WE COULD ALL DO WITH AN AUNT WITH THE WISDOM, GENEROSITY AND COOKING SKILLS OF AUNTY BERYL. TRUE TO CHARACTER, HER COOKBOOK SHARES THESE REMARKABLE TALENTS
Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo OAM is a respected Gamilaroi elder, educator, mentor and businesswoman from Walgett, New South Wales. She moved to Sydney at 16 and, at 31, completed a TAFE diploma in hospitality. She later taught at Petersham TAFE and founded a Home and Work Opportunities for Aboriginal Women course at Eora TAFE in Redfern. Aunty Beryl established the Job Ready program at the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence.
She has run several cafe kitchens and owns a catering business, called Yaama Barrgay, which means “hello, family and friends” in Yuwaalaraay, which employs First Nations staff. She also advises top chefs including Kylie Kwong, René Redzepi and Neil Perry on bush foods.
This is an easy cake, and you can make it the day before, leaving it in the fridge overnight to set. Not much can go wrong! If you can, buy the Davidson plums frozen and make a syrup to go over the top of the cheesecake, it creates a really beautiful garnish for this dessert.
SERVES 4-6
- 200g digestive biscuits, crushed
- 100g butter, melted
- Davidson plum syrup, to serve (optional, see tips)
FILLING
- 500g cream cheese, chopped
- ¾ cup (165g) caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon Davidson plum powder, plus extra for sprinkling
- 300ml thickened cream
- ¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons dried lemon myrtle, plus extra for sprinkling
- 1 tablespoon gelatine powder
- ¼ cup (60ml) boiling water
Combine the crushed biscuit and butter in a bowl, then press into the base of a 20cm round springform pan. Chill for 1–2 hours.
Meanwhile, make the filling. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and plum powder in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the cream, lemon juice and lemon myrtle. Continue beating until smooth.
Combine the gelatine and boiling water in a small bowl until dissolved, then pour the gelatine mixture over the cream cheese mixture and beat until combined.
Pour the filling over the biscuit base and chill overnight. Sprinkle the cheesecake with extra plum powder and lemon myrtle and serve with Davidson plum syrup, if using.
TIPS To make a Davidson plum syrup, roughly chop about 6 frozen Davidson plums.
Make a sugar syrup with ⅓ cup (75g) white sugar and ½ cup (125ml) water, boiling until the sugar dissolves and the mixture reduces. Add the plums and simmer until the liquid is a syrup consistency. Cool in the fridge. Make the cheesecake up to 2 days ahead.
