Fruity flavours: Mumbai chefs share innovative guava recipes

It is that time of the year when eating guavas is almost everybody's favourite and that is partly because of the festive spirit that has the Catholic community making guava cheese, a sweet popularly eaten during Christmas. Interestingly, the fruit is also available during the summers and is a famous post-school snack sprinkled with salt and chilli powder that many of us have grown up eating and still relish.

If you aren't comfortable enjoying the speciality available on a street-side cart, then one can always make guava juice at home to start with. Interestingly, Mumbai chefs tell us a lot more can be done with the fruit. It is not only that but also the fact that guavas are not only used in sweet but also savoury dishes, that are not only visually appealing to look at but also tasty.

Mid-day Online reached out to city chefs to help people innovate with the deliciously sweet fruit, as it is available in abundance during this time of the year. They not only share a recipe for a dessert but also for a curry, that they promise is flavourful to the last bite.

Guava pate de fruit by Nilesh Dewulkar, pastry chef, Sofitel Mumbai BKC, Bandra (East)
If you love jujubes, then it's never too late to try making them with guavas. Chef Nilesh Dewulkar of Sofitel Mumbai BKC suggests making a guava pate de fruit by combining the fruit with the French confectionery, to help go beyond the usual suspects. "Guava is a tropical fruit found in most regions. It's sweet and juicy both in taste and nutrition. I have decided to incorporate it with chilli to get a spicy hint on the tongue," he shares. This may just be the best dish to try out this Christmas and surprise your guests with it.

Ingredients:
Guava purée 1,400 gm
Tabasco sauce 100 ml
Sugar 1,250 gm
Liquid glucose 80 gm
Lemon juice 30 ml
(The mix for pectin)
Pectin 50 gm
Sugar 150 gm

Method:
1. Boil the glucose along with purée, lemon juice, glucose and sugar till 70 degrees Celsius.
2. Add the tabasco sauce to it and stir well.
3. At the end, add pectin mixed with sugar to avoid the lumps.
4. Keep cooking till it reaches the temperature of 110 degrees Celsius.
5. Remove and set in desired shapes or mould.
6. Keep it aside to cool.
7. Mix with castor sugar and thereafter cut into desired pieces and it is ready to be served.

Pink Guava & Kashmiri Red Chilli Kombucha by Vanika Choudhary, chef, Sequel, BKC, Bandra (East)
City-based chef Vanika Choudhary loves using seasonal fruits to make a kombucha. The chef, who is also the founder of city-based restaurants, Noon and Sequel, makes a delicious pink guava and Kashmiri red chilli kombucha at Sequel. Inspired by her childhood, Choudhary says they wanted to make a seasonal kombucha that would take most other people to the time when they were children. She explains, "I remember how much I loved having guava when we were kids -- with just a pinch of black salt and red chilli powder. So, this recipe is inspired by that. You will love the slight hint of spice when you sip on this Kombucha."

Ingredients:

Kombucha:
Water 8 litres
Raw sugar 500 gm (organic, unsulphured)
Wild Chamomile tea 4 gm
Green tea 4 tea bags
Black tea 8 gm
White tea 4 gm
Kombucha 200 ml
Scoby (mother)

Note: In case you are not using the scoby to ferment another batch of kombucha but still want to keep it healthy, then take 400 ml of water with 200 gm of raw sugar. Let the sugar dissolve in warm water. Add the 200 ml of the finished liquid back to this sugar water for the scoby to maintain its flavour.

Method:
1. In a large pot, add 8 litres of hot water, Add the measured tea to the water and let it steep for 15 minutes.
2. Add raw sugar and let it dissolve completely. Strain the tea and let it cool down to 35 degrees or less. Keep a digital thermometer handy for this.
3. Transfer everything to your brewing vessel and add 200 ml of the kombucha to the liquid. If you do not have any, then add the scoby water. Give this a good stir, using a wooden spatula.
4. Now add the scoby and cover this with a muslin cloth. Ferment it for three weeks at room temperature in a dark corner.
5. By 3-4 days, you will start noticing that the scoby has elevated to the top of the jar and it will slowly start forming a layer. After 3 weeks of fermenting the tea, your kombucha is ready to be flavoured and that means your primary fermentation is now over.

Second fermentation
Always keep a few inches of headspace in the fermentation vessel for the scoby to breathe. If you don't have enough space in the vessel, divide it into two vessels along with the scoby. The scoby should have multiplied by now and should have a thick layer on it, the one that you put was the mother and the mother now has a baby. So, you can peel it off and divide it between two jars, which means you can make two different flavours. In case you are making two different flavours from your 8 litre primary fermentation, then modify the recipe accordingly. The recipe is for 8 litre basic Kombucha, so you will need to divide all the ingredients into half.

Second fermentation/flavoured kombucha
Pink guava kombucha with Kashmiri red chillies and aji limon pepper (lemon drop pepper)
Pink guava 1 kg (diced and then slightly crushed in the mortar pestle)
Red Kashmiri mirch powder 2 tsp
Aji limon pepper 2 nos (minced in a Mortar pestle)
Basic Kombucha 8 litres
Scoby

Method:
1. Add the first four ingredients to your fermentation vessel and stir it well using a wooden spatula. Add the scoby.
2. Secure the lid of the vessel. Make sure, you keep checking the pH level of the liquid after 2 days. Ideally, it should be between 2.5-3.5. Ferment the flavoured kombucha for 3-5 days and keep checking the flavour profile.
3. Strain the kombucha with a double strainer and a muslin cloth. Immediately transfer it to air tight bottles/glass carafes and refrigerate them, this helps in carbonation.
4. Make sure that you burp the bottles every day, this is to ensure that you don't have any accident where the carafes end up bursting.

Roasted Cafreal Chicken with Slow Roast Guava Sauce by Rajesh Malhik, executive chef, Out Of The Blue, Khar (West)
Being a firm believer in using seasonal ingredients to make different dishes, chef Rajesh Malhik, has gone beyond making a dessert and actually used guava to make a sauce for his Chicken Cafreal, a traditional Goan dish but with a refreshing twist. He explains, "Guava is best used during this season, so I incorporated a ripe, slow roasted guava into the sauce that will give you a mellow sweet and tangy taste."

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds 2 tbsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Green cardamom 1 nos
Cloves 4-5 nos
Black pepper 6 nos
Cinnamon Stick 1 inch
Fennel seeds 1 tsp
Onion, chopped 1 no, medium
Garlic cloves 8 pc
Ginger, chopped 1 inch
Green chillies, chopped 2 nos
Coriander leaves 250 gm
Salt 1 tsp
Lemon juice 1 tbsp
Tamarind juice 1 tbsp
Ripe guava 2 pcs
Whole Chicken with Skin

Method:
1. Blend all the ingredients except the guava and chicken.
2. Marinate the whole Chicken with 70 per cent of the cafreal masala overnight.
3. Retain 30 per cent masala and blend with one roasted guava, cook on slow flame and adjust the seasoning.
4. After 8 hours of marination, cook the whole chicken at 160 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes on a bed of mixed vegetables (leek, celery, onion).
5. Cut another guava and marinate with cafreal guava sauce and grill it.
6. Plate the roasted chicken neatly on the plate accompanied with mixed vegetables and grilled guava and slow roast guava sauce.

Pink Guava Panna Cotta by Vinayak Patil, chef, The Butterfly High, Thane and BKC
If you aren't keen on a pate de fruit, you can always go for a classic panna cotta for dessert. At The Butterfly High, chef Vinayak Patil experiments with the seasonal fruit by making a pink guava panna cotta. If you still aren't convinced about using guavas in savoury dishes, then you can start by sticking to the basics and what better way to start than with panna cotta made with guava?

Ingredients:
Pink Guava 450 gm
Whole milk 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Unflavoured gelatin powder 3 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Granulated sugar 1/2 cup (66 gm)
Vanilla extract 1 tsp
Heavy cream 1 1/2 cups (360 ml)

Method:
1. Place 6 4-ounce ramekins on a baking sheet and set aside.
2. Peel skin and puree the pink guava until very smooth. Push the puree through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the seeds and set them aside. You should have about 1 1/4 cups of puree.
3. Add the milk to a medium saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the surface and let it stand for 10 minutes.
4. Add the pureed guava, salt, and sugar to the gelatin mixture. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches 150 degrees Fahrenheit on an instant-read thermometer. This should take about 3-4 minutes.
5. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla. Set aside and stir frequently until the mixture cools to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes. Whisk in the heavy cream until well combined.
6. Strain the mixture into a large measuring cup or pitcher and distribute evenly among the ramekins.
7. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap, making sure not to disturb the surface of the cream. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. In some cases, it can take up to 8 hours for the panna cotta to fully set. It's preferred to let it refrigerate overnight so ensure it firms up properly.
8. Unmould from ramekins and serve.

Amrood ki sabzi by Vedant Thengodkar, chef, ITC Grand Central, Parel
Can you imagine eating a vegetable dish made out of guava? Chef Vedant Thengodkar is a huge fan of the dish, which he grew up eating at home. He shares, "Guavas have been one of my mother's favourite fruits. She introduced me to amrood ki sabzi at home when I used to say I didn't like to eat this fruit, as a child." It was his mother who ensured that she made the fruit interesting for him and so she made a sabzi, salad and drinks too. "The sabzi comes with a blend of flavours and spices used in creating this dish and I enjoy every bit of it, with my flavoured rice and rasam," Thengodkar adds.

Ingredients:
Tomato, medium 2 nos
Onion 1 no
Jaggery 1 tsp
Guava ripe and chilled 2 nos
Chilli 1 tbsp
Coriander 1 tsp
Asafoetida 1 tsp
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Turmeric 1 tsp
Oil as required
Dry mango powder 1 tsp
Fennel powder 1 tsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp

Method:
1. Wash 300 gm guavas and wipe them with a dish cloth.
2. Cut the guavas into ½-inch wedges. Remove big seeds if there are any. You can keep the small tender seeds.
3. Cut 2 medium size tomatoes into pieces and puree them in a blender. We need 1/2 cup of tomato puree.
4. Grate a 2-inch piece of ginger to make 2 tsp ginger. Slit 3-4 green chilies into half.
5. Gather the remaining ingredients.

For the curry
1. Heat 2 tablespoon vegetable oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
2. Once the oil is hot, add 1/2 teaspoon asafoetida and 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and let them crackle for 4-5 seconds.
3. Add 2 teaspoon coriander powder, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder, 2 teaspoons dry mango powder, 1 teaspoon fennel powder, and ½ teaspoon salt and cook until oil starts to separate from the sides (1-2 minutes).
4. Now add 1/2 cup whisked plain yoghurt and cook for a minute. Keep stirring continuously after adding the yoghurt to prevent it from curdling. Tip: You can add 1 teaspoon of all-purpose flour to the yoghurt. It will prevent it from curdling and will also make the curry thicker.
5. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 6-8 minutes on medium heat until the amrood is slightly tender. Do not overcook otherwise they will get mushy.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of lime juice and mix well.
7. Check for salt and add if required.
8. Garnish with chopped cilantro (coriander) and serve hot.

Also Read: Of kulkuls, cake and guava cheese: Why ‘Kuswar' is good old comfort on a plate