Hello everyone!! Today I will be sharing with you one of my favorite preserves . This is a fruit what we call back home in Trinidad - A pommecythere ( sour apple - French), known as a June Plum or a golden apple. This fruit when unripen is green as shown above in raw form, and turns a golden yellow when ripe (hence the name ). It contains a unique prickly seed on the inside and tastes tangy and crunchy when green. Unlike when ripe and sweet, for pickling purposes we prefer green pommecytheres. This very simply preserve is very common and at every corner road in the caribbean. Using the same spices and herbs , you can substitute almost any fruit like mango and pineapple.
For starters, I was taught to do this pickling with water and salt solutions. However after doing this preserve a couple times , this time around I decided to pickle and preserve the June Plums in a vinegar water solution with salt too of course. The addition of vinegar to me allowed the herbs and spices to penetrate and absorb into the flesh of the fruit better. Plus, the vinegar also prevents the fruit and garlic and herbs from turning green or brown.
Recipe :
- 5-10 Pommecytheres
- 10 sprigs Bandhania - (Shadow Beni - Culantro - Ngo Gai)
- 1 bulb of garlic - rasped or crushed
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 or 3 scotch bonnet or scorpion peppers
- a cup of vinegar
- 3 cups of water
My findings
- Scoring the fruit prior to soaking helping liquid and flvours to soak in .
- The vinegar keeps the fruit crispy and crunchy even after months in the solution.
- Flavors - Spiciness, sweetness and the herbed cilantro like flavoring of the bandhania are infused into the fruit , keeping the juiciness of the fruit intact .
This is a must try ! It is a very versatile recipe and this preserve can be made ahead and last for up to two seasons. The hard part will be trying not to eat them before they are well soaked. ;)
About to sneak one now ... try it with pineapple ! That is my favourite! - Chef Rayray
-R.
