Tropical Healing Fruit: Starfruit Tart Recipe

Imagine tucking into a breakfast bowl overflowing with juicy, mouth-watering mango, papaya, pineapple and melon. Sipping on coconut water mid-afternoon to quench your thirst after a day in the sun. Adding a generous dollop of avocado guacamole to your lunch plate. Feasting on main courses and desserts all punctuated with a taste of the tropics and washing it down with a cocktail treat with flavors so fresh it’s as though the fruit was just plucked from the tree!

In Costa Rica, healthy, healing foods are abundantly available and grown locally (we even grow some in our own organic garden). Here at Blue Osa, they are our dietary staples. In this series of blog posts, we’re going to reveal the sensational nutritional qualities of the tropical treats that feature them regularly they form the basis of many of the amazing meals on our weekly menu from the Pura Vida Kitchen.

Starfruit

What could be prettier than accentuating appetizers, garnishing salads and decorating desserts with a star-shaped fruit? Starfruit is gloriously beautiful, growing in clusters of lilac colored bell flowers all around Native America. Waxy on the outside and crisp in texture they can be sweet or sour to taste.

Why we love Starfruit

• Starfruit is super low in calories. 100g provides just 31 calories and packs a powerful nutritional punch.
• It contains a dietary fiber that helps to protect the mucous membrane of the colon from exposure to toxic substances.
• Starfruit has a high Vitamin C content, which is an awesome, natural antioxidant and a high Vitamin B content which is needed for essential key functions within the body relating to stress management and metabolism.
• Starfruit contains key minerals and electrolytes like Potassium, Zinc and Iron which are important for healthy cell regeneration and stabilizing heart rate and blood pressure and counteracting negative effects of too much sodium.
• Star Fruit is known to help combat hangovers.
• It can help prevent during sickness or pregnancy. Eat a slice of the fruit every 3 hours.

How to include more Starfruit in your life

• Slice into the fruit salad.
• Add to a green salad to add a tart and crispy contrast to all those leaves.
• Place on eyes to perk up our peepers.
• Poach, stew or slow roast and serve with some cinnamon and honey for a delicious fruity snack.
• Use as an exotic looking garnish.
• Add cooked, mashed Star Fruit to cakes or bread. It’s delicious.

Or try our infamous Starfruit Tart from the Pura Vida Kitchen and as featured in ‘Voila, Cuisine Avec Marie.’

Starfruit Tart

From the Kitchen of Blue Osa
Starfruit Tart Serves 6-8

Ingredients

3 to 4 star fruit, sliced 113 grams of butter, softened 75 grams of butter, melted 1 cup sugar 150 grams of dark brown sugar 200 grams of cake flour 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 2 eggs 120 ml of whole milk Juice of 1 passion fruit 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 teaspoon pure almond extract Sea salt

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 170c degrees.
2. Arrange sliced star fruit in the bottom of a greased 9-inch cake tin as close together as possible.
3. Mix together the softened butter, brown sugar and passion fruit juice and pour into the pan so mixture covers bottom. Set aside.
4. Cream together rest of the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well.
5. Mix together the dry ingredients.
6. Add everything together with a little at a time, alternately with a little milk, to butter the mixture, stirring so it doesn’t become lumpy.
7. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts, then pour into the prepared cake tin.
8. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides of the pan.
9. Let cool for five minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.

Buen Provecho from Blue Osa Retreat + Spa

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