Ingredient

Guava

A ripe guava announces itself from across a room — the aroma is powerful, musky and floral, and it is the single best ripeness test the fruit offers. Inside, depending on variety, it is white or pink, sweet-sharp, and studded with small extremely hard seeds.

The aroma, and what it means

Guava produces an unusually large quantity of volatile esters as it ripens, which is why a bowl of them will perfume a kitchen. A guava that smells strongly is ripe; one that smells of nothing is not, and it will need several days at room temperature.

The fruit is climacteric and ripens readily off the tree, so buying firm is fine. It goes from ready to over quite quickly once it starts, so check daily.

Ripe fruit gives to gentle pressure and the skin turns from dark green to a paler yellow-green. Some varieties develop a pink blush.

What you will find inside

White-fleshed

Crisper, more acidic, more aromatic. Often eaten firm, sliced, with salt and chilli.

Pink-fleshed

Softer, sweeter, less acidic. Better for juice, paste and pudding.

The seeds

Numerous, small and genuinely hard — hard enough to break a tooth if bitten carelessly. Edible if swallowed whole, and usually strained out.

The skin

Edible and slightly bitter. Many people eat it; peeling gives a milder result.

Strawberry guava

A smaller, red, different species with a more acidic flavour. Common in Hawaii and Brazil.

How it is used

• Sliced firm, with salt, chilli and lime, which is standard across Mexico and Southeast Asia.
• Guava paste — goiabada in Brazil, dulce de guayaba elsewhere. Cooked down with sugar to a firm sliceable block, and eaten with cheese.
• Romeu e Julieta, the Brazilian pairing of guava paste with fresh white cheese, which is one of the great simple combinations.
• Juice or nectar, strained to remove the seeds. The commonest use worldwide.
• In a jelly, which sets easily — guava is high in pectin.
• In a savoury glaze for pork or ribs, with chilli and vinegar.
• Guava leaves, which are used for tea in several traditions.

Preparing one

1. Wash it. The skin is edible, so decide whether to peel — peeling gives a milder, sweeter result.
2. Cut in half. If the seeds are numerous and you want them out, scoop the seedy centre with a spoon and keep the outer flesh.
3. For juice or paste, chop the whole fruit roughly, simmer with a little water until soft, then push through a sieve. The seeds stay behind.
4. For eating raw, slice thin and warn anybody who does not know about the seeds.
5. Keep the sieved seed-and-pulp residue for a second, thinner extraction if you are making a lot of juice.

Making guava paste

The dense, sliceable block eaten with cheese across Latin America and the Caribbean, and the best answer to a glut of fruit.

1. Halve the guavas, scoop the seedy centres into one pan and the flesh into another.
2. Simmer the seedy centres with a little water for ten minutes, then push through a sieve. The pulp that comes through is the pectin-rich part.
3. Blend that pulp with the flesh until smooth.
4. Weigh the purée and put it in a wide heavy pan with roughly its own weight in sugar, along with a squeeze of lime.
5. Cook over a low heat, stirring almost constantly, for a long time. It will darken from pink to deep ruby and thicken to the point where the spoon leaves a clear trail across the base.
6. Pour into a lined tray and leave uncovered for a day or two to firm.
7. Cut into blocks and wrap. It keeps for months — but how long a preserve is safe to keep is a matter for the Food Standards Agency, not for a recipe.

Common questions