Categories: Fruits, Harned 1994, Main dish, Nuts, Poultry 
      Yield: 4 servings 
  
      1    3.5 to 4 lb. chicken 
           -- cut in pieces 
    1/4 c  Olive oil 
    1/4 c  Lime juice; freshly squeezed 
      2    Limes; minced zest of 
      2 sm Onions 
           -- peeled and thinly sliced 
      2 tb Mild honey 
      1 tb Fresh ginger; minced 
      1    Fresh serrano or jalapeno 
           -with seeds; minced 
      4    Carambola (4 oz. each)* 
           -- cut in 1/4" thick slices 
           Salt 
    1/2 c  Almonds; raw and whole 
      1 sm Cilantro bunch; to garnish 
  
  *When you buy carambola, also called star fruit, look for ones that 
  are uniformly yellow to orange and have a subtle perfume.  If they 
  are green, they aren't ripe and won't yield a great deal of flavor. 
  At their ripest, their flavor is an unmistakably tropical combination 
  of apple, banana and lychee. 
   
  Rinse chicken well and pat it thoroughly dry. 
   
  In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice and zest, 
  onions, honey, ginger and minced pepper.  Stir in three-fourths of 
  the carambola slices.  Then add the chicken, and turn it until it is 
  coated with the marinade.  Cover and refrigerate overnight, or up to 
  2 days, turning the chicken occasionally so it marinates evenly. 
   
  Arrange chicken in a single layer in a 9 x 13" baking dish; season 
  generously with salt.  Add almonds to the marinade, stir, and spoon it 
  over the chicken.  Bake at 375 F. in the center of the oven, basting 
  frequently with pan juices and turning any chicken pieces that get too 
  brown, about 35 minutes.  Add remaining carambola, stir, and continue 
  cooking until the chicken is golden and a thigh yields clear juice 
  when pricked at its thickest part, 15 to 20 minutes.  Taste the sauce 
  and adjust the seasoning.  Just before serving, mince the cilantro if 
  you are using it.  Serve chicken right from the baking dish, or 
  divide among four warmed dinner plates.  Spoon sauce over the 
  chicken, garnish with cilantro and serve. 
   
  This dish can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.  Goes well with a 
  semi-dry German Kabinett, such as Deirhard 1989. 
   
  Loomis writes:  "Becky Campbell became a tropical fruit aficionado 
  through the career of her husband, Carl, who is an internationally 
  known tropical fruit expert.  He researched and taught at the 
  University of Florida, where he is now professor emeritus.  She 
  became an expert on cooking with tropical fruits, and lectured and 
  taught cooking classes for years. Together they developed a small 
  tropical fruit orchard in the backyard of their home near Homestead, 
  Florida. 
   
  "Becky refers to the tropical fruit orchard that surrounds their 
  single-story home as a 'mini experiment station.'  Her husband does 
  the experimenting, and she brings the bounty into the kitchen.  Their 
  orchard produces everything from Key limes and carambola to black 
  sapote and mangoes. 
   
  "Becky and Carl were recently in Uganda, where carambola is as common 
  as green grapes are here.  There she picked up valuable tips for 
  using the lovely star-shaped fruit, and she set out samples for us to 
  taste: golden star-shaped slices of dried carambola, carambola 
  leather and carambola preserves, where the stars were suspended in a 
  thick sweet syrup.  They were all delicious." 
   
  From _Farm House Cookbook_ by Susan Herrmann Loomis.  New York: 
  Workman Publishing Company, Inc., 1991.  Pp. 145-146.  ISBN 
  0-89480-772-2. Electronic format by Cathy Harned.