Blueberry Preserve
Ingredients
● 400 g blueberries
● 350 g sugar
● 300 g water
● juice of 1/2 lemon
Directions
Wash the berries well and then drain.
In a large pot, put the water and sugar and boil for 25-30 minutes on medium heat until the syrup thickens.
Once the syrup is ready, add the berries and the lemon juice and boil all together for 2-3 minutes without stirring, so as not to break the berries.
To see if the syrup has the desired consistency, put some syrup on a saucer and allow to cool.
Once it has cooled tilt the plate slightly and if it is not runny, the syrup is ready.
Store in glass sterilized jars.
Greek Persimmon Preserve
Ingredients
● 1 kg persimmons (peeled)
● 850 g sugar
● 1 star anise
● 100 g water
● Juice of half a lemon
Directions
Peel the persimmons and slice in half.
In a large pot, put the persimmons, the water, sugar and star anise and boil for 15 minutes.
Turn off the heat, cover the pot and leave it overnight to release their juices.
In the morning, using a slotted spoon, remove the persimmons from the pot and put them in a bowl.
Next, boil the syrup on medium heat until the syrup reaches the right consistency, about 20-25 minutes.
When the syrup needs about 5 minutes to reach the right consistency, add the persimmons from the bowl and the lemon juice, stir and boil for another 5-6 minutes and then turn off the heat.
Allow it to cool and if the syrup is still too runny, boil for a little longer until it reaches the desired consistency.
When it is ready, we remove the star anise, and allow our preserve to rest for 10 minutes before pouring and storing it in sterilized glass jars.
Papaya Preserve
Ingredients
● 400 g papaya
● 350 g sugar
● 200 g water
● 1 cinnamon stick
● juice of 1/2 lemon
Directions
Remove the skin and the seeds from the papaya fruit, and slice into bite-sized pieces.
Put the fruit in a pot, add the sugar, cover the pot and leave it for 2 hours for the fruit to release their juices.
Then add the cinnamon stick and the water.
Simmer on medium heat until the syrup reaches the right consistency, about 15-20 minutes.
Once the syrup is ready, add the lemon juice, stir and remove from the heat.
To see if the syrup has the desired consistency, put some syrup on a saucer and allow to cool. Once it has cooled tilt the plate slightly and if it is not runny, the syrup is ready.
Finally, remove the cinnamon stick and store in glass sterilized jars.
Purple Prickly Pear Preserve
Ingredients
800 g prickly pears, peeled
800 g sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Juice of 2 lemons
1 sprig of nutmeg geranium
Directions
Carefully collect the prickly pears and very carefully remove the skin.
Pinch them with a fork, cut the two ends vertically with a knife and make a horizontal cut in the skin.
Carefully open the incision and manually grasp the flesh and remove it from the skin.
Take care to remove the flesh whole.
Put the peeled prickly pears in a pan and pour the sugar on top, sprinkle with the juice of 2 lemons and leave them overnight.
In the morning take the juices that have been released and the sugar that may not have melted and boil on low heat until the sugar has melted.
Then add the prickly pears and boil all together for another 5 minutes.
Turn off the heat and leave the prickly pears in the syrup for 6-8 hours.
When the 8 hours have passed with a slotted spoon, take out the prickly pears, put them in a bowl and boil the syrup to thicken.
To see if the syrup has the desired consistency, put some syrup on a saucer and allow to cool. Test the syrup with a spoon and if the syrup slowly drips off the spoon in drops it is ready.
When the syrup is ready, add the prickly pears, the juice of half a lemon, the nutmeg geranium sprig, boil all together for 3-4 minutes and turn off the heat.
Allow it to rest for 10 minutes, remove the nutmeg geranium sprig and while it is still hot, store in sterilized jars.
Purple prickly pear cream
Ingredients
1 kg ripe prickly pears, peeled
200 g sugar
200 g water
3-4 cloves
4 tablespoons corn flour
Grated walnuts for the cream and topping.
Directions
Carefully collect the prickly pears and very carefully remove the peel.
Pinch them with a fork, cut the two ends vertically with a knife and make a horizontal cut in the skin.
Carefully open the incision and manually grasp the flesh and remove it from the skin.
Slice the flesh into small pieces and put them in a pot.
Add the water, the cloves and boil over high heat for 15 minutes to soften the prickly pears.
Turn off the heat and puree with an immersion blender.
Drain the puree with a strainer so that only the seeds are left in the strainer and discard.
Put the prickly pear puree in a saucepan and add the sugar and corn flour.
The juice should be lukewarm or cold.
Mix well with a whisk to dissolve the corn flour well.
Put the pot on medium heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
When it starts to coagulate, it makes thick bubbles and then we remove it from the heat.
Add the grated walnuts and stir.
Serve in individual bowls, sprinkled with grated walnuts.
