Posts tagged as:

macadamias

Banana Macadamia Butter on Oat Toast

by Linda on February 3, 2012

We picked the first of the new season’s macadamias yesterday. It’s a bit earlier than usual, but the warm wet weather seems to have been bringing them on, and they are starting to drop and be got by the creatures. I don’t mind the creatures getting some of them. Because they are a native to this region, we’ve included seedling trees in all the riparian native plantings.  But we also have some grafted varieties that were planted for human food, and I want some harvest from them! The first of the season nuts are so sweet.

Macadamia and fruit nut butters are one of my favourite recipes. I’ve posted Macadamia and Pear Butter and Turmeric and Mandarin Nut Butter, before, but the idea works with just about any sweet juicy fruit, and  Banana Macadamia Butter is one of the favourites.

Fresh nuts in season, unprocessed and in their shell, are one of the things that don’t seem to get appreciated enough to make it into the weekly fresh food shopping. With my family’s history of heart disease, I really like it that macas work as well as the “clinically proven to lower cholesterol” margarines that taste fake.  Their fats are the “good” kind  and they are also high in protein, fibre,  B vitamins, minerals and and antioxidants. Put it on Oat and Linseed Sourdough, and I feel so virtuous as well as happy.

The Recipe:

Dry roast a good handful of macadamia kernels in a heavy frypan over a medium heat for a couple of minutes, shaking the pan, till they just start to colour.

Tip them into a blender or food processor with a banana. Blend the mixture till smooth. Taste and add a little salt, or honey, or both.

Slather onto your favourite bread, toasted, and eat.

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The Breakfast Challenge – Macadamia and Oat Heart Starters

by Linda on September 8, 2011

If you’ve been following the Breakfast Challenge series at all, you’ll know that “my current favourite” breakfast is usually only the current favourite for a few weeks.

Partly that’s because what is best, in taste and in health and in cost, is always based on the fruits and nuts and grains and vegetables that are in season.  And partly it’s because I get bored fast, and it’s too easy to avoid boring breakfasts even on very busy school and work days.

So this is unusual.

This is my current favourite breakfast for weeks now, one that I have been regularly going for several days in a row.  I like it for all the usual reasons – tasty, easy, fast, cheap – but not least because I can feel it doing my cholesterol good.  Besides oats and oat bran, which are full of a kind of soluble fibre that reduces cholesterol, they have macadamias, which work as well as the “clinically proven to lower cholesterol” fake food margarines  based on hydrogenated sterols that are being so aggressively marketed these days.

Really good for crazy busy mornings, because I can make a batch that lasts for a few days and grab a couple on my way out the door.

Sadly, it’s coming to the end of the macadamia season, so I’m making the most of it.

The Recipe:

Turn the oven on high to heat up.  You want a hot oven.

In a food processor, blend together:

  • ½ cup rolled oats
  • ½ cup oat bran
  • ½ cup plain raw macadamias (if possible, freshly cracked)
  • a teaspoon of grated lemon zest

Blend until it is a coarse meal, like breadcrumbs, then add

  • 2 dessertspoons of honey
  • 2 dessertspoons of macadamia or rice bran oil
  • 2 dessertspoons of lemon juice

Blend a bit more just to combine.

You should be able to squeeze the mixture together, with wet hands, into little balls about half the size of an egg. If you need to, add a tiny dash more of any of the liquid ingredients and blend again till they will hold together. Put the balls on a greased biscuit tray and flatten them with a fork.

Bake for around 6 to 8 minutes until they are golden.  Cool on the tray (they will crispen up as they cool).

They will keep for a few days in an airtight jar.

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The Breakfast Challenge – Rocket Pesto on Toast

by Linda on August 12, 2011

Rocket is rich in a whole range of phytochemicals,  including some that are protective against prostate, breast and ovarian cancers.  It’s also rich in folic acid, vitamins A, B, C and K, and a range of minerals including calcium.  But all that is largely irrelevant in the amounts you’d normally eat.  I mean, who puts more than one or two leaves in a sandwich?

Except if you make pesto.  Very very yummy.  Uses a decent amount of rocket. As good as basil pesto. Maybe even better. In pretty much the same range of recipes – on pasta, on a sandwich, and for breakfast on toast.

Especially on a day like today.  It’s a fruiting planting day – the first one of the year where I seriously dare to plant all the spring annuals.  So I’m going for a very quick breakfast so I can get out into the shadehouse for an hour or so.

The Recipe:

In the food processor, or with a stick blender, blend together:

  • a cup (packed) of fresh rocket
  • ¼ cup toasted macadamias (or cashews or pine nuts)
  • ¼ cup parmesan cheese
  • one clove of garlic
  • pinch salt
  • half to one chili (or not)
  • enough olive oil to make a paste

That’s it.  If you are planning to keep any, put it in a jar and pour a little olive oil over the top to cover to keep the bright green colour.

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Muesli Gems

August 5, 2011

I found this gem iron in an op shop.  It took me several months and quite a few goes to learn how to use it, but now it is one of my favourite kitchen tools.  It’s a heavy cast iron baking tray for tiny little cake-scone-muffin bites called gems. It’s an old fashioned implement designed [...]

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Carambola and Macadamia Frangipane Tarts

July 5, 2011

Carambolas (Star Fruit) don’t appear in fruit shops much, and I wonder why?  They’re a really nice fruit, sweet and juicy and full of vitamin C and potassium. If you live in an area where they will grow, they fruit prolifically in mid-winter and you are likely to have a glut of them. If you don’t [...]

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The Breakfast Challenge – Macadamia Sourdough Fruit Bread

June 2, 2011

I know so many people who don’t eat nuts because their only real experiences with them have been a) shelled nuts, usually highly salted, in packets, that have been sitting around supermarket shelves for ages, or b) nuts in shell at Christmas time. Both these option are perfect ways to spoil nuts for you forever! [...]

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Roast Beetroot and Macadamia Dip

May 10, 2011

This is the second of my Halloween dips.  This one disappeared even faster than the pumpkin one, with the kids happily hoeing into beetroot.  I have beetroot in the garden and macas from our trees, and another batch in the oven right now, the second one since. I’ve developed a fetish for beetroot dip open [...]

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The Breakfast Challenge – Pink Grapefruit Braised with Vanilla and Nuts

May 6, 2011

I have a bit of a family history of heart and vascular disease, so citrus season is a really good opportunity to change my risk level.  There’s some good science supporting the idea that the  bioflavinoids in citrus fruit strongly help prevent heart attacks, and there’s also  evidence that the pectin in the pulp in [...]

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Roast Pumpkin and Macadamia Dip (or Spread)

May 4, 2011

Pumpkin season.  Infinite number of pumpkin recipes required. This one has used up several of our pumpkins, and will use up several more before the season ends. This is one of the dips I made for our Halloween progressive dinner (southern hemisphere Halloween, last weekend).  The kids got into it and made a very big [...]

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