Rose apples! Best fruit for cold weather to break the laziness by making dishes

I love to visit my aunts place as their climate is completely different than to our village. Though April is one of the hottest months, they have a very cold climate. Yet the sun shines brightly during the day! Most of the trees are laden with various fruits during this time of the year though it’s the end of April. The flower buds of Durian, Rambutan and mangosteen trees are slowly blooming where the trees of mangoes, guava, soursop, Sri Lankan cherries(governors plums), cherry guava, cocoa, rose apples are heavy with fruits! Me and my aunt's daughter went to pick some rose apples as brother never came to help us until we finished picking them. The rose apple tree depict a picture of a tree covered with a floral cloth as the tree was laden with fruit. Rose apples shines like a red apple When you rub it with a piece of cloth! The strange yet satisfying sensation of biting into a rose apple is like biting a very thin bulb filled with water. You can experience an unusual and refreshing sourness with a sweet hint coating your palette with the first bite of a rose apple. Since the fruits have a vulnerability of falling to the ground with a slightest wind, there were lots of rose apples fallen onto the ground too.

My aunt lives in a cold hill capital city of Nawalapitiya, close to “Kadiyanlena” water fall. Since the rose apple tress is located near the water fall, I felt like immersing my legs in the cold spring water pool. But I had to forget about that sensational idea as I saw brother had come there with the ingredients to make rose apple pickle. Such a yum and an unforgettable taste was there when eating the rose apple pieces which was mixed with salt crystals, chilli powder and pepper powder! The mind got the most satisfaction than my taste buds with the scenery of cold water cascading down the mountains. An Unforgettable experience.

My aunt had made all the ingredients ready for a rose apple curry, as I said that I will make the curry once we come home. My aunt has a habit of cooking lunch early in the morning where she can utilise the afternoon time for some other chores. So I cooked the rose apple curry by reducing its water completely to get that desired and delicious taste. After making the curry, I made a dessert out of rose apples by boiling the rose apples in sugar syrup together with gelatine, milk, basil seeds, yoghurt and honey. The rose apples and green grapes gave a very colourful dish which gave a sweet treat to the taste buds as well. Gelatine sets very quickly here due to the cold weather! When rose apples get ripen, their juice become a bright red in colour. Hence I made a rose apple juice with a hint of tanginess from lemon slices and added a note of sour delight by adding lemon juice as well.

I went out with the juice to the small hill which is beside my aunts house as my aunt, her daughter and my brother were making candies out of rose apples. It gives such a heavenly taste to the candies when incorporated the rose apples with cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom and sugar. The candies melts right inside the mouth with a burst of spices. Since we visited my aunt for our new year visit, we rushed home early since grandmother stayed behind with my elder Aunty in the village.Grandmother is not fancy to visit far away relatives anymore. Next day both of us bid farewell to that cold, refreshing and picturesque city and returned back home to Dankotuwa.

Love you All!