The Juice...
In anticipation of making my all-time favorite morning juice, I put two peeled and chopped bananas in the freezer, and saved a little fresh coconut milk from last night's dinner menu. I also cut up a small papaya and the last quarter of pineapple and put the chunks in containers in the fridge to chill overnight. As usual, there was already a bottle of freshly made starfruit juice sitting in the fridge door.
The bananas came from my garden. For two years, I'd watched them grow from a tiny baby suckling into an enormous fruit-bearing tree. After the large purple banana flower bloomed, I watched from the kitchen window as each tiny banana finger formed, growing each day into its own shape until they were finally fully grown. When the bananas changed to a lighter green and the flower was small and dried, I cut down the tree and heaved the branch upstairs to hang on the special hook designed specifically for banana branches. On this branch, there were more than one hundred fat bananas. Over a couple of weeks, they gradually ripened, becoming yellow. Finally, the first few ripe bananas were ready to eat. I snapped off two bananas and put them in the freezer overnight.
The coconut was also locally grown and sold to the store by a nearby farmer who harvests his crop weekly. I bought a “dried coconut” (coco seco) meaning that the flesh has become thick and solid inside and the outside shell is hard and wood-like, as opposed to a fresh green coconut which is all juice and almost no flesh. Cracking the shell with the back of a heavy knife, I empty the coconut water into the blender, then jimmy out the hard flesh with the tip of the blade, roughly chopping it up before adding it to the blender with a little boiling water to make coconut milk. The boiling water coaxes out the cream. I leave the blender running for a long time to chop the flesh as finely as possible. Then, pour the whole mess into a strainer. Once the flesh and the liquid are separated, using the back of a spoon to squeeze out the milk, I chill the milk and gently dry the coconut flesh on the stove so I can save it and use it for recipes as needed. There's no need to buy desiccated coconut when you can make it yourself. I used most of the milk in the Thai Red Curry I'd made for guests last night. I saved a cupful for my juice in the morning and stored it in a jar in the fridge.
The papaya also came from my garden. I'd been out there a few days earlier, harvesting some ripe fruits, including starfruit, lime, and papaya from the trees surrounding the house. I'd grabbed a couple of green papayas, but there was one just ripening, ready to be picked before the birds started to feast on it. It would be ready to eat in no time. Taking out the seeds, I spread them carefully around the garden to multiply this tropical orange goodness and have a steadier supply of papaya, instead of just one every few weeks. I peeled the fruit and cut it up, then left it in the fridge. This juice was gonna be so good! And cold, too. Perfect on a hot sunny day.
This pineapple came from the Saturday veggie truck. Every week, I buy a still slightly green pineapple, knowing it will last a bit longer than a yellow one and I can take my time to eat it. By the time I chopped up the last piece to put in the fridge, it was just getting ready to become past its use-by date. Refrigeration saved it for one last purpose. I planted the spiky top in the bottom of the garden. It will be three years before I see a pineapple, but planting one every week, with a ten percent survival rate, ensures future homegrown pineapples. Occasionally, I can harvest a pineapple.
The starfruit comes from my trees too. Sweet and juicy, I pick them daily and turn them into juice in the blender. Trickling in just a little rainwater, they blend up into delicious juice, with the skin and core strained out. They taste like tropical apples. If I want to put fresh starfruit into my fruit salad, I top and tail them, slide a knife down each star point to remove the hard edge, then slice them up into stars. But really, the best way to eat them is to pluck them straight from the tree and take a big bite. It's so good! For now, I have a bottle of chilled juice in the fridge to drink alone or add to other juices.
There's also a small block of ice in the freezer, left over from last night's rum cocktails. That will go into my juice as well, as soon as I get back from the beach and get the cat food on the stove to cook.
I'm so ready for this juice! The beach was hot. The sun was fierce. My face feels warm from a little sunburn. I was able to fill the fish bucket with three or four days’ worth of cat food but I had to work for it, pushing boats up the beach with the fishermen. I also traded a bag of freshly picked starfruit for some fish. By the time I returned home around mid-morning, my growling stomach was well and truly ready for breakfast.
First, I have to chop up the broccoli and add the rice to the pot. Then, rinse the salt and sand off the whole, uncleaned fish and add them to the pot with a little water, place the lid on, and light the stove. As the low flame flickers under the cat food, bringing it to a gentle simmer, I take out the blender jug and find the lid.
Starting to get excited about this juice, I bring everything out of the fridge, the frozen bananas, the chilled coconut milk, the papaya and pineapple chunks, the starfruit juice, and the small ice block. One by one, I put them all in the blender. First the chopped-up bananas, then some papaya and the pineapple, then the ice. Lastly, I shake up the jar and add the coconut milk and some starfruit juice. The smell of all the fresh tropical fruit is amazing. My mouth is watering. It's gonna be so good! I fit the lid onto the blender jug and hit the button, and BAM! The village electricity goes out.