Guava

Now I am addicted to the Farmer's Market. I dragged Mike to the Farmer's Market on Saturday. I ran across some Guava's, they smell so fragrant. Mike and I were taken back to our hike on the Kalalau trail along the Napali Coast in Kauai, Hawaii. The hike is a stunning 8 mile hike along an ocean bluff and winding deep into the rainforest. Guava tree's lined the trail and smashed guava's were strewn all over the ground. It had a very distinct smell of fermenting guava, at first we weren't sure we liked the smell, but we found ourselves relishing in the delicious tropical scent. This trail in Kauai is not to be missed. The hike leads you to this beautiful waterfall with a swimming hole underneath it. It was amazing. I love Kauai.
Kauai made me love Guava's.

So, I bought the Guava's, but what am I suppose to do with Guava's? I initially thought about making a guava liquor, one of my favorite cocktails is spicy vodka with soda water & guava juice.....I thought about infusing the guava in vodka. BUT I'm not drinking much these days, so I'll save that for another time.
I searched the internet to see what guava recipe's I could find, but didn't really come up with anything.

So, I decided to make a Guava sauce.....but what kind of sauce?????? I thought back to a mango chutney I made last summer and I figured I could make something similar, although you can't make guava "chunky" like you can mango. So I decided to make a smooth Guava Chutney

I created a little menu around the Guava Chutney

Grilled Cajun Shrimp with Guava Chutney, Cous Cous, and Fresh Green Beans
Guava Chutney
I have no idea how I made this, but it was good. I know what ingredients I used, but didn't measure proportions. So this is just a rough estimate.

3 guava's
1/8 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup guava juice
1 TBSP crushed ginger
1/2 tsp gelatin
some dashes of chili powder
a dash of red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
salt

Scoop at the guava flesh and seeds. Place in a small mixing bowl with crushed ginger. You will need to strain the seeds, to do this, thin out the guava and ginger with the vinegar and guava juice (i used kerns I happened to find in my cupboard, you could always use water and add a bit of sugar.) Use a plunging blender to mix ingredients on low until it is thin enough to strain out the seeds.

Strain the seeds.

Tranfer mixture into a sauce pan. season with bay leaf, chili powder, red, pepper flakes, and salt. Add geletin. Simmer until sauce thickens.

Transfer to a ramakin. Chill for 1 hour or more.

*If you ever make this sauce, play around with it till it tastes good to you. It is naturally quite sweet and I didn't add any sugar beacasue the guava juice has sugar. I just used salt to balence out the sweetness.

Cajun Dusted Grilled Shrimp
Raw Jumbo shrimp, devained, tail on
Cajun Seasoning (my favorite)

Season uncooked shrimp with Cajun Seasoning. Skewer and Grill.

*Steam Green Beans & make Cous Cous accordining to instructions.

DINNER IS SERVED.