Season's eatings: carambola cake

I have a friend with a house in the sprawling hills behind Byron Bay. In her orchard she has a star fruit (otherwise known as a carambola) tree. The fruit hang off the limbs like Christmas decorations. The blossoms are a beautiful mauve colour, clustered together, appearing at the same time as fully developed fruit. Native to Malaysia and Indonesia, the star fruit tree grows in wet, humid climates with distinct dry seasons. The trees propagate well in southern coastal Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern NSW. Trees in the tropics produce fruit all year round, those trees grown towards the more southern parts of the growing region will have a drop in production during the earlier, cooler months, but with the arrival of spring they will start producing well again.

A five winged fruit – it is only when cut that the star shape is revealed. Star fruit make a beautiful addition to a fruit salad, especially during the festive season, but at this time of year I like it best as the base for an upside down cake. It makes such a decorative ‘top’ when the cake is flipped.

With thin, waxy skin the fruit has a crisp, refreshing flavour reminiscent of a pineapple, especially when cooked. There is some astringency associated with the tips of the wings, but to counter this you can slice a thin sliver off the tips of the wings, which shouldn’t affect the star shape too much when cut crosswise. These wings can bruise easily, so handle star fruit carefully. The fruit yellows as it ripens, and should be eaten when yellow and fragrant, but before the tips of the wings turn brown.

150g raw caster sugar
150g butter (soft)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 free-range eggs
1 tbsp lemon rind finely grated
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bi-carb soda
200g self raising flour
85g shredded coconut
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp caster sugar (in addition to the above)
1 large or 2 medium sized carambola, cut into 5mm thick ‘star shaped’ slices

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and flour a round 21cm springform tin.
Whip the butter and sugar until white and fluffy, it should resemble thick cream. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. When combined add lemon rind and fold through.
In a large bowl place the flour, baking powder, coconut and stir to combine. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter and egg mixture and fold through carefully. Add the rest of the flour mixture and lemon juice and fold until just combined.

In the base of your tin sprinkle the tablespoon of caster sugar and over this, arrange the carambola until there is little to no space left uncovered. Spoon the batter into your cake tin, spreading carefully and place in your preheated oven.

Bake the cake for 40 mins or until a skewer placed in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave until cool to the touch and then remove from tin to cool completely. An easy way to get the cake out, is the take off the sides of the tin (run a knife around the edge of the tin before you unlock the springform) place a plate on the top of the cake, and flip the cake over onto the plate. Do this quickly and with confidence. Then carefully remove the springform base. The carambola will be on the base of the cake in a pretty pattern, which is now your ‘top’.

Nigel Slater’s chickpea and nectarine couscous recipe

The recipe

Peel and dice 1 red onion and put it into a small bowl with 3 tbsps of red-wine vinegar. Set aside for 30 minutes for the onion to soften.

Put 500ml of vegetable stock on to boil. Put 250g of couscous into a bowl then, when the stock is boiling, pour it over the grain, cover and set aside.

Toast 50g of skinned whole almonds in a pan till golden. Tip them into a bowl, add a couple of drops of olive oil and a grinding of salt then toss them gently and set aside.

Halve, stone and dice 2 ripe nectarines or peaches. Toss them in a little lemon juice to stop them discolouring. Remove the leaves from a bunch of flat-leaved parsley and roughly chop half of them. Leave the remaining leaves whole unless they are very large. Remove and roughly chop the leaves from a couple of sprigs of mint and mix with the chopped parsley.

Put 4 tbsp of olive oil in a small mixing bowl and stir in 1 heaped tsp of ras el hanout and half a tsp of ground, hot or sweet, paprika.

Remove the cover from the couscous, then run a fork gently through it to separate the grains. Drain and rinse a 400g can of chickpeas and fold through the warm couscous. Fold in the diced nectarines, the chopped and whole herb leaves and the onion, drained of its vinegar. Season lightly with salt then add the toasted almonds and divide between two plates. Trickle the ras el hanout and paprika dressing over the couscous and serve. Enough for 2.
The trick

Ras el hanout, the North African spice mix contains different proportions of spices according to who mixes it. Generally made with the sweeter spices cumin, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and turmeric, there is also usually a little mild or hot chilli too. As the spices in ras el hanout are already toasted, you can fork it through the grain towards the end of cooking or, as I have done here, directly into the dressing. It is available from most major food stores.
The twist

Plums would be an interesting replacement for the nectarines, again making sure they are ripe. You could also introduce some meat in the form of roasted chicken breast. Or perhaps jagged lumps of feta cheese that you have marinated for an hour in olive oil, chopped basil and mint leaves and lemon juice.


Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk

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