Feijoa - description
Feijoa is a juicy, fleshy, green-colored berry with a light jelly-like pulp, the taste and aroma of which resemble strawberry, pineapple and kiwi at the same time. This applies only to ripe fruit. If you find the berries are not quite ripe, you should not be upset, you just have to wait a couple of days until they reach the desired maturity and become juicy and fragrant. To ripen faster, they need to be kept at room temperature. Feijoa fruits are quite large, about five centimeters in length and three centimeters in diameter, although there are berries and smaller or larger sizes. The color of the skin, depending on the variety, may be dark green or yellow-green, and the skin itself may be smooth or uneven.
The homeland of feijoa is South America. In Russia, this plant first appeared at the very end of the 18th century. Currently, it is grown in the Crimea, Krasnodar Territory, the republics of Central Asia, in the Caucasus. The fruits grow on a spreading shrub, about four meters tall. The plant is quite unpretentious, tolerates frosts up to 10-15 degrees. Feijoa can be grown as a houseplant, decorative species of which are not so tall, the bush usually reaches a height of no more than one meter. Most often it is bred for landscaping balconies or a winter garden.
Feijoa - useful properties
Feijoa contains a lot of trace elements, amino acids, fiber and vitamins, but its main wealth is iodine, and water-soluble, which is easily absorbed. Therefore, in the first place, fruits are recommended for diseases of the thyroid gland and in case of deficiency of this microcell in the body. Feijoa is also recommended for gastritis, inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, atherosclerosis, and avitaminosis. This fruit is rich in folates, so it is very useful for pregnant women and couples who are planning a baby. Of contraindications - idiosyncrasy, allergies.
Feijoa - calorie
Caloric content of 100 g of feijoa is 49 kcal.
Feijoa - use in cooking
From feijoa they cook tasty jam, prepare juices, jams, desserts, sauces, chutneys, fillings for pies, cook compotes. Most often they use fresh fruit, which is cut in half and eaten with a spoon. These berries with a sweet and sour taste are harmoniously combined with meat, especially lamb, chicken, fish.
Examples of recipes from Feijoa
Recipe 1: Feijoa Chutney
This spicy sauce will turn the simplest dish into a bright and memorable one. To advantageously emphasize the taste of the main dish, it is enough to add two or three spoons of this seasoning. Chutney is served in small sockets, or placed directly on a plate. Perfect with any meat, fish and boiled rice.
Ingredients: 500g of feijoa, 1 red onion (you can usually, just red looks more elegant), 3 green apples, 100ml natural apple cider vinegar, 5 cloves of garlic, 2 tables. lies of vegetable oil and sugar, a piece of ginger (5 cm), black pepper, 1 pod of hot fresh pepper (or 2-3 pinches of ground hot), salt.
Cooking method
In feijoa cut tails and cut the fruit into four parts. Remove apples from the core, peel and coarsely chop. Pour the vinegar over the fruit and marinate for twenty minutes.
Ginger cut into strips, onions - large lobules (or longitudinal straws, half rings). Pepper pod to remove seeds and chop into circles, garlic - into small pieces. Fold the chopped vegetables (except pepper) in a frying pan and fry for about five minutes. Add sugar, feijoa and apples with vinegar. Reduce heat, add chopped chili pepper and simmer for twenty-five minutes. At the very end, salt and sprinkle with black pepper. Serve warm or chilled.
Recipe 2: Hot Feijoa Chicken Appetizer
Snack is a fragrant chicken fillet, fried in caramel and stewed in soy sauce with slices of lime and feijoa. Served on lettuce leaves and sprinkled with sesame seeds. If the salt of soy sauce is not enough, you can add salt to taste. The whole dish is prepared in about fifteen minutes, but you must stand at the stove and make sure that it does not burn. Particularly appreciate this chicken lovers of Chinese cuisine, because it is very piquant and tasty.
Ingredients: 2 chicken breasts (600-800g), 4 stol.lozh. starch and sugar, 100 ml of water, 1 leek (white part), ½ lime, 6-8 feijoa, 3-4 tablespoons. soy sauce, 1-2 tea. lie sesame seeds, lettuce leaves.
Cooking method
Breasts cut into slices of five to seven millimeters thick, leeks - ringlets, lime - slices. Sesame seeds in a dry frying pan dry-fry until golden.
Feijoa wash and cut into small circles (with skin).
Pour water into a frying pan, add sugar. As the syrup begins to caramelize and turn golden, put the chicken slices boned in starch. Fry, stirring, a couple of minutes on one side, then turn to the other so that the caramel will stick around the pieces. Then add the feijoa, mix and in two minutes put the lime slices. To preserve the aroma, close the lid and simmer for two or three minutes. Next add the leek and pour in the soy sauce. Boil a minute or two and turn it off.
Place lettuce on a plate, on them in a circle - slices of feijoa and lime, and in the middle place the pieces of breast. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Recipe 3: Feijoa Curd Pie
Delicious instant cake. Very tender dough and sweet and sour filling make this simple cake into an exquisite dessert. By the way, the dough is universal, suitable for another filling - from peaches, apples, persimmon, pears. And if you reduce the amount of sugar and add cheese, you can make khachapuri.
Ingredients: 300-400g of cottage cheese (preferably low-fat or low-fat), a little more than a glass of flour, 200g of butter, 1 tea. baking powder, 100g of sugar, a pinch of salt, vanilla sugar. For the filling - 500-700g of feijoa, sugar.
Cooking method
Curd mix with softened butter, flour, baking powder and other components for the dough. The mass should be elastic.
Feijoa, wash, peel and cut into slices or circles.
Grease the form. The dough is divided into two pieces, each of which roll into a layer. One lay on the bottom of the form, lay on it feijoa, sprinkle with sugar. Its amount depends on the level of the desired sweetness, but not very much (about three to four spoons). Cover with a second flat cake, firmly pinch the edges. Make a few punctures on the upper crust with a fork so that steam can freely escape and bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes (180C). Place the cake in a preheated oven.
Feijoa - tips from experienced chefs
- The peel of the fruit is very useful, contains strong antioxidants, but it is quite tart and has an astringent taste. To get rid of astringency, it is dried and brewed with tea.
- From feijoa you can cook a quick, tasty and healthy delicacy - live jam. The ground fruits (together with the peel) must be mixed with sugar, held warm for two hours to dissolve the grains, then eat the jam immediately or store it in the refrigerator. For 1 part of the berries you need to take 1 part of sugar.
