Guava: The Flirty Bird
Learn to make tasty treats using a yummy and common fruit — the Guava
A caged bird was not my idea of keeping a pet, so one day when a friend left Mithu with us, we had no clue on how to handle an African Macaw. I suppose taking him out for a walk… er flight... was out of the question. You couldn’t brush his feathers or give him a bath. You couldn’t put him on a leash, stroke his neck or tickle him behind the ears, nor throw him a bone, teach him patience, or get him to chase some random squirrels in the garden.
Suffice to say we could do none of the regular doggy things with him, even though regular doggy things were all that we knew about keeping pets. Heck, we even didn’t know what he liked to eat. But after much trial and error we figured that he liked a certain grain and green chillies. With the menu now sorted, the next aim was to get him to talk, you know the regular ‘Hi’, ‘how are you’, ‘good morning’, ‘I love you’ kind of stuff.
Mithu’s cage hung in the verandah from where he surveyed all the activities of the garden. The butterflies in the rose patch, the occasional nodding chameleon, the aimlessly hovering dragonflies and above all the noisy coterie of parrots on our guava tree!
Every day he spent an irritating number of hours chatting to himself, and one day his soliloquy got so animated that I wondered if he was trying to get a message across to an attractive polly on the guava tree! I decided to put him right in the middle of all the action. I hung his cage on the guava tree and left its door ajar. And I can safely tell you that the racket that ensued would have put a fish market to shame.
The next morning was a sight to behold, about two dozen half pecked guavas lay strewn under the tree. When we picked, cleaned and tasted the fruits, they were the best we had had in our lives! These pesky pollies knew a thing or two about fruits. Oh and by the way, I also heard someone chirp an ‘I love you’ from one of the branches. I looked up at Mithu and chirped back ‘I love you too’!
Guavas can be enjoyed as they are and lend themselves very well to be paired with all salts (plain, senda, pink and maldon). The other ingredients that they absolutely adore are chillies and lemons. Blend guavas with a bit of water, strain, add sugar to taste, a few drops of tabasco or a slit green chilli, a squeeze of lime and pour over a few cubes of ice. You will have a drink that is unputdownable!
To set the record straight, I find it very hard to eat guavas as the seeds tend to get all stuck in my teeth, and then I am finicky about taste. I like the just- about-ripe variety that still have a crunch but don’t enjoy the overly ripe ones. Now I can’t get Mithu to share his recipes with us but here are mine that take care of all those quirks, and can be enjoyed just as they are.
The writer is the executive chef at The Park, Hyderabad
| Guava Jelly | Guava Cheese |
Ingredients Measure the drained liquid and and take ¾ of its volume in sugar. Add the sugar and heat till it dissolves. Add the citric acid or lemon juice if using. At this stage the liquid will achieve a jelly-like consistency. Turn off the heat and allow to cool. Pour into clean and sterilised bottles and seal. Enjoy the jelly with toast or chapatis or as a topping for desserts. | Ingredients for pulp Then add the lemon juice and salt and stir. Prepare a tray by smearing it with butter. Once the pulp begins to get lumpy, take it off the heat and pour into tray and pat it to flatten evenly. Allow it to cool, cut into diamonds, squares or any desired shapes. |