What to do with all your feijoas
Your ultimate guide to indulging in a favourite fruit
The season is short and when it’s here, it’s a feijoa frenzy of baking, preserving, freezing and cooking. School up with these handy feijoa tips, which includes how to choose them, the best way to store them and how to freeze the fruit to extend your enjoyment beyond the season.
Muffin time
Feijoa makes muffins delicious. Freeze feijoa pulp by the cupful so you can enjoy feijoa muffins all yearround.
Jo Elwin’s feijoa and cream cheese muffins are light on the sugar without too much on the fat, but that also makes them good. Or try feijoa and honey muffins made with dessicated coconut for added flavour and texture.
Feijoa and lime muffins are quite tart, with all the fragrance of feijoas and a refreshing tang from the lime juice and zest.
An autumn crumble
Feijoa, ginger and almond crumble is a buttery crumble with a hint of ginger, and it is extremely delicious especially when served nice and hot with a dollop of cream.
Jo Elwin’s autumn fruit crumble is a chop-and-go version that uses brown sugar and fresh New Zealand hazelnuts to create a real celebration of autumn. Delaney Mes’ autumn crumble is made with pears with a classic oat and butter topping; use whatever nuts and seeds you like to make it your own.
Poach them
Warren Elwin poaches feijoas in a lime and ginger-scented riesling syrup and serves it with a vanillaflavoured cream.
Amanda Laird also goes for riesling-poached feijoas but pairs it with toasted pistachio. They’re easy desserts that don’t need much time or effort for a great result.
Turn it into jam
Serve a simple feijoa jelly with a batch of homemade crumpets.
Feijoa jam with vanilla and fresh ginger uses firm feijoas and the addition of vanilla and ginger adds extra depth.
Haven’t got much time in the kitchen? Jan Bilton’s five-minute feijoa jam is whizzed up in a food processor and simmered for four minutes. Even the skins are left on for flavour and an intensely-green colour.
Pudding please
Angela Casley opts for the stovetop to make her ever-popular rice pudding which is accompanied with poached feijoas in a star-anise syrup.
Geoff Scott’s feijoa fool is a low-fat choice for pudding as he serves up light sour cream and probiotic vanilla yoghurt with slightly-sweetened poached feijoas.
Jan Bilton folds fresh feijoa in a delicious mixture of cream, passionfruit pulp and meringues in her feijoa passion pudding.
Pair it with pastry
You can infuse feijoas with flavours of cinnamon, vanilla and sherry and wrap it in butter puff pastry like feijoa strudel.
Caramelised feijoas go beautifully with crispy pastry; feijoa tarte Tatin uses puff pastry whereas this version uses sweet shortcrust pastry and incorporates a fragipane paste made with ground almonds, flour and butter.
Chutney chow-down
Feijoa and date chutney is full of flavour with a heady combination of Indian spices and Asian flavours such as ginger, star anise and kaffir.
Jan Bilton’s feijoa chutney is a simpler version with fewer ingredients and a more classic chutney, or try her fresh feijoa relish which takes minutes to make and is a great accompaniment to pork.
Freshen up with a salsa
Serve a classic fejioa salsa with coriander and red onion with steak, chicken or fish, or use it as a dip.
Warren Elwin’s fresh feijoa salsa — made with dates, pistachio, fresh coriander and coconut — is refreshing and zesty, and makes a particularly good accompaniment to a spicy chicken curry or in cold meat sandwiches.
Cool it down
Warren Elwin’s feijoa iceblocks will be a favourite with the kids especially with the inclusion of pineapples for a tropical twist. For a healthier icecream, Nadia Lim’s instant feijoa icecream uses banana and yoghurt (with a little cream) blended with crystalised ginger — another delicious pairing with feijoa.
For the recipes go to https://www. nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/ news/the-ultimate-guide-10-wayswith-feijoas/E7FCHFECLLAPMJ4FV 2ZWWOMGBM/