This is a very easy recipe, muy fácil!
Exact quantities really vary...honestly every time my mom and I make this, it's different amounts of everything. So these numbers are just going to go off the last time we made this. It's all about trial and error, your tastebuds and definitely your sweetness preferences.
Ingredients
- 2 Piloncillo or panela, which is pure, unrefined cane sugar
- 1 Apple
- 4 Guavas
- 1/4 cup of Dried Jamaica or hibiscus leaves
- 2 Tamarind, peeled and deveined
- 3 Cinnamon sticks
- 1 eight inch piece of sugar cane, peeled and chopped into smaller pieces
- Regular granulated sugar
- 1 gallon of water
1.You need to chop all your fruit (washed first) into slices and smaller pieces but not so small that they will like melt away because they're being boiled down. As mentioned in the ingredients list, the tamarind should be peeled and deveined leaving just the pulp. Sugar cane should also be peeled and chopped into bite size pieces.
2. Now place all your ingredients, minus the regular sugar, into your pot with water. Boil for 45 minutes to an hour. At some point maybe half hour into boiling, give it a taste for sweetness and now add the regular sugar as needed. We only had one piloncillo so it wasn't very sweet, the guavas were also a bit on the bitter side so we added a half cup of regular sugar to compensate.
3. Listo! It's ready to serve, nice and hot but not too hot that'll scald your tongue. No, let it cool off a little bit. You can serve it with fruit pieces in it so they don't go to waste and are eaten or you can strain it and discard the fruit, up to you...nothing wrong with the fruit though. Obviously you don't eat the cinnamon sticks and sugar cane isn't really eaten either.
