lemonade fruit

a lemonade fruit.

I like a good old-fashioned lemonade. You know, the one you make at home with freshly squeezed lemon juice, sugar, water, ice and lots of love - it's definitely one of life's simple pleasures. So when I spied lemonade fruits - apparently a cross between a lemon and a mandarin - at Ripe Organics in Prahran Market last Friday, I was quite intrigued.

"Are they sour like lemon?" I asked the store assistant.
"No, they taste like lemonade! You can eat them just like that." He says cheerily.

Sold.

Once I got home, I sliced up my lemonade like an orange and tasted it. And it does taste like lemonade. Yes, that familiar hint of lemony acidity is there, but it's gentle on the tastebuds, and comes with a little wave of sweetness that goes down easily. I can just imagine how refreshing they would be juiced and served icy-cold.

Lemonades have a short season in Australia - so if you're interested, keep an eye out for them, get in quick, and share your experiences with me...

sliced lemonade... sweet, sour, juicy.

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fritz gelato, prahran market

After our martial arts training on the weekends, a group of us often end up hanging out in the courtyard of Prahran Market. In summer, for me, that means getting the delightful award-winning frozen concoctions from Fritz Gelato. This invariably garners envious attention from my compatriots, usually with a few succumbing and trotting off to get their own.

The gelati here are made with fresh, organic ingredients, and shies away from artificial flavours and colours. As such, the flavours available can vary according to the season. Festive ones also pop up occasionally. At the moment, as we edge towards Christmas, I received their newsletter informing me of a Plum Pudding ice cream. I'm not even a big fan of plum pudding, but the next time I went to get my gelati fix, my curiosity got the better of me and I opted for a scoop of that, along with a scoop of an oldie but goodie, Very Vanilla.

If you like plum pudding, you'll probably like Fritz Gelato's version, as it does taste rather like the real thing with spice, rum, candied fruits, and even a subtle touch of doughiness. The vanilla is a solid choice, one that I've had before, and I like it because it's, well, very vanilla, and in a good way.

alliteration alert: Plum Pudding and Very Vanilla

As much as I appreciate Fritz Gelato's rich and creamy gelati, I'd probably say I like their refreshing fruit gelati even better. I discovered their beautiful Blood Orange earlier this year and was instantly won over by its authentic flavour and silky-smooth texture. Then there's Forest Berry, a luscious new revelation for me. Intense with the natural sweet-tangy taste of berries, this, too, will be making its way to my rotation list. And that deep reddish-purple colour is just sensational.

Blood Orange and Forest Berry sitting in a tree...

There doesn't seem to be many write-ups on Fritz Gelato, but all the ones I've seen, upon a quick search, are greatly positive. Most recently, Mel from Hot or Not rated it as Hot.

Other notes: Fritz Gelato was founded by Andrea Fritz, a Swiss immigrant. The first Australian store opened in South Melbourne in the 1960s, followed by stores in Richmond and St Kilda, though I've only tried the stall at Prahran Market. Take-home tubs are available. They also do organic donuts, which I like very much as well.



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oka yams... love at first bite

I was at Prahran Market last Saturday when some oddly-shaped, brightly coloured curiosities caught my eye at the M J Mow Gourmet Potatoes stall. 

NZ oka yams

I thought they were some unusual variety of ginger at first. Then I read the sign - they were oka yams from New Zealand (also spelt oca yams). There were also printouts of a recipe for those who wanted ideas on making a meal with them. I had a chat with the stallholder, Michael, and he gave me more tips on how to cook these oka yams. He described the flavour as nutty, and said that if I didn't have an oven as required in the recipe printout, I could slice them up and sauté them, which was good to know as I only have access to a working oven on certain nights.

They were $15/kg and I bought 200 grams to try. After mulling over it for a couple of days, I decided to cook them with the oven method, and came up with a recipe that took some ideas from the printout while also incorporating some personal preferences.

some of the washed ingredients, ready to prepare for baking

This is what I ended up using, and it makes just one serving...

- 200g NZ oka yams, ends trimmed
- 1 large banana chilli pepper, chopped (or any pepper)
- 1 tangelo (oranges, mandarins etc will do too)
- 1 large clove elephant garlic, chopped (or regular garlic)
- 1 handful celery leaves, chopped (you can use your favourite herbs as well)
- 1 knob butter
- 1 dollop Greek yoghurt
- 1 heaping tablespoon almond flakes, toasted
- salt and pepper to taste

As you can probably tell by now, I am pretty liberal/flexible about ingredients and measurements, so just take the above as a loose guide, and feel free to substitute the ingredients with similar items. I do recommend you at least double the recipe if you make it, and especially if you're sharing with someone, as I was lamenting that I didn't have enough after the first bite.

First, I threw the yams, chilli, garlic and half the celery leaves into a baking dish, then coated them all thoroughly with butter. Then I cut up the tangelo and squeezed the juice over all the ingredients in the baking dish, reserving one generous wedge for more drizzling later. Now it's ready to go into the oven for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, you can toast the almond flakes either in a pan or in the oven until fragrant and golden brown.

oka yams and friends ready to go into the oven

After 20 minutes, I took the baking dish out of the oven and the yams were soft and perfect, so I season them with salt, pepper, the juice of the remaining tangelo wedge, yoghurt, the remaining celery leaves, and the toasted almond flakes.

oka yams ready to serve

Mix it all up, and dig in...

oka yams ready to eat

I really liked this, and I'm already thinking about buying ocas again. They had a nutty flavour as was mentioned, and they were really tasty. I think I did them justice with my dish, too, if I do say so myself. After some of my recent cooking attempts, which could've gone better, I feel some pride and joy again.

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