Last weekend I went to New Zealand to spend the weekend with my brother and his family. I got to spend the whole weekend with my adorable little Nephew, who is just starting to speak. His favourite word is 'spider' which he terms 'pider' anything and everything that moves like a spider is a 'pider', its so adorable. He's the cutest little chap.
They have a smallish guava tree at their place which produces so many little fruits, it was incredible. They were covering the ground turning it red. So me being me thought I have to do something with all these little fruits, and not let them go to waste. I had never seen the fruit before much less cooked with it, however that didn't stop me collecting a bowl full. It even started to rain when I was collecting them, and I thought maybe this is a sign that these berry's are poisonous and I shouldn't be cooking them, however I persisted and collected a bowl full. When Tracy (my sister in law) got home, she saw the bowl of guavas sitting in the sink soaking and pulled out another two bags from the freezer that she too had collected, as she doesn't like seeing things go to waste either. So we had a mission, to cook something out of these little fruits. Good old google to the rescue - we discovered the different things you can do with them. In the end we decided to make a Jelly, which is much like a jam, but doesn't have the pulp of the fruit - you make it using the liquids.
We needed some mesh to strain it so we set out to a little kitchen shop in Ponsonby called Milly's, its jam packed full with kitchenware's and has every possible kitchen gadget you could ever want to get your hands on. Tracy brought the mesh and the beautiful colander you see in the photos, as well as some awesome gadgets that I will show you in other posts. I ended up buying the cute little jars that I haven't been able to find in Oz, needless to say we were two very happy girls leaving Milly's. If you're ever in Auckland check them out, you're sure to leave with a smile on your dial!
2 cups of sugar (amount depends on the amount of juice)
Place the guavas and water into a big saucepan, and boil until the fruit becomes soft and begins to break apart. Remove from the heat, and strain through a piece of mesh for 24 hours.
For every cup of liquid that you get from the guavas, use a cup of sugar. We had 2 cups of juice so used two cups of sugar. Place the sugar and juice into a saucepan and boil for approximately 20 minutes or until the jelly sets when you put a small amount on a plate. Just before you remove it squeeze half a lemon into the mixture.
Pour into some sterilised jars and seal.
