Monica Bhide I was recently invited by Good Housekeeping (India) to provide recipes for a feature on wonderful and cooling summer foods. One of my favorite recipes in the spread is Guava Fool. This is very simple dish that takes minutes to prepare but rewards so well! I hope you will try it. Pink guava puree is hard to find in the US unless you live in Florida and have guavas growing in your backyard. My solution is to order it from L’Epicerie. I love love love their purees. I order several for the summer and then create different dishes using them including fools, smoothies, and just use them as toppings for ice-creams.
About ten of my recipes are featured in the April 2011 issue of Good Housekeeping (India) with amazing photos by Sirish Sen. He gave me permission to use the guava shot here. Thanks!
Guava Fool – Mom always made mango fool for us – but there is nothing foolish about this delightful dessert. A fool is a dessert prepared with a fruit puree and cream. In my adaptation guava puree is folded into whipped cream and served in tall glasses topped with guess what? Yes, more whipped cream. If you are feeling adventurous, make a batch of this with guava and another batch with mango. Layer them alternately in pretty wine glasses. Top with freshly whipped cream and serve immediately. The key to making this is not to mix but to fold the puree and the cream so that you can see steaks of each, if you mix it, it will look like a light pink cream. The taste won’t change, of course, but it will change the presentation.
(Please note – to make this recipe work, you have to use very ripe guavas otherwise the taste will not be good. Also, once you make your puree, be sure to taste it to ensure that it is sweet. If it is not as sweet as you like, please add some honey and adjust accordingly.)
” The recipe is adapted from Modern Spice
by Monica Bhide (Random House 2010).
Serves 4
Cook Time: 5 minutes
¼ chilled heavy cream
½ – ¾ cup pink guava puree, chilled
To garnish – whipped cream
- In a bowl, whip the heavy cream until it forms peaks.
- Now fold in the guava puree. Do this gently using your spatula to gently fold in the two. DO NOT BLEND. The idea is to keep the colors separate.
- Divide evenly into four wine glasses.
- Top with a touch of whipped cream. Serve immediately.
This is the first time I have come across a dessert with guava. Looks creamy and fabulous. Will try this sometime 🙂
I love guava! My favorite fruit! Wouldn’t Goya frozen guava puree be the same thing?
Monica, this is amazing! I’ve always eaten fresh guava and never had it as a dessert like this. And yes, you’re right it is hard to find guava in the US. Thanks to your link, I now have a new source. Thanks for sharing this! The photo is beautiful!
Kalustyans in NYC sells all kinds of fruit purees including things like guava, passionfruit and blood orange. Anyone local to NYC can purchase them there.
You do get Guava pink puree everywhere in the US
Look in the frozen section for Hawaii’s Own Guava Nectar, just thaw and use it