There a lot of things(bad) that happen in Zimbabwe and I hardly write about them specifically. I see, feel and hardly understand why those things happen. In all this I choose to write about the good things. Being so far way from home makes worrying so easy especially when you are getting the news on the internet. It takes a toll on me and writing about food and crafts makes life feel ok even for a few minutes. I hope it does the same for you when you read my posts.
What is your favourite fruit? For me it’s mazhanje, however tsubvu are a close second. In English they are called smellyberry fingerleaf fruit, and the last time I will ever call tsubvu that. Granted tsubvu have an acquired taste but calling them smelly is too far. Tsubvu fruit is black, sweet, will darken your teeth, give you constipation and has so many phytonutrients for you skin. I ate way too much when I was in Zimbabwe. Which got me thinking, how can I preserve this fruit I love so much.
Tsubvu is a stone fruit but unlike other stone fruits the flesh is soft and the stone has ridges in it that make it hard to get the flesh. So you can treat them like cherries or peaches. The method I used for mazhanje would not work either. I boiled the fruit for a few minutes and then mashed it all up with a whisk( musika). Then I passed it through a sieve.
It worked but the method needs to be refined to reduce waste and make it less labour intensive. From about 5 kilograms of the fruit, I got about 15 cups of the tsubvu puree.
Initially I wanted to make jam with the puree and leave it at that, BUT….I realised I was limiting myself, so I wrote a bunch of recipes using this puree. Starting with this post, I will be running a series of #coookingwithtsubvu. I have had so much fun with this hope you will enjoy the recipes too!