Single ingredient recipe books are rare, but their appeal lies in exploiting the full potential of an ingredient in ways that can be explorative and fun.
The ingredient choice in chef, food critic and culinary arts lecturer, Hennie Fisher’s Beyond the Smoothie: Papaya Recipes for Every Occasion celebrates the fruit’s wellness strengths while turning its cooking challenges into triumphs.
If you don’t love papaya, it is worth acquiring for its immense health benefits. You can find the many ways of incorporating it into your meals to your liking in this book.
Known to be a super fruit used by ancient civilisations for its medicinal and nutritional power, papaya is packed with enzymes, antioxidants and plenty nutrients. It is high in vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, folate, niacin, iron, calcium and fibre.
The fruit is great for digestion. If you struggle with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)/acid reflux, it aids against heartburn and indigestion. It contains Papain, an enzyme that breaks down protein and carbs for improved nutrient absorption.
It also has anti-inflammatory properties, especially for the gut, skin and eyes reducing oxidative stress, helping with recovery from injuries and promoting overall health. The potassium, magnesium, and zeaxanthin (an antioxidant) in papaya helps protect eyesight. The carotenes, lycopene, and zeaxanthin help lower the risk of developing asthma in adults.
According to Medical News Today, many of the compounds found in papaya may have anti-cancer effects. Papaya is also credited as a natural parasite cleanser with its leaves known to remove intestinal parasites naturally. All this abundance of wellness benefits is reason enough to take advantage of this fruit which is available all year round.
Fisher has curated 135 recipes that span:
- starters and first courses;
- salads and platters;
- main courses;
- snacks, savouries and side dishes;
- desserts;
- confectioneries and sweets;
- sweet baked goodies; and
- drinks.
He goes for global cuisine which widens the scope of his experimentation, tapping into a variety of food cultures. A delight of the book is the origin stories that accompany some of the recipes, which are insightful.
Fisher also explores some of SA’s unifying and popular foods and dips into cultural zeitgeists of social media trends to keep things current. The papaya and banana bread here may remind you of a time when the country connected online over banana bread recipes at the height of Covid-19. This is another one to add to the arsenal.
It was mostly to see how far I could push papaya. I often saw papaya jam in the shops, and tasting it made me always think of pumpkin — so I was fascinated by the fact that papaya has such a delicate flavour, which could disappear so quickly when overcooked
— Hennie Fisher
Some recipes may inspire you to experiment a little further according to your palate and access – like substituting couscous with an indigenous grain, or going with indigenous varieties of legumes and pulses for a salad.
Cooking with papaya has its limitations and challenges and Fisher is upfront with this from the beginning. Another strength of the book is its transparency and generosity of information. While it makes sense to add papaya to a fruit salad, using it in a fruit mousse poses problems due to its high moisture content. The fruit’s savoury nature works well with salads but poses challenges in recipe development. And papaya does not do well when cooked. Overcoming these obstacles with inventive and fun ideas is how Fisher wins.
On what guided the curation of the recipes he says: “It was mostly to see how far I could push papaya. I often saw papaya jam in the shops, and tasting it made me always think of pumpkin — so I was fascinated by the fact that papaya has such a delicate flavour, which could disappear so quickly when overcooked.
“But in my mind, there was always this message from the farmer who gave statistics of how much of a harvest is lost to food waste. So for me the recipes were always to make something with the fruit that would extend its life, that would do the fruit justice in terms of flavour but would also provide options for the home cook that was more than just adding papaya to fruit salad.
“In the beginning, it was easy, because there were obvious recipes that one wanted to make with papaya, rather than the original fruit, such as gazpacho (a tomato-based soup) — which, incidentally, is totally delicious. But later I had to be really innovative about using the fruit within recipes but adhering to my own flavour-retention importance. So for me the curation of the recipes was always about showcasing the best papaya has to offer.”
Clever goodies in the book include the carpaccio, papaya and caviar starter, daisies and spiced papaya vodka ice lollies.
Some recipes are super easy, while the technique in others require a bit of effort. On who he aimed this book for Fisher says, “It should be for anyone who loves to experiment, but may not feel confident in doing so on their own. The intention is also not to be overly experimental - I did not want the home cook to announce to everyone that they have cooked an entire papaya meal, but perhaps to subtly incorporate it.”
The papaya recipes here are for every moment and every season. The book is published by Emerging Scholars Initiative (ESI Press) by the University of Pretoria.
TimesLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.