Perad

ripe guava cooked down with sugar and a little ghee into a firm, glossy, fudge-like sweet and cut into ruby squares, the guava cheese of Goa born of the Portuguese fruit-paste tradition

Origin: India

From the journey of Guava.

Perad, the Goan guava cheese, is a direct descendant of the Portuguese, who brought both the guava and the Iberian art of the fruit cheese to Goa in the seventeenth century. It belongs to the rich tradition of Goan Catholic sweets, the kuswar made at Christmas, alongside the bebinca and the dodol, and it is the Indian cousin of the Brazilian goiabada and the Spanish-Caribbean pasta de guayaba. Ripe guava is cooked down with sugar, a squeeze of lime, and a little ghee, stirred patiently over the heat until it thickens, darkens to a glowing ruby, and sets firm enough to cut into neat squares or diamonds, glossier and a touch richer than a plain fruit paste for the ghee worked into it. Firm yet yielding, intensely guava-scented, and a deep jewel-red, perad is sold in Goan markets and made in Goan homes for Christmas and festivals, wrapped and given as a gift. It is the guava, that most travelled of New World fruits, set by Portuguese craft into a sweet that is now wholly Goan.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg ripe guavas
  • 200 ml water
  • 400 g sugar, to taste
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 2 tbsp ghee, plus extra for greasing
  • 1 pinch ground cardamom (optional)

Method

  1. Peel and chop the guavas, simmer them with the water until very soft, then blend and pass through a sieve to remove the hard seeds, leaving a smooth purée.
  2. Put the purée in a heavy, wide pan with the sugar and lime juice and cook over a medium heat, stirring often, until it thickens.
  3. As it thickens, stir in the ghee a little at a time (and the cardamom, if using), and keep cooking and stirring until the mixture is very thick, glossy, ruby-red, and pulls away from the sides of the pan in a mass.
  4. Pour into a greased tin or onto a greased tray, smooth flat, and leave to cool and set firm.
  5. Cut into neat squares or diamonds and serve, or wrap to give as a gift.

Notes

Pink-fleshed guavas give the deepest ruby perad. The ghee is the Goan signature, lending gloss and richness; the quantity of sugar can be adjusted to taste and to the sweetness of the fruit. Perad is part of the Goan Christmas kuswar alongside bebinca, dodol, and kulkuls. It is the same family as Brazilian goiabada and Caribbean pasta de guayaba.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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