of salt
OR TO TASTE
- Cut the star fruit thinly, if there are any brown lines at the edges than you also cut these off. Sett aside
- Cut the cucumbers into thin slices, cross ways. Set aside
- Cut the capsicums into small thin rounds and then into quarters, set aside.
- Cut the red onion into vey small rings.
- If you are going to put salad in choose a fairly firm and less strong in flavour such as Danish feta. Cut this into small cubes or crumble and set aside.
- Next make the dressing –
- Cut the lemon, and squeeze the juice into a jug or container.
- Measure out the cider vinegar, the olive oil and honey and mix into the lemon juice.
- Dice the chilies very really small, cut the garlic very very small. Add them into the dressings and salt to taste
- Tear the leaves of the mint up for garnish.
- IN a dish, bowl or serving dish gently put the cut salad ingredients, laying out the star fruit over the mixed local greens, the capsicum can be placed in the sliced starfruit, or evenly over the platter, and the feta crumbled over the top. Pour over the dressing and garnish with the mint.
About Starfruit
Starfruit (Averrhoa carambola) is a wonderful tree, also know as Carambola. It is a really pretty medium tree with weeping branches and beautiful pink flowers which grows well in the Darwin region. Its origins are thought to be from Indonesia and it has five ridges, which when cut into slices make star shapes. The fruit is sweet and crisp, juicy with a hint of sour- a unique taste, rich in vitamin C and antioxidants. This fruit makes a wonderful addition for taste and asthetics to many sweet and savory salads and also is fantastic garnish for deserts and savory dishes alike (one of my favourites!)