Watermelon konfyt – preserving culture in a jar.

In die naam van Allah, die barmagtigste die genadigste.

Fom ispot.org.za

19 July  2014

The saga with the dog continues but has taken a good turn, Alhamdulilah. I think our neighbours are remembering to keep the gate closed, well most times. I still find spoor the size of my palms in the new beds and mines here and there.

But last week – a peace offering. The gentleman was busy cleaning their back patch to make space for planting out his strawberries and gave us about 7 makataan melons. “Watermelon konfyt, yay!”, was my first thought. Then reality seeped in and I realised the amount of work involved. I became crafty seeing as my bartering and haggling skills are sharpening. “Aunty Desiree would you help me to skin just two of these melons, scoop out the fleshy parts and cut them into roughly 6 cm squares? I will give you some of the konfyt when it’s done.” "Luqmaan would you prick the rinds for me and I will take your drying off turn?" Rubbing my hands gleefully I filled the 10 L bucket and added a very heaped tablespoon of slaked lime. I checked every piece and immersed them. Then I looked around for something heavy to keep them submerged. Light bulb moment! –  I closed it with a black bag and placed one of the extra melons on top. (please let me know if anyone would like some melons, I have a few more, just keep the seeds for me!)

My last batch earlier this year, embarrassingly, was not as crisp as usual and I think its because I was impatient to cook them so just left them overnight instead of 48 hours.  They were good but a bit mushy and I cut them up into little blocks more like watermelon jam, and sat in the cupboard for a long time. Well seeing that it is Eidul Fitr round about the 28^th July and it would make wonderful gifts in small jars and seeing though it’s a wonderful way to preserve and my family adores it on slices of warm baked bread with a sliver of brie to accompany it – I am taking the risk again.

Agurkies From Ella's garden blogspot

My Mom and mother in law were experts in this field. My Mom’s particular expertise was making agurkie (gerkin?) preserve or konfyt as we say here in Cape Town and watermelon. Can someone please find me some agurkies? My mother in law made the best groen vye konfyt (greenfig preserve), sourfigs and apricots and I learnt from them both. Besides it makes for wonderful offerings of friendship and an excellent home industry opportunity.

So tomorrow evening I will rinse each and every piece thoroughly, boil a big pot of water and drop a few pieces in at a time. I will boil them for about 15 minutes or until they are just done then I will allow them to sit in in the strainer while I cook the syrup. A guestimate of the weight ( alas no scale) I would put at about 4 kg and the rule of thumb is 500gr of sugar for 500gr of fruit – ‘n pond vir ‘n pond. So its about 8 L of water, but I will start with 4 L to get the syrup thicker first and keep the water to add as it cooks thick.

Making konfyt is a long process so better not to be impatient, it is going to cook rapidly for the first ¾ to an hour and then bring the heat right down low and slow cook for another two hours or until the rinds turn translucent, then blemishes of white will indicate its nearly done. When the colour evens through again you will know that the syrup has cooked through the fruit completely, remembering to add the bits of the rest of the waters. My Mom used to say: “Yasmine gooi ‘n skootjie water op die konfyt of it sal aanbrand.”

 Will keep you in the loop as the saga continues but don’t expect pictures if it flops. Or maybe I should post them, we don’t relish peoples failures on this blog we celebrate them (smiley face).

Plant food but watch yourself with preserves if you are diabetic.

Yasmine