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The Weirdest Fruit, Part IV

By Yoli Martinez
May 26, 2011
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blogsoursop

Soursop (Image by Flickr user jen_maiser, used under a Creative Commons License).
Hi, I'm Yoli, Community Moderator for KCET.org. I like food and want to learn about locally grown food, fresh ingredients, and interesting cuisines that can be found in Los Angeles. Come with me on this journey, and let's dig in together! Read Part I, Part II & Part III of the Weirdest Fruit Series

When I first started my search, I was set on buying and cooking with fresh soursop. That did not happen as it was impossible for me to find fresh soursop in Los Angeles. It appears it is only possible to taste this fruit fresh if you happen to have a tree in your yard. But if you know of a place that sells fresh soursop, please share your knowledge in the comments section below! For now we can only cook with frozen pulp.

Alas, only frozen guanabana around here - make licuados/batidos RT @KCET RT @kcetfood The search for soursop continues: http://ow.ly/51YoNLeslie BeresteinMulti_American

Getting your hands on frozen pulp is hard enough in itself. The only place I was able to find soursop pulp was at El Camaguey Market in Palms (once again, if you know of any other market that sells this fruit frozen, share your insider scoop in the comments).

Once I had my frozen soursop I had to decide what to make with it. Many of the recipes I found online were for making drinks with the pulp, which apparently mixes really well with rum. But I wanted to make something different. After a long search I found a recipe for soursop cheesecake. Yes, cheesecake!

Ingredients:

  • 250 gm cream cheese
  • 1 small tin condensed milk
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 1 cup soursop pulp
  • 3 teaspoons gelatin dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
  • Although the original recipe called for me to make my own crust, I bought a ready made graham cracker crust from the store.

First, I poured 1 cup of the soursop pulp into my bowl (which turned out to be about 3/4s of my bag). I had let my soursop sit for about half an hour out of the freezer, so it was a bit mushy by the time I started working with it.

Pouring my soursop into the bowl

Then, I added my cream cheese, lemon juice, condensed milk, and the unflavored gelatin I had mixed.

Cream Cheese, Lemon Juice, Condensed Milk, Gelatine Mix

Once everything was in I started whisking away! This took some time since I couldn't find the electric beater. If people could bake before electricity, so could I!

Whisk, whisk!

All the ingredients eventually mixed together and looked smooth. My batter was ready to go, but before pouring my mix over my graham cracker crust I had a little taste test.

He thought it tasted like soursop and cream cheese mixed together, which is perfect, because that's exactly what it was.

This is what the final product looked like:

Soursop Cheesecake

In my next post I'll share pictures of the soursop cheesecake tasting here in the New Media Department of KCET!

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