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MEALS THAT HEAL
Go guavas
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It’s not difficult to make guava jam at home. And, it’s delicious too
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RICH IN VITAMIN C Guava
A small tree that grows to a height of 33 ft, and with spreading branches, guava is easy to recognise because of its smooth, thin, copper-coloured bark that flakes off, showing the greenish layer beneath and also because of the attractive “bony
” aspect of its trunk. The leaves, aromatic when crushed, are evergreen, opposite, short-petioled, oval or oblong-elliptic, somewhat irregular in outline 7-15 cm long and 3-5 cm wide, leathery, with conspicuous parallel veins, and more or less downy on the underside. The central pulp, slightly darker in tone, is juicy and normally filled with hard, yellowish seeds, though some rare types have soft, chewable seeds. Some guavas are seedless or nearly so. When immature and until a very short time before ripening, the fruit is green, hard, gummy within and astringent. The fruit is edible, round to pear-shaped, from 3-10 cm in diameter. It has a thin delicate rind, pale green to yellow at maturity in some species, pink to red in others, a creamy white or orange-salmon flesh with many small hard seeds, and a strong, characteristic aroma. Guavas are cultivated in many tropical and subtropical countries for their edible fruit.
Medicinal value
The roots, bark, leaves and immature fruits, because of their astringency, are commonly employed to halt gastroenteritis, diarrhoea and dysentery throughout the tropics. Crushed leaves are applied on wounds, ulcers and rheumatic places, and the leaves chewed to relieve toothache.
The leaf decoction is taken as a remedy for coughs, throat and chest ailments, gargled to relieve oral ulcers and inflamed gums; and also taken as an emmenagogue and vermifuge, and treatment for leucorrhoea. A decoction of the new shoots is taken as a febrifuge. An extract is given in epilepsy and chorea and a tincture is rubbed on the spine of children in convulsions. A combined decoction of leaves and bark is given to expel the placenta after childbirth.
Guava is believed to have sugar lowering properties to help diabetics lower their sugar count. It is rich in vitamins A, B, and C (a guava fruit contains more vitamin C than a typical citrus fruit – the rind contains over five times more vitamin C than an orange). It also contains high amounts of calcium – which is unusual in a fruit.
Food uses
Raw guavas are eaten out-of-hand, but are preferred seeded and served sliced as dessert or in salads. More commonly, the fruit is cooked and cooking eliminates the strong odour. The canned product is widely sold.Bars of thick, rich guava paste and guava cheese are staple sweets, and guava jelly is almost universally marketed. It is made into syrup for use on waffles, ice cream, puddings and in milkshakes. Guava juice and nectar are among the numerous popular canned or bottled fruit beverages of the Caribbean area. There are innumerable recipes for utilising guavas in pies, cakes, puddings, sauce, ice cream, jam, butter, marmalade, chutney and other products. Dehydrated guavas may be reduced to a powder which can be used to flavour ice cream, confections and fruit juices, or boiled with sugar to make jelly, or utilised as pectin to make jelly of low-pectin fruits.
Now, for a recipe.
Homemade Guava Jam
Ingredients
Guavas: 10 to 12 (ripe)
Sugar: 700 gm
Permitted red colouring: 1 teaspoon (food colour)
Water
Method: Wash the guavas in clean water. Cut them into small pieces and take the seeds out. Add water in a vessel and heat it on a medium to high flame. Add the cleaned and sliced guava. Boil till the guava gets soft and pulpy. Throw off the extra water and keep the boiled guava in a dish. Add sugar to it and mix it well. Put the boiled guava pulp and sugar mixture in a vessel and cook it on a medium to low flame, stirring continuously till it becomes thick. Then put the mixture in a dish. Add the red colouring to it and mix it evenly. Cool the jam and then store it in a container.
RISHI MANUCHA
Junior Sous Chef,
Taj Connemara
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