What's guajia?

Factual Questions
1

At my local supermarket in an enthnically diverse area, we get a lot of different produce than what you’d find a Safeway. Additionally, the names of the items are given in the language of the target shopper. For instance, the store sells bitter gourd, but advertises it as Fu Qua (I’m thinking Cantonese, maybe vietnamese) and snake gourd is Sin Qua. Other items use Russian names, and still others use Spanish (“tamarindo” instead of “tamarind”). One item that I don’t know is called “Guajia”. It looks like a long flat seed pod.

Does anyone know what it is or better yet, any recipes on using it?

2

Misspelled guajillo?

Might do better in Cafe Society - that’s where the epicures hang out.

3

Image here - scroll down.

4

Nope, not guajillo. It’s not a pepper, it looks kind of like a seedpod I’ve seen on some trees–about 8 inches long, one inch wide and flat.

5

Well, that’s the only thing in the Epicurious food dictionary that seemed close.

6

Does it look like this? These are called “Moroccan beans,” here in Japan.

Guajia sounds like Mandarin, “gua” can mean “gourd” or melon and it’s used in several fruit/vegetable names. I couldn’t find an entry for guajia in any dictionary, though.

7

locust bean, aka carob?

8

If it is a Carob then you’ll be able to perform two basic tests.

  1. Bite into it firmly, if your tooth encounters a seed and your tooth does not shatter, then it is unlikely to be a Carob (or your teeth are amazing)

  2. Each seed weighs exactly the same, which was why they were used as a measure of weight in early civilizations’ markets

9

I’ve seen and tasted something similar - a long flat seed pod, yes? Pod anywhere from 5 to 8 inches? Dusky green-brown? With small flat green seeds? Each one a little larger than a sunflower seed? I have been looking for a name for it for about 6 years now - the botanical guides, when I look up the tree it comes from, don’t list any edible-seed types. All of the names I vaguely remember aren’t it. It may be some type of acacia.

Its a very flavorful seed suitable for tomato sauces like spaghetti. It complements garlic and onions. I ate one seed by itself, and the flavor stayed with me through toothbrushing - about 4 hours total.

10

YES! That sounds exactly like what I have seen–down to the color (which I didn’t mention). Still no other name? How is it prepared?
It may be carob–it looks vaguely like the pictures I can find of locust bean, but I don’t really think it is.

11

I think you’re looking for guajes. I see these at the market all the time, but I haven’t bought them yet to figure out what to do with 'em.

12

I think it is time to bring CSI:Food Network in on the case… :slight_smile:

13

Thanks, pulkamell! That cracked the code! I looked up guaje in the Spanish wikipedia, then clicked on the linked English article. Found out a bit more of what this is:

Scientific name:Leucaena leucocephala
Other names:Leucaena glauca, Lead tree, Acacia palida, Aroma blanka, Campeche, Cowbush, White popinac,ipil-ipil Famili:Leguminosae/Fabaceae

Searching on any one of these names gives me a wealth of information on the item in question.

14

Now that I think about it, I have bought them once before. I just ate them raw out of the pod. The slightly garlicky description mentioned in the article I linked to reminded me of it. I found a recipe here for guaxmole/huaxmole, which I’m going to have to try one of these days.