Feijoa paste

What's brown and sticky? Also, what's a good thing to do with a large quantity of feijoas?

In the US and other countries they're called pineapple guavas, and I hear they grow well in SoCal. Our last place actually had a feijoa hedge, and it would flower most beautifully and then the really hot weather would come and the tiny little fruit would drop along with my feijoa hopes for another season. I keep an eye out for them at farmers' markets ... so far nothing.

But then back in NZ last month, I had the great happiness of enjoying a classic NZ problem: more feijoas than I knew what to do with. And given that I was heading back to the feijoa-less desert of Nevada, how could I bring the taste through an agricultural inspection?

It occurred to me that guava paste being a thing, maybe pineapple guava paste could be too. I googled a few recipes and then did something like this:
(All measures are approximate and seen through the rose-tinted filter of memory.)

A bowlful of feijoas, washed but not peeled (about 6 cups?)
2 apples (I used windfall apples, use something sour if you don't have windfalls)
Juice of 1 - 2 lemons (I used some lemon syrup from the candied peel I was making)
Some water
Sugar, about 500 g
1/4 - 1/2 cup crystallised ginger
coffee sugar or other sugar if desired to finish

Chop the fruit into chunks and put it into a saucepan with water to prevent it sticking. There is no need to peel it first, and I did include the apple seeds and cores. Add the lemon juice and a few chunks of ginger. Use as little water as you can, because you'll just have to boil it off later. Bring to a boil and simmer until the fruit is soft enough to mash to a mush. 

Press the fruit through a sieve, extracting as much pulp as possible. (Yeah, I know. There's no substitute for this. It's easiest if cooked soft and mashed well first.) 

Put the pulp in a wide non-stick pan. If it's very thin, reduce it a bit before adding sugar. Stir in the sugar until dissolved. Now simmer the mixture for an hour or more, until stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula leaves a broad track that fills slowly with little or no free liquid. You can also test by dropping a little onto a plate. When ready, it will stay in a little heap rather than flattening out to a puddle, and it will not leak any juice. Stir regularly to prevent sticking. 

Finely chop or slice the ginger. I removed about a third of the cooked paste to a smaller pan and added the ginger, to try and make a layer of more gingery paste in the middle. Next time I'd just stir it in when cooking was complete.

Estimate the volume - you'll want the block of paste to be at least 1 cm thick. Line a pan with non-stick paper. Turn the mixture into the pan and smooth the surface. When cold, cut into pieces as required and sprinkle the surface with sugar. (I used coffee crystals but I don't think that worked very well.) If the paste is extremely sticky, dry it in a hot water cupboard or a desert before wrapping up airtight to store. 

If stored cool and dry, should keep for up to a year. If you have doubts about the dryness of the paste or the storage conditions, it will freeze fine. 

Really good with cheese. I'm also looking forward to trying it instead of guava paste in recipes, for instance in meat glazes and baking. 

battle of the potted salmon

At last, I found my favourite potted salmon/salmon rillettes. Salmon was on a really good special so I bought a big piece, and the SDM requested potted salmon. I probably last made this 10 years ago, but I guess it stuck in the memory :) So I made a batch, here's what I did and what I tried. One of them was a winner by miles (reveal below) ...

Cut the salmon in chunks and cook it slowly in a pan in plenty of butter. (If no cats will be offered pieces of it, optionally add some white wine. It turned out that our cats are so spoiled they don't think salmon is made of catfood.) I used about 800g salmon and 50g or so butter for this step. 

Meanwhile, prepare flavourings and clarify (ideally) or melt (lazy) about 250 g salted butter (yes, two hundred and fifty). 

I tried:

1. Fennel pollen, ground wild black pepper, tequila reposado

2. Desert sage, juniper, sage gin

3. Chiltepin, dried orange peel, absinthe

4. Lime peel, triple sec, chipotle powder, samphire powder

Divide the salmon into small bowls and mix in each set of flavourings, breaking up the fish into flakes and moistening with butter to make a rough paste. Check the seasoning - I found they all needed added salt. Pack very firmly into small clean jars or pots, leaving at least 1.5 cm at the top for the butter :-D Pour in melted butter just to the surface, pack down again with a spoon. Let them cool a little, then top up the butter and optionally garnish so you can see what flavour it was. Chill thoroughly, optionally freeze.   

And the winner was ...

Great balls of orange! 

The orange/absinthe/chiltepin had no competition, it's just divine. So, to go into a bit more detail ...

Chiltepin: are wild peppers, considered to be the original from which all others are descended. They're tiny adorable ferocious balls of chiletasticness. I got these guys down Tucson way, as you do. Substitute: bird's eye chiles?

Orange: I was at a farmer's market in San Diego a few weeks ago and they had the most terrific little blood oranges, unwaxed, organic, and about 2 inches across. We had really enjoyed these commercial ones and I decided to have a go at reproducing them. Sliced about 2 mm thick on a mandoline, the end slices kept separate to grind or chop into straight up orange peel for cooking. Dried them first in the fridge and then in the sun (bless the desert climate). Yep, they're really good. Substitute: dried unsweetened orange peel 

Absinthe: I grabbed a mini of this brand a while ago to try it. Now I want to try this salmon again with St George absinthe to get a really regional flavour mix (or should that be flavor mix?) Substitute? IDK, let me know.

Tips:

• Take your time with the mixing to get a good paste that holds together. Aim for a pate-like texture. 
• Don't stint the butter - it's what preserves the fish. Use the best quality you can bear to buy - you'll really taste it. And what's the point in lashing out on salmon then economising on butter?
• If you plan to eat it all within a day or so, you should still mix in some butter to moisten, but you'll only need a cosmetic layer on top if any. Still refrigerate, and cover once it's cold. 
• If you didn't clarify the butter, make sure you don't get any of the white milk liquid/solids in the salmon - it will make it spoil faster. 
• If you've removed all the air and sealed each pot well with butter, it will keep for several weeks in the fridge. Make sure any garnishes are already dried (herbs, spices, etc.) so they won't spoil. 

To try next time:

• Different kinds of absinthe 
• Skinos Mastiha liqueur

After-dinner protein hit

Aka double chocolate mug cake. A few minutes, real food ingredients, gluten free, grain free, dairy free, low fodmap, over 15g of protein, can be low carb ... And so good.

2 mugs:

1/4 cup plantain flour or almond flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
Tiny bit of stevia powder, like 1/8 tsp

4T pure peanut or almond butter
2T maple syrup (or equivalent of erythritol + water)
1/3 cup water
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Optional:
1/4 cup chocolate chips, low carb if desired.
1 oz Chambord or orange liqueur

Warm the peanut butter, syrup and water, and whisk til smooth. Thoroughly mix in the eggs one by one, and the vanilla.

Mix the dry ingredients together, stir in the liquid until completely mixed. If using chocolate chips, stir them in.

Divide mixture between two oiled/sprayed coffee cups and microwave them together for about 1 1/2 minutes total. If using the liqueur, make a hole in the top of each cake with a teaspoon and pour in 1/2 oz. Eat immediately.