Double double toil and trouble, quoth Shakespeare’s weird sisters/witches in that Scottish play. But the
man had obviously never stood over a saucepan of guava infused water as it
gradually transforms into guava jelly. Had
he done so he would indeed have written what he is often misquoted as writing,
to wit, Bubble bubble toil and trouble.
Because to be honest, making jam, any
jam can be a fair bit of toil and trouble. And if you then want to go on to
make, say, guava cheese (which is what for some reason guava paste is called by
Sri Lankan Burghers such as I), there is way more t and t and a heap of bubble
bubble, but more about this later.
These thoughts are occasioned by reflecting on the quite splendid day
spent by myself, Fred and Jill, pickling and jamming, and, yes, cheesing. I think it was Fred who proposed the venture
post my posting on Facebook about some pickling I had done. Fred is no stranger
to jamming and pickling, coming from a farming family in southern Illinois where putting up the season's fruit and vegetables for the lean times ahead was part of the annual cycle (as apparently was chasing the chicken and geese for young Fred). My family's preserving practices have been varied: granny made guava jam and cheese but I don't recall her preserving much else; mum didn't ever get into preserving; dad made the odd pickle. I have been preserving on and off for most of my adult life. Jill, though coming from Canowindra in rural NSW, doesn't have a family history of preserving, but having often enjoyed the home mades of her friends wanted to try her hand at it. So, the day was about getting something tasty to eat long term, but also about sharing our knowledge, skills and enthusiasm for these transformative culinary practices - that's food studies speak for domestic magic.
Fred brought eggplants to make a Brinjal Pickle (Spiced Aubergine Chutney) which is virtually the same as a Sri Lankan brinjal pahi (which I forgot to mention Fred!). Jill wanted to make lime pickle to use in a recipe for smore that I posted when she was looking for options for cooking up lamb shanks. I'd been gathering guavas from the front yard, a bumper crop this season post a severe pruning last year, and was also interested in making passionfruit cordial from pulp I had stored in the fridge from two seasons of an over-achieving vine we have trailing now through the top of a swamp paper bark on the foothpath.
But enough of this filler, let's get onto the recipes.
Brinjal Pickle (Spiced Aubergine Chutney)
(Sourced from womanandhome.com)
The original recipe is for 1kg of aubergines which will make barely enough pickle for the effort so we have adapted it for 4kg.
Ingredients:4 kg aubergines cut into 2.5cm cubes
salt
8 brown onions peeled and finely chopped
16 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped
12 medium hot red chillies de-seeded and finely chopped
200g ginger peeled and finely chopped
8 tsp cumin seed ground fine
8 tsp coriander seed ground fine
4 tsp fenugreek seed ground fine
8 tsp black mustard seed
8 tbsp tamarind water (make this by dissolving 4 tbsp of tamarind concentrate in about a cup of water and then just using 8 tbsp of that liquid, or by doing the same with a good handful of tamarind pulp)
600g brown sugar
1.2l cider vinegar
vegetable oil
Method:
Sprinkle the cut aubergines well with salt and put them into a colander to drain for an hour. This is to get some of the bitterness out of them.
Heat enough vegetable oil in a wok to allow you to deep fry a good handful of aubergines at a time. Deep fry them till the white flesh has become quite caramel in colour. You want to do the frying in handfuls because putting too many in at a time will actually lead to more steaming than frying as the moisture leaves the aubergine pieces.As you take them out of the oil, put them to drain on some kitchen paper to get rid of some of the oil they will have absorbed.
A warning: doing the aubergines this way will take quite a while (won't it Fred!) so settle into it. You can multitask if you like and do the chopping of the other ingredients while you are doing the deep frying to save you getting bored.
Now put a little oil in a frying pan or saucepan that's going to be big enough to take all the aubergine plus the other ingredients.
When the oil is hot, put in the onions, garlic, chillies and ginger and cook on a medium heat till the onions are soft.
Let the mixture simmer for about 40 minutes or until all the liquid from the tamarind water and cider vinegar has been absorbed. Resist the temptation to stir the mixture because, again, you don't want aubergine mush.When ready, spoon the pickle into sterilised jars and seal.
Keep the pickle for a month before using. Store in the fridge once the jar is opened -that is if you don't scoff the whole jar in one go!
Handy hints:
1. Fred showed us how to easy peel garlic in a microwave. Put either individual cloves or a whole head into a microwaveable container and zap them in said device - about 10 seconds for single cloves and about 30 to 45 seconds for a whole head. Put them straight into a jar or something similar with a lid for a minute or so. The flesh will now slip out easily from the skin.
2. Invest in a cheapo jam funnel if you are going to do a lot of preserving - saves whatever the mixture is going everywhere but into the jars! You can also use the funnel for decanting all sorts of other things into jars and avoiding spillage.
3. To sterilise jars I usually pop them into an oven that has been pre-heated to 200C for 15-20 minutes. Always put whatever you are preserving into the jars when they and the preserve are hot. To get a good seal, put the lid on the jars then stand them in a saucepan with water up to about 2/3 of the jar. Bring the water to the boil and leave the jars in the boiling water for 15 minutes.
Goan Lime Pickle
This is adapted from Jennifer Fernandes recipe in her 100 Easy-to-Make Goan Dishes, published Vikas Publishing House in New Delhi.
The week before you make the pickle: Cut the limes into quarters, salt them, put them on a tray or plate with the flesh side up, and leave them to dry in the sun or a warm place for 3-4 days or longer depending on the weather. You want them still a little fleshy but heading toward dry.
Ingredients:
30 limes
a good handful or two of salt (I like rock or sea salt flakes)
4 tbsp dried red chillies
2 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp mustard seed (black)
a handful of curry leaves
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
4 cloves garlic
5 cm ginger
10 green chillies
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp salt
2 1/2 cups vegetable oil
Method:
Powder the dry chillies, turmeric, cumin and mustard seed. Chop the garlic and ginger fine.
Put the oil in a frying pan and when hot add the curry leaves, garlic and ginger and saute for a few minutes being careful as the curry leaves can spit something fierce.
Chop the green chillies fine and add them and the ground spices into the frying pan and fry for a few more minutes. The spices may stick to the bottom of the pan so keep stirring the mix, scraping the bottom of the pan from time to time.
Put the limes, the vinegar and the sugar into the frying pan and keep frying for 15 minutes or until till the gravy is thick and the limes are quite soft but still intact.
Cool the mixture and bottle it. You can eat the pickle straight away but it will improve with sitting for a month
Handy hints:
1. If you use limes fairly often, or indeed not so often, don't throw the skins away. Store them in a container in the freezer until you have enough to make this pickle rather than forking out an outrageous price for limes.
2. If you are making other preserve on the same day as you are making this pickle and you use lime juice for those other preserves, chop the lime skins and add them in when frying up the dried limes.
3. Test the doneness of the limes by sticking the point of a kitchen knife or a wooden skewer into the skin. It should go in smooooooothly.
Lime and Passionfruit Cordial
If I had known years ago that making cordial was so simple I would have done it every summer. My first cordial was an excellent lemon syrup from a recipe by Matthew Evans and I thank him for showing me how easy it is and how rewarding. The recipe for this lime and passionfruit cordial comes from allrecipes.com.au
Ingredients:
2 cups (440g) white sugar
375ml water
250ml lime juice
12 passionfruit pulped
(Note: The recipe also asks for 3tsps citric acid but I had run out of it and the corner shop let me down by having none. It will make the syrup sharper if you add it in.)
Method:
Put the sugar, water and lime juice in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves.
Now reduce the heat and simmer this sugar syrup for 20 minutes or till it thickens slightly.
Pour this syrup over the passionfruit pulp and let it steep for 30 minutes.
Strain the cordial into a sterilised bottle.
And that's it. How simple is that!
The cordial should be kept in the fridge and will last a month or so - yeah, right, like that's going to happen!
Handy hint:
1. We put a teaspoonful of seeds into each bottle also to make it pretty.
2. In summer, I make a sugar syrup as per above but without the lime juice and toss in a handful of jasmine flowers and let them steep for 30 mins, then strain the syrup and pour it over ice cream. Delish.
Guava Jelly and Guava Cheese
This is the quintessential Sri Lankan jam. You can make it with cherry guavas, thumb size dark to bright red fruit, or larger pink guavas. I haven't tried using white guavas and so can't comment on the flavour nor particularly on whether you will get the gorgeous lustrous almost burgundy colour that is so prized in the jelly. Wikipedia gives the origin of the term 'jelly as North American for 'a clear or translucent fruit spread made from sweetened fruit (or vegetable) juice'. I dunno about that. The practice of making clear preserves is quite old as is the use of the term jelly for the range of wobbly, gelatinous sweet and savoury edibles we are familiar with. Alan Davidson certainly says nothing about the origin of the term being North American though he does point to NAs as calling most jams jellies, which rather puts the kibosh on Wikipedia I would think.
Anyway, the following recipes are adapted from Hilda Deutrom's Ceylon Daily News Cookery Book, the standard text for most of the last century on the panoply that is Burgher cooking.
Ingredients:
guavas, as many as you like
water
sugar, lots of as per the directions in the method below
lime juice, as per the directions in the method below
Method for the jelly:
If using pink guavas, peel them and cut them in half and put them into a saucepan. If using cherry guavas, wash them and put the whole fruit in skin and all. (Humorous note: I had been gradually collecting my guavas before the parrots got to them as they ripened and storing them in the freezer. It certainly made them easy to peel, but both Jill and I ended up with numb fingers.)
Now add enough water to cover the guavas. Bring to the boil and let it cook at a nice rolling boil for 30 or 30 minutes.
Strain the liquid, reserving the pulp for the cheese if you are going to make it (and after reading how to do this below you may well shy away from it!). The liquid will be a pale amber in colour.
Now to each 500ml of liquid, add 350g sugar (white or raw but NOT brown) and 1 tbsp lime juice.
Put this back on the stove, bring to the boil and keep boiling till the jelly gets to setting point. You test for this by putting a teaspoon of the syrup onto a saucer and putting the saucer in a cool place (the fridge is ideal) for a few minutes to cool; when cool run a finger down the middle of the syrup and if the two sides thus created don't run back to meet each other, it's ready to set. Imagine Moses holding back to two sides of the Red Sea.
As the liquid is thickening it will get redder and you will get a thin white scum forming on top. Scoop that scum off.
When the liquid is at setting point, pour into sterilised jars.
Method for the guava cheese:
Take the guava pulp and push it through a muslin cloth, strainer or best of all a mouli (thanks Fred for introducing me to this absolute time and hand and energy saver!). You are aiming to get a seed-free guava puree.
Now, in a saucepan, to each 750g of pulp add 500g sugar and 1 tbsp lime juice. Mix well.
Put the saucepan on the stove and bring the mixture to the boil and then keep stirring vigorously until the mixture is thick and comes away as a mass from the sides and bottom of the pan. Yes, you have to stir it constantly to stop it sticking and caramelising or outright burning. I stir it for a while, then take it off the stove and scrape down the sides with a spatula and return it to the stove.
Warning: In the first stages of this process the mixture becomes quite like very hot bubbling lava which will pop and very likely spot you now and then with really hot puree. Wearing gloves and a long sleeved shirt is a good idea. A protective face mask may be taking it just that little bit too far.
When the mixture is lifting off the pan surface as you stir it it's ready to do it's setting. I line a tray with baking paper and then drop the mixture onto the tray. This is one way you will know if you have got the doneness right; the mix should just fall in a single lump out of the pan; if it doesn't, it's back to the stove till it does. Spread the mix out to whatever thickness you like (but not too thick) and leave it to cool completely.
The second time you will know if you have the right doneness is once it has cooled. You should be able to cut slices of it with a knife. If not, I'm afraid it's back to the stove again.
When it can be cut easily do so in blocks or wedges and wrap in cling wrap
for storage.
Handy hint:
Well, not so much a hint as a naughtily delish thing to do. That scum you are scooping off as you are making the jelly tastes like guava foam and is eminently devourable as Fred and Jill discovered. As it gets thicker the flavour can develop quite strongly and less palatably I find. Fred took home a jar of the scum to experiment with but I have heard nothing of the results.
This is adapted from Jennifer Fernandes recipe in her 100 Easy-to-Make Goan Dishes, published Vikas Publishing House in New Delhi.
The week before you make the pickle: Cut the limes into quarters, salt them, put them on a tray or plate with the flesh side up, and leave them to dry in the sun or a warm place for 3-4 days or longer depending on the weather. You want them still a little fleshy but heading toward dry.
Ingredients:
30 limesa good handful or two of salt (I like rock or sea salt flakes)
4 tbsp dried red chillies
2 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp mustard seed (black)
a handful of curry leaves
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
4 cloves garlic
5 cm ginger
10 green chillies
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp salt
2 1/2 cups vegetable oil
Method:Powder the dry chillies, turmeric, cumin and mustard seed. Chop the garlic and ginger fine.
Put the oil in a frying pan and when hot add the curry leaves, garlic and ginger and saute for a few minutes being careful as the curry leaves can spit something fierce.
Chop the green chillies fine and add them and the ground spices into the frying pan and fry for a few more minutes. The spices may stick to the bottom of the pan so keep stirring the mix, scraping the bottom of the pan from time to time.
Put the limes, the vinegar and the sugar into the frying pan and keep frying for 15 minutes or until till the gravy is thick and the limes are quite soft but still intact.
Cool the mixture and bottle it. You can eat the pickle straight away but it will improve with sitting for a month
Handy hints:
1. If you use limes fairly often, or indeed not so often, don't throw the skins away. Store them in a container in the freezer until you have enough to make this pickle rather than forking out an outrageous price for limes.2. If you are making other preserve on the same day as you are making this pickle and you use lime juice for those other preserves, chop the lime skins and add them in when frying up the dried limes.
3. Test the doneness of the limes by sticking the point of a kitchen knife or a wooden skewer into the skin. It should go in smooooooothly.
Lime and Passionfruit Cordial
If I had known years ago that making cordial was so simple I would have done it every summer. My first cordial was an excellent lemon syrup from a recipe by Matthew Evans and I thank him for showing me how easy it is and how rewarding. The recipe for this lime and passionfruit cordial comes from allrecipes.com.au
Ingredients:
2 cups (440g) white sugar
375ml water
250ml lime juice
12 passionfruit pulped
(Note: The recipe also asks for 3tsps citric acid but I had run out of it and the corner shop let me down by having none. It will make the syrup sharper if you add it in.)
Method:
Put the sugar, water and lime juice in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves.
Now reduce the heat and simmer this sugar syrup for 20 minutes or till it thickens slightly.
Pour this syrup over the passionfruit pulp and let it steep for 30 minutes.Strain the cordial into a sterilised bottle.
And that's it. How simple is that!
The cordial should be kept in the fridge and will last a month or so - yeah, right, like that's going to happen!
Handy hint:
1. We put a teaspoonful of seeds into each bottle also to make it pretty.
2. In summer, I make a sugar syrup as per above but without the lime juice and toss in a handful of jasmine flowers and let them steep for 30 mins, then strain the syrup and pour it over ice cream. Delish.
Guava Jelly and Guava Cheese
This is the quintessential Sri Lankan jam. You can make it with cherry guavas, thumb size dark to bright red fruit, or larger pink guavas. I haven't tried using white guavas and so can't comment on the flavour nor particularly on whether you will get the gorgeous lustrous almost burgundy colour that is so prized in the jelly. Wikipedia gives the origin of the term 'jelly as North American for 'a clear or translucent fruit spread made from sweetened fruit (or vegetable) juice'. I dunno about that. The practice of making clear preserves is quite old as is the use of the term jelly for the range of wobbly, gelatinous sweet and savoury edibles we are familiar with. Alan Davidson certainly says nothing about the origin of the term being North American though he does point to NAs as calling most jams jellies, which rather puts the kibosh on Wikipedia I would think.
Anyway, the following recipes are adapted from Hilda Deutrom's Ceylon Daily News Cookery Book, the standard text for most of the last century on the panoply that is Burgher cooking.
Ingredients:
guavas, as many as you like
water
sugar, lots of as per the directions in the method below
lime juice, as per the directions in the method below
Method for the jelly:
If using pink guavas, peel them and cut them in half and put them into a saucepan. If using cherry guavas, wash them and put the whole fruit in skin and all. (Humorous note: I had been gradually collecting my guavas before the parrots got to them as they ripened and storing them in the freezer. It certainly made them easy to peel, but both Jill and I ended up with numb fingers.)
Now add enough water to cover the guavas. Bring to the boil and let it cook at a nice rolling boil for 30 or 30 minutes.
Strain the liquid, reserving the pulp for the cheese if you are going to make it (and after reading how to do this below you may well shy away from it!). The liquid will be a pale amber in colour.
Now to each 500ml of liquid, add 350g sugar (white or raw but NOT brown) and 1 tbsp lime juice.Put this back on the stove, bring to the boil and keep boiling till the jelly gets to setting point. You test for this by putting a teaspoon of the syrup onto a saucer and putting the saucer in a cool place (the fridge is ideal) for a few minutes to cool; when cool run a finger down the middle of the syrup and if the two sides thus created don't run back to meet each other, it's ready to set. Imagine Moses holding back to two sides of the Red Sea.
As the liquid is thickening it will get redder and you will get a thin white scum forming on top. Scoop that scum off.
When the liquid is at setting point, pour into sterilised jars.
Method for the guava cheese:
Take the guava pulp and push it through a muslin cloth, strainer or best of all a mouli (thanks Fred for introducing me to this absolute time and hand and energy saver!). You are aiming to get a seed-free guava puree.
Now, in a saucepan, to each 750g of pulp add 500g sugar and 1 tbsp lime juice. Mix well.
Put the saucepan on the stove and bring the mixture to the boil and then keep stirring vigorously until the mixture is thick and comes away as a mass from the sides and bottom of the pan. Yes, you have to stir it constantly to stop it sticking and caramelising or outright burning. I stir it for a while, then take it off the stove and scrape down the sides with a spatula and return it to the stove.Warning: In the first stages of this process the mixture becomes quite like very hot bubbling lava which will pop and very likely spot you now and then with really hot puree. Wearing gloves and a long sleeved shirt is a good idea. A protective face mask may be taking it just that little bit too far.
When the mixture is lifting off the pan surface as you stir it it's ready to do it's setting. I line a tray with baking paper and then drop the mixture onto the tray. This is one way you will know if you have got the doneness right; the mix should just fall in a single lump out of the pan; if it doesn't, it's back to the stove till it does. Spread the mix out to whatever thickness you like (but not too thick) and leave it to cool completely.
The second time you will know if you have the right doneness is once it has cooled. You should be able to cut slices of it with a knife. If not, I'm afraid it's back to the stove again.When it can be cut easily do so in blocks or wedges and wrap in cling wrap
for storage.
Handy hint:
Well, not so much a hint as a naughtily delish thing to do. That scum you are scooping off as you are making the jelly tastes like guava foam and is eminently devourable as Fred and Jill discovered. As it gets thicker the flavour can develop quite strongly and less palatably I find. Fred took home a jar of the scum to experiment with but I have heard nothing of the results.
Happy pickling and jamming from Fred, Paul and Jill
BTW: We worked in my kitchen designed by Olga Gruzdeff so
if you like what you see of it and are on the lookout for an interior
designer for kitchen or other room in the house (Olga also designed the
bathroom, laundry and toilet in my house re-fit) look her up.
