Watermelon honey, or nardek, is undeservedly deprived by the popularity of consumers. After all, it is not only a tasty, but also a useful product, which is not inferior in terms of the number of useful elements to bee honey. It contains vitamins A, B, C, E and PP, and is rich in a variety of micro- and macroelements.
Its use helps to cope with various colds and cardiovascular diseases. If you have a low hemoglobin content in the blood, then watermelon honey will help increase it, and it will also be an excellent preventative against atherosclerosis.
Watermelon honey is used as a dessert with tea or a variety of pastries, and also add to cereals or casseroles instead of sugar.
Now, having learned about all the wonderful qualities of Nardek, it is simply impossible to cook it. And we will help you in this and tell you in detail how to do it.
How to prepare watermelon honey?
The recipe for preparing watermelon honey is not at all complicated, but, like any work that requires care and accuracy.
So, for nardeka we choose ripe watermelons, better late varieties, wash them outside and cut into two or four pieces. Using a wooden spoon, remove the red pulp and add it to the enameled basin or large saucepan. We crush it with a stick and rub it through a fine sieve. From the watermelon puree with a screw press or several layers of gauze we squeeze out the juice, which is heated to a boil and filtered once more.
For cooking honey from watermelon juice, it is best to use wide basins, or cauldrons, but in their absence, you can use any enameled pots or dishes with a thick bottom.
We pour the resulting juice into a suitable container and determine it by fire. We maintain it on small fire before boiling in volume in five-six times. Do not forget to stir constantly. This is especially important at the end of boiling, when the mass thickens. Readiness is determined by a dense and non-spreading drop. Consistency of watermelon honey is similar to bee young honey or thick cream.
For long-term storage, pour a little cooled honey over dry, sterile jars and roll up the boiled lids.
Much easier to process the preparation of watermelon honey kitchen assistant - multivarka. You do not need to stand for a long time over a container with watermelon juice. It is enough just a few times to mix the mass.
Watermelon honey in multivark
Just as with the traditional preparation of washed watermelons, we extract the pulp and turn it into puree. Squeeze the juice with gauze or press, once again filter and pour it into the capacity of the multivarker, not exceeding the level of the upper permissible mark.
From the multivark, remove the valve and set the device to the "Baking" mode. We set the maximum possible time of 65 minutes. After a few minutes, remove the red foam from the spoon. After the signal, we re-enable the same program. During this time, two or three times we mix
Depending on the quality of watermelon juice, the holding time in a multivark can vary considerably. It may be enough for two cycles of 65 minutes. But in most cases it will be necessary to prolong cooking, at least once more.
Ready-made watermelon honey has a thick consistency, as in ordinary young honey.
We observe the process, periodically opening the lid of the device, and assess the readiness. As soon as the result is achieved, we let the honey cool a bit, pour it on sterile jars and cover with lids.