posted 3 years ago
GILA makes one of my favorite jams. If cooked properly it will look like spaghetti squash, but translucent and white with a delicious, sweet flavour.
It is not easy to make the jam, but there are tricks to cooking it as you cannot use metal at all in its preparation or the Gila Jam (Doce de Gila) will have a metallic taste:
To cut it, wash your floor and throw it hard on the floor to break it. The skin is tough. Separate it with your hands and scrape the inside with a wodden or plastic spoon. To peel it, wash it and boil the broken pieces for 10 minutes in an enamel or terracota pot. Then scrape the skin off with a wooden spoon.
Once you have the Gila free from skin drain it well in a sieve. Then weigh it, and measure 1/2 as much its weight in sugar. Add the peel if one lemon and a stick of cinnamon and cook it at medium heat mixing often (in an enameled or terracota pot) until the moisture evaporates (about 30 minutes). It freezes well in glass jam jars.
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