Feijoa “Pineapple Guava” Curd

Our neighborhood is bursting with a bumper crop of feijoa, also commonly called “pineapple guava”.  Many Piedmont landscapes have multiple plantings of this evergreen shrub due to its hardiness, showy flowers throughout the spring, and finally the delicious fruit.

My neighbors have begun shying away from my repeated offers to share the bounty of our two bushes.  Ours are more like trees at this point.  One neighbor has two of his own, and those without are receiving plenty from us who do.  It’s similar to trying to give away zucchini in August!

I also see them at local farmers markets if you don’t happen to have a feijoa plant in your yard, or a neighbor with a surplus. (Check out that price – wowza!)

The plants, members of the myrtle family, are native to South America but clearly adaptable to our climate.  All parts of the fruit are edible, with ripe fruit being fairy sweet but the skin may be too tart for some palates. These may be new to you, so here’s additional information on the nutritional benefits of feijoas.

If you’ve been missing out on enjoying fresh feijoas, try them sliced into salads, salsas, drinks; plus cooked into jams, jellies, chutneys, and myriad desserts.  An apple-feijoa crisp was a recent hit at our table.

This feijoa curd, made pretty much like a basic lemon curd, has been slathered on morning toast and scones for the past few weeks.  Make extra and try it made into a unique and exotic tart (think lemon tart, but with feijoa).

Advance tips for making feijoa curd:

Make sure the pineapple guavas you’re using are ripe. They should be very fragrant and yield slightly when pressed.  Using under-ripe fruit will mean the resulting curd is less flavorful.  Learn from me – when I was too eager to make a batch with fruit that wasn’t ready, the curd was only “okay”, mostly just sweet without a lot of guava flavor.

Straining the curd before transferring it to storage jars is optional.  This provides for a smoother curd, slightly fancier, but you sacrifice both volume and bits of pineapple guava in the final result.  For me, I’d rather the extra flavor, even if the curd has some bits in it. And straining, even through a coarse sieve, is time-consuming.

Feijoa “Pineapple Guava” Curd

Makes about 2-1/2 cups

5 from 2 votes

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Ingredients

  

• 6 ripe feijoas about the size of an extra-large egg
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 6 large egg yolks
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces

Instructions

 

• Run a microplane kitchen tool across the skins of well-washed and dried feijoas to obtain 2 tablespoons of zest. Combine the zest and lemon juice in a shallow bowl.
• Cut the (now zested) fruit in half lengthwise and scoop out the pulp and soft flesh to obtain 1/2 cup then add to the lemon juice-zest mixture.
• Use the tines of a fork to mash the fruit with the lemon juice-zest mixture until the consistency of mashed bananas. Work quickly to minimize the fruit oxidizing/turning brown. The lemon juice will help delay the oxidation. The smoother this texture becomes, the smoother the resulting unstrained curd.
• Whisk together the lemon juice, zest, pulp, sugar and egg yolks in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Stir in the butter and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the curd is thick enough to hold marks of the whisk when stirred; and the mixture just barely begins to bubble. This should take about 5 – 8 minutes.
• Strain through a medium-meshed strainer if desired. Transfer the feijoa curd to a clean bowl. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.
• The curd can be stored in the refrigerator up to one week.