Costa Rican Recipes Using Starfruit, aka Carambola
By Randy M.
The Origins and Synonyms for the Starfruit
The starfruit originated somewhere in Southeast Asia or nearby Pacific Islands. It is now distributed worldwide in tropical and subtropical climates. The fruit comes from a small tree, and in the province of Guanacaste, in northwest Costa Rica, the fruits mature in early December. They mature later in the mountainous areas, as am writing this in late January and they are still abundant in the Liberia Farmer's market. So, the season for fresh-picked fruits in the Northern Hemisphere may range from December to February.
In Costa Rica, the starfruit is called carambola, although some may call it tiriguro. In other Spanish-speaking countries it may be called carambolo, pepino de la India ( El Salvador); carambolera, caramboler or árbol de pepino (Mexico); and in Venezuela it is tamarindo dulce or tamarindo chino. The Latin name for the tree is Averrhoa carambola.
There are many recipes for the use of this tart and unusual fruit. You are only limited by your imagination. I regularly prepare a drink from it. Starfruit is also used as a garnish on salads, made into jam or relishes, cooked as a component of curries, stews, pies or puddings. In Thailand, shrimp is boiled with sliced immature fruit. Immature fruit can be eaten as a vegetable or made into pickles or preserves. In Jamaica, ripe fruits can be dried.
Below, I share recipes of this Vitamin C-rich fruit from Costa Rica: starfruit jam, a drink and a hot vinegar sauce.
Carambola Photos
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Starfuit Jam Recipe
Ingredients:
8-10 starfruit
Water (so the volume of fruit juice equals about 9 cups)
4 cups of sugar
1 packet pectin for low sugar jams and jellies
Juice of one lime
Cut each of the starfruit into three pieces and put in a blender. Add a minimal amount of water to help liquify them. Strain the blended fruits through a strainer and then put the juice in a pot under medium heat. Add the sugar, the lime juice and the pectin before it gets hot. Bring the juice to a slow boil and stir constantly as it thickens. When you can see the bottom of the pot while stirring, the jam will be ready. Put into hot, sterilized jars and with new, sterilized lids.
Making Starfruit Drink
In Costa Rica, they call drinks refrescos. Drinks from fruits are called refrescos naturales to differentiate them from carbonated drinks. So, here is a recipe for a refresco natural made from carambola:
Take four starfruit, wash them and if there are green edges on the fruit, trim that off. Slice the fruit into thirds and toss in a blender. Add water to the 4-cup mark and blend to bits. It won't take long, perhaps 15-20 seconds at most. Pour the pureed fruit into a strainer that is positioned over a pitcher to remove the seeds and pulp.
To sweeten, you can use sugar substitutes to and equivalent of 4 heaping teaspoons of sugar. Drinking this without sweetener would be a very mouth-puckering experience.
Making a batido (shake) with carambola. Ticos (Costa Ricans) make many types of batidos, mixing fruits, water or milk, sugar and sometimes oats. This is a recipe I tried recently that came out just perfectly:
Get out the blender and throw in one peeled banana and a starfruit. Be sure to take out the seeds of the starfruit first, though. Add 1/2 -3/4 cup of oatmeal, 2-3 heaping tablespoons of sugar, 2-3 cups of milk and some water so the blender is about 2/3 full. Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of vanilla. Lastly, put in some ice so the blender is about 3/4 full. Blend until the ice is crushed. You will end up with a really nice, healthy smoothie. For variations, you can substitute different fruits like papaya, watermelon, etc. I recommend eating papaya in this manner because it is more palatable when it hides behind other flavors. Many people don't like to eat it plain.
The Hottest Chile Pepper There Is
Chilero with Starfruit, a Salsa Picante
Back in Central and East Texas, where I was raised, folks put hot pepper sauce on their peas and greens. This hot pepper sauce was usually just cayenne peppers and vinegar. Sweet banana peppers were sometimes added to tone down the fire.
Many Costa Rican restaurants have large jars of chilero or chile, a more fancy version of the Texan hot pepper sauce. The spiciness comes from the habanero (they call them chiles panameños locally) peppers and several other vegetables are added. The following recipe uses starfruit for a little extra flavor.
Ingredients
4-6 hot peppers, Habanero preferred, whole
2 carrots, peeled and sliced crosswise
2 red, sweet bell peppers, sliced into long, thin strips
2 onions, chopped medium
cauliflower, chopped into small pieces
4-6 green beans, chopped in half
2 star fruit, sliced crosswise with 1/4" thickness
Combine all the vegetables, peppers and enough vinegar to fill the container(s). Use sterilized jars, by the way. Keep this mixture in the refrigerator for two weeks to allow all the flavors and the capsisic acid (what makes a pepper hot) to intermingle. It keeps for up to 3-4 months. Put drops or teaspoons (if you are less sensitive to the heat) of the chilero over beans, rice and vegetables, depending on your tolerance for heat.
A Final Note: Kidney Patients Should Avoid Star Fruit
One of the reasons the starfruit is so tart is the presence of significant amounts oxalic acid. Relatively speaking, it has less of this acid than spinach and about a similar amount as rhubarb.
The presence of oxalic acid means that if you have bad kidneys, don't consume the fruit. With healthy kidneys, the oxalic acid is removed from the blood and it goes to the urinary tract. For more information on the specific symptoms of oxalic acid toxicity see the third reference below, published by nutritionists from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
References About Starfruit
1. Morton, J. 1987. Carambola. p. 125–128. In: Fruits of warm climates. Julia F. Morton, Miami, FL.
2. Mis recetas: Mermelada de carambolo.
3. Alan Titchenal & Joannie Dobbs. Kidney Patients Should Avoid Starfruit. Star Bulletin.com University of Hawaii, Manoa April 28, 2003
Visit the Guanacaste Mi Tierra Blog About Costa Rica
- Costa Rican Forests: Pochote Tree
A young pochote tree is well protected. Since I came to Costa Rica, I have been fascinated by the pochote tree (Bombacopsis quinata), with a trunk that is covered in sharp spines that can project from the by as much as an inch or more. This tree is common in the Guanacaste province and it can be found all along the Pacific side of the country, from the mountains to the beaches. As with imported teak trees, this native tree is cultivated for use as lumber, since it grows straight and tall. The wood of pochote is white, as opposed to the dark grains of teak. It is used to make furniture, cabinets, window and door frames and for making veneer. It also has the common name of "spiny cedar," but it is definitely a broad-leaf deciduous tree, which loses its leaves during the dry season. Perhaps the similarity to cedar is the straightness of the wood and its color. This tree is found from Honduras to Venezuela. Spines on a mature tree trunk. The pochote tree flowers during the end of the dry season, which is during the months of March and April. The flowers are white, but after they fall, they turn red. And example of the flower is shown below, as well as an older flower that turned red. Old fallen pochote flowers turn red. A freshly fallen pochote flower. The seed pod produced by the flower is brown and the seeds contained within are associated with cottony-like filaments for dispersal. The seed pods normally open up wide as seen in the first picture below, but sometimes they drop without opening all the way as seen in the next picture. An opened and an unopened seed pod in a pochote tree. A partially opened seed pod showing the seeds and cotton-like filaments that aid in seed dispersal. By the way, most of these photos were taken near or on Peninsula Papagayo, where there is a abundance of these mature trees. This peninsula has a huge golf course and resort, but around the edges, it is a mostly untouched, natural Costa Rican forest. There is a boardwalk on the north end of the peninsula (to Playa Virador and another beach) where you can observe trees and congos, as well as other wildlife. I am also studying other types of trees and will do blog entries on those as soon as I get enough information. This is one of my hobbies, as you might have guessed. There are other types of spiny trees in Costa Rica, and I have pictures of two of them, but I am still determining more about their biology and want to get more pictures before I present them to you. Hasta luego!
- Restaurante Claudio y Gloria on Coco Beach
I and my two companions trekked over to the community of Coco Beach last weekend to dine and buy some hard-to-find items at the Auto Mercado grocery store there. We had a delicious meal at Restaurante Claudio y Gloria. This restaurant is along the beach on the new beach front walkway, about 50 meters north of the police station. This is an open-aired restaurant, as many of the restaurants are in this town, but this one has a view of the walkway and the bay area. There is a bar as part of the restaurant which is called Tortuga Bar. It is pictured to the back and left of the next photo. The prices for the entrees in this restaurant are moderate, and because of temporary promotion by Credomatic, they are even more reasonable with a 50% discount. But you have to have this type of credit or debit card. I ordered shrimp-stuffed chicken with asparagus sauce and my companions ordered a fish and shrimp combination with a red sauce. These were priced at about $10 per dish. If you wish, you can certainly order more expensive dishes like lobster. There are many different types of dishes to choose from, some which I may try on my next visit and I will update the blog when I do. The wait staff was very attentive and we didn't have to wait long for the meal to be served. We enjoyed very cold beers while we were waiting. Both of the plates came with vegetables cooked with butter and buttery mashed potatoes. The chicken breast was stuffed with small shrimp and the asparagus sauce helped bring the whole dish together. The fish filets were served with garlic tomato sauce with large shrimp arranged on top. Everyone was delighted with the food and it didn't last long on our plates. As we were eating, we noted an iguana walking by and a yellow and black bird hanging out near the trellis. It looked like a member of the oriole family. I took a picture, but it was not in good focus, so I won't post it here. I did see a couple sitting on a matapalo tree trunk which I will share with you though. A photo of my dish is also posted below. I enjoyed my visit to Restuarante Claudio y Gloria and I think you would too. Give it a try! Couple on a strangler fig tree trunk along the beach. Shrimp-stuffed chicken. The portions were generous.
- Homebrewing in Costa Rica
This article on homebrewing in Costa Rica is not a review of common things that come from the monopoly distillery of the country or the mega-breweries, it is rather a treatise on traditional drinks made by rural people of the country. There are different regions in the country that make their own signature brews, and the province of Guanacaste has two well-known homebrew products, coyol wine from the coyol palm and “chicheme” made from purple corn (maíz pujagua). These drinks can also be enjoyed in other countries of Central America, such as bordering Nicaragua and Honduras. Below I also include some recipes from the Limón province for good measure. Coyol Wine The spiny trunk of a coyol palm. The coyol palm (Acrocomia aculeata) is harvested during the summer months in Guanacaste province, when it is hot and very dry, because the sap production is the highest during this season. The tree is cut down and it is handled carefully because (1) it has spines all along the trunk and (2) tree trunks that are less abused produce more sap. The 2-3” long spines can cause painful puncture wounds and can elicit a fever. The sap is collected day to day in a canal that is made about 50 cm from the shoot-end of the trunk that may be up to 15 meters long. This canal is made about 2-3 days after the trunk has been felled. The length of the collection channel increases each day that the sap is leeched and it may gradually reach 2 meters in length. To protect the sap in the canal from ants and flies during the extraction period, the trunk is covered with the bark of a tree known as burío (peine de mico) or the leaves of anono (Annona cherimolia). The collection process may last as long as 2 months, yielding about one hundred 20–ounce bottles of wine per month. In fiestas, like the Fiestas Civicas de Liberia, you will see booths selling the wine packaged in bottles used for drinking water or soft drinks. A booth that sells this wine is labeled “Coyolero.” Vendors are also occasionally see on the sides of the main roads in Guanacaste. The collected sap is naturally fermented outdoors in the sun. It has a creamy white appearance and a mild sweet odor. It takes 3-4 days to get what is called sweet wine. Sweet-strong wine is ready in 4-8 days and in up to 22 days of fermentation results in strong wine which can then turn into vinegar. The vinegar is sometimes used to make a pepper sauce (chilero). The wine is believed to cause drunkenness as a result of enzymes that are activated after imbibing. Sun exposure is believed to be a catalyst is the process of inebriation.. Some claim that you can feel the effects the next day after sun exposure, without any additional consumption. Chicha de Piñuela Penca plants. Chicha is a general term used for a special drink. It can be alcoholic or non-alcoholic. Chicha made from Piñuela, or penca (Bromelia penguin L.) as they say in Guanacaste is made from the fruits of the plant. The fruits are crushed and placed into a pot where they are boiled together with the crushed shells. Then the shells and fruit pulp are strained out. Water and sugar cane syrup are added, then it is allowed to sit and ferment for a few days. To make the non-alcoholic drink, mix water and the crushed fruit and strain. Add table sugar and ice and it is ready. Chicheme This drink uses purple corn that is re-hydrated and then ground to a fine texture. From this comes a substance that is like a thick pudding. This is put in an earthenware pot and then cooked in an open outdoor oven. After it is cooked and cooled, water is added and the mixture is poured in a narrow-necked pot called a nimbuera grande. This pot is pre-cured in some way for the fermentation beforehand. Ground nutmeg is added for taste as well. The vessel is allowed to ferment for a few days. This drink is used in prayer services for those members of the community who have passed away and sometimes at celebrations of baptisms. Agua de Sapo Agua de Sapo, or Frog Water, is made with tapa de dulce (conical, solid crude sugar bricks as shown on the left), ground fresh ginger, limes and water. Specifically, there is 1 block of crude sugar, 2 ounces of ginger, 1 gallon of water and the juice of 5 limes. The crude sugar is cooked with the ginger and the lime juice is added. This mixture is covered and set aside for a week before serving. It should be served iced or very cold. This recipe is from the province of Limón, on the Caribbean side of the country. Fermentation Basics Some basic advice about fermentation. All four of the processes mentioned above use naturally present microorganisms to produce the alcohol from sugars that are present in the liquids. As most people know from experience, fermentations can frequently go wrong when one doesn’t use commercial yeasts as an additive. Additionally, sanitation is important. Some home brewers in Costa Rica use baker’s yeast to help out with starting the fermentation, as in the recipe below. The use of Campden tablets is also recommended during bottling to help prevent post-bottling oxidation. Rice Wine This is another recipe from the Limón province. Instead of relying on whims and potential problems of natural fermentation, baker’s yeast is used. Here are the ingredients: 2 cups of white rice, 4 lbs of sugar, 1 orange, 1 lime, ¼ ounce of yeast, 1 gallon of water, 1 lb of dried fruit and six cinnamon sticks. The rice is washed and then dried. Then it is put in a glass jar with the water and the dried fruit and cinnamon. The yeast is then added on top. The orange and lime are peeled and cut in half, and then added to the glass jar. Remove the lime after one week and the orange after two weeks of fermentation. After three weeks, strain out the rice and bottle the wine. If you have Campden tablets, use them. You now have cheap un-distilled saki with the citrus and cinnamon flavors! References http://www.elmundoforestal.com/album/index1.html
Comments
Thanks for your thoughtful comments Derdriu. The only thing I might say about using the starfruit as a vegetable is to not overcook it, you can reduce the vitamin C content.
I never ate the fruit when I lived in the U.S. Being here in Costa Rica has opened up a new world of culinary possibilities.
Derdriu 3 months ago
Randy, What delectable, enticing, fabulous recipe possibilities from one little vitamin (and oxalic acid) rich fruit! The fruit is not unknown to me because of having been to Brazil. The recipes are welcome trips down an appetite-stimulating, hunger-inducing memory lane of Brazil's colorful, exotic cuisine. Additionally, I like the hot starfruit recipe for vegetables.
Thank you for caring and sharing, etc.,
Derdriu