Benjamin Henion

This light, refreshing dessert turned out nice. Very simple preparation . Crisp, clean flavors as well. I did a simple guava ice, using guava juice and sugar. It turned out nice and fluffy, with lots of guava flavor. The starfruit is used 2 ways, fresh slices and dried slices. Although the dry slices didn't crisp as well as I would have liked, they preparation concentrated the flavor for a really nice component to the plate. I elevated them and added some color with a couple fresh raspberries, which complimented the fresh starfruit really well. The moisture came from the passion fruit-orange-strawberry coulis that glistens from underneath . In the process of making this dish, I changed direction a few times, but in the end, I decided simple, clean and flavorful was the way to go. I am just glad to make good use of some of the starfruit we picked up today, and it doesn't get much fresher than that.

I received a call out of the blue from a gentleman, we'll call him Lawrence. He informed me that he had a tree that had exploded with the tropical starfruit. There was no joking about that! I had prepared myself to bring quite a bit back to the kitchen with me, but what you see here is probably 1o or 15 percent of the fruit that the tree had produced. Lawrence is more than happy to have us over to take much, much more off of his hands. The starfruit, or Carambola is a tropical fruit that has a waxy, golden or green skin and mild, yet complicated flavors that seem to pair well with many other fruits. Originally from Sri Lanka and Moluccas, the starfruit thrives in the Hawaiian Islands due to the warm environment. The starfruit has no fat or cholesterol , and is a great source of Vitamin C. They are great in fruit salads, chutneys and salsas, but they make a refreshing and impressive garnish to almost any dish or drink. With the amount of free starfruit we now have access t...