Australian fruits chock full of anti-oxidants

davidson_plum

Anti-oxidants or anthocyanins are prominent in purple foods. It seems like there is always a new fruit that beats the last in levels of anti-oxidants. Recent research has put some of our Australian fruits and berries in a leading position.

Davidson’s plum, sour and tangy, the progeny of Davidsonia pruriens and a rainforest plant well suited to the Brisbane climate, has a measurement of anti-oxidants far in excess of blueberries, which are renowned for their high levels.

So how do we eat these novel foods? Most of the plums can be turned into a jam; a sauce or combined in desserts. Davidson plum sauce can be purchased online and it is the perfect accompaniment for lamb or pork.

Now if you wanted to get really creative and use our aussie game meat then try this:

I created a basic sauce base – concentrated fresh-made beef stock, essentially – and then added a selection of frozen Australian plums (Illawarra and Davidson’s – the dark ones – Kakadu could probably be used too) and simmered gently for about 45mins. I also added whole frozen native pepperberries to add a necessary bite – not many, as they’re very strong. Serve with emu steaks.

In the future I’d create the stock out of kangaroo tails if it’s going to accompany roo or emu (both are red meat), and use chicken stock to make a lighter sauce for pork.

The native raspberry Rubus hillii is another plant high in anti-oxidants. The berries are sweet and can be eaten raw and substituted for the exotic species. In Queensland we possess an abundance of the Rubus species as they originate in rainforests. Any recipe for exotic raspberry can use the native.

I tried Davidson Plum Chilli Sauce from Barbushco on a nice piece of grilled chicken.Â The taste will vary depending on the ingredients and this was a very very mild chilli flavour with lots of fruit so tasted very much like chutney or barbecue sauce. It would be great on wallaby snags!

Plums can be sourced from the Essential Ingredient in Sydney (or Canberra or Melbourne); they source them directly from Cherikoff, http://www.cherikoff.net/cherikoff/the pioneer in the native produce industry. Cherikoff also does a plum sauce that can be ordered from his website.

Worth mentioning too is Vic’s book Dining Downunder which has some great recipes for using native berries, fruits and nuts, some very exotic and some a little less so. Remember some of our Aussie foods are things we use every day like Macadamia nuts or Ginger. Lillypillies are another common berry used in cooking now known in cooking circles as riberry. Producers are glacing them and Cherikoff puts them into a blue cheese and riberry damper.

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