Guava season

I love guavas and whenever they are in season, like they are now, I am guilty of buying as many as I can and making jam out of them. That’s mainly because I secretly love making jam. But guavas are simply sensational, they have the most distinct and perfumed scent of any fruit that I know. When cooked or juiced the flavour holds through. When they are cooked as for jam, jellies or simply stewed, the colour intensifies to a magical reddish brown. Another tropical fruit that we really need to applaud more, because in the guavas season, local is always the way to go. Be careful though, always remove the seeds if cooking them.

Guava ice cream

15 guavas

2 cups water

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup full cream milk

2/3 cup condensed milk

tsp vanilla essence

6 ozs heavy cream

Wash and cut guavas into quarters, place in a saucepan, pour on 2 cups of water and sinner for about 40 minutes until tender. Pass through a food mill with any remaining liquid. Cool. Make a custard by whisking eggs with sugar, add milk, cook over a double boiler until mixture is thick and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove and stir in guava mixture, condensed milk, vanilla, and cream. Refrigerate until cold. Pour mixture into an ice cream freezer and process according to manufacturers directions.

Makes 1 quart

Creamy guava tart

Stewed guava is a popular Caribbean dessert, here they’re used with a custard to make an exotic dessert.

For the crust:

2 cups flour

3 tbs sugar

2/3 cup butter

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 375. Place dry ingredients into a work bowl and cut butter into mixture just until it resembles small pieces, or paws, add some water and combine, use your hands to bring the dough together. Form into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Press dough into the base and sides of a 10-inch tart pan with a removable base. Place a piece of foil into the tart pan, to cover pastry and then pour some dried peas into shell, bake for 10 minutes, remove foil and peas and bake for another 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven your tart shell should be cooked and slightly browned.

For the guava

12 guavas

1/2 cup granulated sugar

one inch piece of cinnamon

For the custard, beat 2 egg yolks with 2 tbs sugar and 1/2 cup evaporated milk. Add a little vanilla and stir. Peel guavas, scoop out seeds, pass the seeds and pulp through a food mill to remove the seed set aside, and slice the guava peel. Place guava peel with pulp into a small pan; add sugar and water just to come up half in the pan. Some of your guavas will not be covered. Cook slowly until fruit is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool, then spread the guavas to the base of the tart, then pour on the custard mixture. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until golden and set.

Serves 6 to 8

Guava jam

25 guavas (ripe)

Water

Sugar

1 piece cinnamon spice

1 tsp lime juice

The day before place guavas whole in a heavy large sauce pan, cover well with water and boil guavas until they are very soft, about 50 minutes. Cover and leave overnight.

The next day strain guavas, keep the juice and pass through a sieve to extract pulp. Combine guava pulp with juice, add 3/4 cup granulated sugar for every cup of guava juice.

Boil with sugar, spice and lime juice until mixture is thick, it will start to thicken when the mixture begins to darken. About 20 to 30 minutes. Spoon into sterilised jars.

Makes about 4, 14 oz jars jam.

Wendy’s Cooking Class:

Call 357-0927

Pastry Camp all ages