I may never eat applesauce again. I have discovered the natural sweetness of the banana yucca fruit and it is good. Combine it with the spicy flavor of juniper berries, and you've got a quintessentially fall side dish.

If you grow this plant and thought it was merely ornamental, think again. Yucca baccata produces lots of fruit, so it's easy to gather enough for several meals in just a few minutes. Fruit is ripe when it is slightly soft and gives under gentle pressure. Pick individual fruits and remove the small stem from the top of each fruit, then bring the fruit into the kitchen.

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Yucca Baccata

Ingredients

• 4 cups banana yucca fruit
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1.5 teaspoons juniper berry pulp
• 1 cup cream
• salt & pepper to taste
• chopped chives

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes

• Total Time: 60 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings (side dish)

Preparation

Wash the fruit and lay it out on a baking sheet. Roast at 400F for 20-30 minutes, or until they're easy to pierce with a skewer. Remove from the oven and let the fruit cool.

Use your fingers to pry apart each fruit's three sections and remove the seeds and surrounding fibers. Move the pieces of fruit to a sauce pan and simmer slowly in chicken stock until the fruit is soft and most of the liquid is absorbed.

This will take about 10 - 15 minutes.

Run the soft fruit through a food mill, then return to the saucepan.  Add the juniper pulp and cream and stir over low heat to combine. You want to thoroughly warm the purée but don't let it boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with chopped chives. Serve warm.

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