I dropped in on my Thermomix Group Leader Liz a few months ago, and she had just finished grinding boab nuts in the thermomix. I found her in the backyard with the thermie plugged in and a fine pale powder everywhere! I had been dying to try Boab since I saw a tv article on some farmers farming the actual tree as a 'vegetable'!. They plant the saplings and then once the tree is about the size of a large sweet potato, they are harvested and eaten in various ways. Fresh with a crunchy, apparently water chestnut like flesh, or sliced up in salads, stir fry's or wherever you want a crisp fresh bite in a dish. I am still yet to try the 'tree', and am dying to, but I was excited enough to get a container of the nut powder to experiment with!
Here's the thing though, it has taken me months to decide what to do with it! It was a small takeaway container, and the contents were so light it weighed 60g. She had suggested custard which is what they love it for. Tasting the powder dry, it was surprisingly tangy and citrusy, and I also wanted to make something that would really pay homage to the ingredients itself. ie keep it simple! So I finally went with the simplest thing of all, shortbread.
60g boab nut powder, finely ground
280g plain flour
100g raw vanilla icing sugar, made by milling whole beans with raw sugar.
290g butter
pinch salt.
Follow as per normal shortbread recipe of your own, or as directed in the Everyday Cookbook.
I pressed out into a tart tin, baked until just starting to lightly brown, I took it a bit further because I had the nut powder a few months I wasnt sure if it goes stale.
Once out of the oven, score and cut if you want shapes, and allow to cool in the tin.
What did it taste like? Passionfruit shortbread. The flavour of the boab nut is uncannily like passionfruit, when you just bit on one seed at the same time. So theres that slight bitterness at the end, but barely. Different, and delicious!
I took it to a Thermomix meeting at my GL's house and she loved it, and got so excited she gave me two more containers! What to do with it next!? As I had tasted the flavour of the first piece of shortbread, and thought back to her custard suggestion, I did actually have the thought, 'Pity I dont have any more or I would try making a Boab nut souffle'. So I should probably honour my thoughts and follow through with that idea.
I will let you know how it goes!
Oh and btw, if you're wondering where to source Boab nuts from, as I was, I asked my GL where she got them from, and she said she picked them off the trees! Up near Broome somewhere......
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