Show the Working

Cajeta de Piña y Plátano

The fruit goes in only once the milk has already reduced, because pineapple acid and plantain water both split the pan.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk).

Ingredients

Method

  1. THE FRUIT GOES IN ONLY ONCE THE MILK HAS ALREADY REDUCED, because pineapple acid and plantain water both split the pan. Pineapple is sharply acid and also carries an enzyme that attacks milk protein; four hundred grams of it in two litres of goat's milk at the start will curdle the whole batch within fifteen minutes, bicarbonate or not. And ripe plantain is mostly water, which would mean an extra half hour of reduction with sugar already concentrating and catching. So the milk is taken down to a thick amber cajeta on its own first -- about fifty minutes -- and only then does the fruit go in, for a final twenty minutes, by which time there is enough sugar and enough body for the acid to do no harm.
  2. THE PINEAPPLE IS COOKED DOWN SEPARATELY FIRST. Chopped fine, with the lime juice, in its own pan until the released juice has gone and it is a thick jammy mass. That removes most of its water before it ever meets the milk, and the brief cooking also deals with the enzyme. Raw into even a reduced cajeta, it thins it noticeably.
  3. THE PLANTAIN IS MASHED AND NOT BLENDED. A fork, to a coarse mash with lumps. This version is meant to have pieces in it -- it is closer to a conserve than a sauce -- and blended plantain disappears into the cajeta and leaves only sweetness.
  4. IT IS STIRRED CONSTANTLY ONCE THE FRUIT IS IN, AND THE HEAT GOES DOWN. The pan is already thick and now has sugar from the fruit as well. It catches very readily in those last twenty minutes, and a scorched batch cannot be saved.
  5. IT IS LOOSER THAN THE OTHER TWO AND IS MEANT TO BE. The fruit holds water however carefully it is cooked down, and this one sets to a thick spoonable conserve rather than a firm paste. Reduced until it would set like a cajeta de Celaya, the fruit has gone to pulp and the point of it has gone with it.
  6. The milk and sugar warmed in a LARGE heavy pan until the sugar dissolves.
  7. The bicarbonate slaked in the water, the PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT, and it stirred in. It will FOAM for about 20 seconds.
  8. Returned to the heat with the salt and simmered 50 MINUTES, stirred often, until thick and deep amber.
  9. MEANWHILE: the chopped pineapple cooked in its own pan with the lime juice 15 to 20 MINUTES, until the juice has gone and it is JAMMY. Not raw.
  10. The plantains MASHED with a fork to a coarse mash with lumps. Not blended.
  11. ONLY NOW the cooked pineapple and the mashed plantain stirred into the cajeta.
  12. THE HEAT TURNED DOWN LOW.
  13. Cooked 20 MINUTES more, STIRRED CONSTANTLY and the base scraped.
  14. TESTED: it should be a thick SPOONABLE conserve with visible pieces of fruit, not a firm paste.
  15. The vanilla stirred in off the heat.
  16. Potted while hot. Keeps 6 weeks in the fridge -- less than the plain one, because of the fruit.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes