The custard apple tree is not especially attractive. It is erect, with a rounded or spreading crown and trunk. The flowers never fully open. The skin, thin but tough, may be yellow or brownish when ripe, with a pink, reddish or brownish-red blush, and faintly, moderately, or distinctly reticulated. There is a thick, cream-white layer of custard-like, somewhat granular, flesh beneath the skin surrounding the moderately juicy segments, in many of which there is a single, hard, oblong, dark-brown or black, glossy seed.
Ripe custard apple is soft to the touch and the stem and attached core can be easily pulled out. The flesh may be scooped out from the skin and eaten as it is or served with light cream and a sprinkling of sugar. The leaf decoction is administered as a vermifuge. Crushed leaves or a paste of the flesh may be used as a poultice on boils, abscesses and ulcers. The unripe fruit is rich in tannin; it is dried, pulverised and used to treat diarrhoea and dysentery. Fragments of the root bark are packed around the gums to relieve toothache.
Custard apple cheese cake
Ingredients
Base
Ginger nut biscuits: 1 packet
Melted butter: 125gm
Filling
Cream cheese: 250gm
Castor sugar: half cup
Evaporated milk (cold): 250 ml
Gelatine dissolved in quarter cup of boiling water: 3 tsp
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
Large custard apple: 1
Kiwi fruit for garnish: half a fruit
Almond flakes: 50 gm
Shredded coconut: 25 gm
Method: Crush the biscuits finely and mix them with the melted butter. Press the mixture into a 20 cm tart tray and chill it for half an hour. Dissolve the gelatine in water.
Put the custard apple flesh in a blender and blend it until it is smooth. Whip the evaporated milk until it becomes thick. Mix all the ingredients together. Pour it into the base and put it in the refrigerator to set. After it sets, decorate it with slices of kiwi fruit and sprinkle shredded coconut and toasted almonds on the top.
SAMIR MULAOKAR
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