Feijoas
By Anna King Shahab
I just love that over the course of decades, or centuries even, Aotearoa has adopted a bunch of subtropical fruit from South and Central America, embracing these counterparts with ostensibly far greater fervour than their motherlands. I grew up with a green-fingered mum who enthusiastically planted and tended to a bunch of these flavoursome imports: pepino, babaco and it’s close cuzzie mountain pawpaw (and sorry, no love for either from me), tamarillo, guavas red and yellow, banana passionfruit – but the one we all loved most passionately was the feijoa.
Someone needs to update tech-bots on the revered status of this funny green fruit, to avoid the word being autocorrected to that other Brazilian creation ‘feijoada’ every time one of us Kiwis tries to express our love and yearning for it via our hand computer – and I mean, knowing us, that could be millions of times every day across the nation.
It’s native to several South American countries including Brazil and Uruguay. According to Britannica, it’s partial to a mild dry climate – except maybe not so much because in Tāmaki Makaurau where I live, it rains a bunch and I swear the harder it rains, the thicker those fruit come, denting the soggy lawn in their valiant attempt to overrun the city.
Do Brazilians, Uruguayans et al go for feijoas in the same rapturous way we do? I’ve never been able to establish a clear answer to that (any firsthand opinions on this would be welcome, readers!) I remember back in the early noughties when 42 Below was still a darling local brand and it launched its feijoa vodka. I, a faithful feijoa mule was always picking up bottles at Duty Free to gift to overseas non-Kiwi friends. Strangely, they didn’t share my enthusiasm and I’d inevitably see said bottle gathering dust upon my next visit. I’m sure there are Kiwis who aren’t fond of feijoas, but they’re keeping it on the down-low in fear of losing citizenship.
When you see people from other countries turn attention to the rarely seen feijoa, they’re always grasping for likenesses, and pineapple, guava, strawberry, and pear crop up as touchstones. But as everyone in Aotearoa knows, a feijoa just tastes like a feijoa. Here are some things we love to do with them, and bonza things we’ve seen done with them …
We’re fans of Josh Emett’s Feijoa Sponge and you can get this super-doable recipe on his Instagram. It’ll only use up six of your haul though so we say double that baby and have it for breakfast the next day.
At Forest, just before its Symonds St iteration finished its run recently, chef and owner Plabita Florence put on a day dedicated to the fruit – she dished up whole battered and fried feijoas (skin still on – yesss!), served with ginger caramel and vanilla ice cream – and gluten-free and vegan to boot!
Apero has a magical feijoa souffle on this season – and being open Monday nights (yay) we reckon this is the perfect way to treat yourself at the beginning of the week.
The final course in the epic 16-part Complete Series menu we recently enjoyed at Sidart was a refreshing number featuring our friend feij alongside dill – first time in memory tasting this pairing of ingredients and it really works … one to experiment with further!
Somewhere I can’t remember, years ago, I tasted a feijoa and vintage cheddar Cornish pasty thing and have since dabbled in this dark art in the home kitchen simply using a good ready-made all-butter – do it!
Purée the flesh in a blender and mix it through pikelet or even waffle batter.
Ferment spent feijoa skins with sugar and water for a few days till fizzing – strain off the skins and you have a delicious sipper.
Make a syrup by cooking feijoa flesh or skins, or both, for 20 minutes with sugar and water, then straining off the solids. Keeps well in fridge to add to cocktails, pour over puddings and ice cream, or use as a cordial.
Feijoas hold up well to the spices in a chutney like kasundi – try replacing the tomato with chopped feijoas.
Feijoa crumble, yes, but also feijoa shortcake – I like to make it like a slice with a crumbled-over shortcake topping; the feijoa filling goes all rich and gooey and you can try adding other flavours into the mix … a sweet tamarind layer, perhaps? A date caramel layer?
