Feijoa jam: 10 recipes

Feijoa is a subtropical plant, the fruits of which are incredibly healthy, both raw and as part of a variety of dishes and preserves for the winter. Every autumn, feijoa, grown in the Caucasus and Krasnodar region, appears on store shelves, but so far they have not gained due popularity in the Russian cuisine. Meanwhile, they deserve it, so a jar of jam from feijoa is worth keeping in the fridge for anyone who wants to avoid seasonal illnesses.

What is Feijoa

The large green berries of feijoa are the fruits of the tree of the same name (its botanical name is Acca sellowiana). In the wild, it grows in the mountains of Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, in northern Argentina. But in the 1890-ies the tree was introduced into the Russian Empire, and miraculously took root in its southern regions. In Europe feijoa is cultivated in Spain, France and Sicily, in the USA - in the state of California. Large suppliers of these berries are Australia and India. In Russian stores, feijoa, grown in Georgia or Azerbaijan, is most often sold, less often in Crimea or Sochi.

These are juicy, dark green berries with sepals remaining on top. Most varieties have an elongated-oval shape, although rounded and cubariform varieties also occur. The weight of a single berry may be 15-60 g and they are usually 5 cm long, but sometimes larger specimens can be found. Clearly, for compote and jam it is better to take ripe berries, with transparent on the cut flesh, large size. The skin of ripe feijoa remains dark green, although there are varieties with yellowish tint. It can be smooth and bumpy, and have anthocyanin patina - all these variants of the norm.

The taste and aroma of this berry is hard to describe. The fact is that it resembles both pineapple, kiwi, and garden strawberry at the same time. That is, it is both sweet and fresh, and a little bit sour.

The benefits of feijoa jam for the body

The taste of feijoa is unusual, but pleasant. And most importantly - it is a real treasure trove of vitamins. And in raw form, the fruits of this plant are sold in stores and markets throughout the fall. At the same time feijoa, thanks to its low calorie content, is welcomed by nutritionists, and properly cooked of its jam will also be useful.

The fact is that feijoa contains a lot of iodine. According to this indicator, the berries are quite comparable to seafood. Since they are grown most often in coastal areas, the sea breezes bring with them an additional amount of volatile iodine. So such fruits have an increased value. Official medicine even recommends using these berries in some pathologies of the thyroid gland, for example, hypothyroidism. Iodine is needed to produce thyroxine and other thyroid hormones. Even a healthy person needs it to regulate metabolism. Iodine deficiency leads to chronic fatigue and depression. Children need it for normal mental development.

However, prolonged heat treatment destroys most of the iodine. It retains only the so-called "live" jam, the recipe for which will be discussed below.

The useful properties of feijoa jam are also due to other substances present in these fruits. These include malic acid, pectins (they normalize digestion and help eliminate toxins), as well as B vitamins, including folic acid - they are necessary for both metabolism and normal functioning of the nervous system. The berries are also good for their high ascorbic acid content: there is almost as much vitamin C in feijoa as there is in tangerines. And this is another reason why "live" jam, which has not been thermally processed, is healthier than classic jam.

Finally, feijoa jam contains vitamin P. It not only lowers blood pressure, but generally improves the condition of the vascular walls. The astringent flavor of berries and jam from them give the antioxidant polyphenols contained in the skin. These are mainly tannins and catechins, which are present, for example, in green tea. They have an anti-inflammatory effect, serve as protection against cancer and prevent premature aging. For this reason, when making jam, it is not recommended to get rid of the rind.

Thus, jam from feijoa fruits:

1. Has a tonic and restorative effect.
2. Serves as a prophylactic for cancer.
3. Enhances natural immunity.
4. Improves the state of blood vessels.
5. Provides normal kidney function and removes toxins from the body.
6. Prevents depression, relieves stress and chronic fatigue.
7. Has anti-inflammatory properties.
8. Normalizes metabolism and promotes weight loss.
9. It has an antibacterial effect (the substances contained in these berries have been proven to kill staphylococcus and E. coli).

Due to the unique chemical composition of berries, "live" jam is recommended for pregnant women to provide the body with all the useful substances and vitamins. It is also considered an excellent natural cure for atherosclerosis and arterial hypertension. Thanks to its antibacterial properties, it helps with pyelonephritis.

How to cook jam from feijoa: recipes

To make jam was tasty and useful, you need to choose high-quality feijoa fruits to begin with. As already mentioned, it is better to take large, carefully inspecting them, so that there were no cracks or dark spots on the skin. But also glossy skin should not be, it indicates that the fruit is not ripe (another sign of this - green stalk). Unfortunately, very often the berries that are sold in stores are just unripe. The fact is that it is difficult to transport berries, because when they are ripe they become soft.

By the way, this is another way to check their ripeness. Mature fruits are soft, if you gently squeeze them with your fingers, the flesh is well amenable to pressure. If it is hard and does not respond, then it is not ripe. There's nothing wrong with that; in domestic conditions, after a couple of days in a warm place, the berries will ripen.

A more reliable way to check is to evaluate the flesh on the cut. Mature berries have a transparent jelly-like flesh. Closer to the rind it remains more dense (by the way, in cosmetology it is used for scrubs and masks). At the same skin remains green, its color does not tell anything about the ripeness. Unripe berries are distinguished by greenish or milky-white flesh. If it has a brownish color, it means the berries are overripe. They should not be eaten as they can cause diarrhoea. They are not suitable for jamming for the same reason. However, you can get juice from them, which is used in cosmetology.

"Live" jam

"Live" jam, which does not undergo heat treatment, is considered the most useful. To make it, you need berries mixed with sugar in equal proportions. If you like a sour taste, you can take 0.7 kg of sugar per 1 kg of feijoa, that is 30% less.

The fruits should be washed, get rid of the tops and stalks. Then the berries should be passed through a meat grinder or shredded in a blender, so they do not oxidize from contact with metal, add lemon. After that, they should be filled with sugar, stirred until it dissolves and placed in sterile jars, tightly closed with a plastic lid.

There are many recipes for making "live" jam from feijoa, which does not require heat treatment. Here are just a few of them:

1. Feijoa jam with walnuts. For 1 kg of berries take the same amount of sugar, one lemon, walnuts - to taste. The berries are washed and scalded with freshly boiled water, then chopped in a blender right along with the skin and mixed with sugar and chopped nuts and lemon. The sugar in the recipe can be replaced by honey.
2. Feijoa jam with ginger and lemon. For 500 g of berries take the same amount of sugar, 1 lemon, 3 tablespoons of grated ginger root. The berries are washed, dried, cut off the stalks, then ground in a blender with the ginger and sugar. After that it can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 months. There is a second option - after grinding in a blender mass put in a saucepan, add 0.5 cup water, boiled for 10-15 minutes and closed in sterile jars. Such jam can be stored until the end of winter, and it is not even necessary to keep in the refrigerator.
3. Jam from feijoa and apples. For 1 kg of feijoa take the same amount of apples, 1 kg of sugar and 1 lemon (so that the fruit and berries do not darken). Apples and feijoa are washed, and the skin is not necessary to remove. Sliced apples, remove the seeds, remove the berries from the tops and stalks, and coarsely chop. Lemon can be cut into slices and pips removed. All ingredients are ground in a blender and mixed with sugar, and then placed in containers.
4. Jam from feijoa, kiwi, orange and grapes. For 300 g of feijoa berries take two kiwi fruit, one orange, 100 g of grapes, one lemon zest. Sugar is added to taste taking into account that grapes contain a lot of glucose. The fruit should be washed and peeled. To have less trouble with the kiwi, you can cut it into halves and take out the pulp with a spoon. The orange is divided into slices and remove the pips. All of the above ingredients, except grapes, pass through a meat grinder or whip in a blender. The grapes are left whole. They are added to the mass together with sugar, thoroughly mixed and then the dessert is placed in jars. It can be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks, and thanks to the lemon zest it will not lose its beautiful hue.

Feijoa can also be combined with other fruits and nuts (for example, hazelnuts or almonds). The only exception is peanuts.

Very well these berries are combined with nectarines. Some hostesses cook feijoa and with plums. But with strawberries feijoa also do not boil, although there are recipes for infusions based on these two berries. The fact is that such jam oxidizes at an accelerated rate and darkens very quickly. You can add less sugar to the recipe, then the dessert will be sour. You can regulate its sweetness with honey and cinnamon. Of spices, sometimes vanilla is also added to the jam.

Feijoa and cranberry jam
A very beautiful color is obtained in feijoa and cranberry jam - thanks to the acid contained in the berries, the product does not lose its noble dark red hue. For 1 kg of feijoa you need to take 0.5 kg of cranberries and 1 kg of sugar (if the berries will be too sour, you can add honey). All this is whipped in a blender until homogeneous. Then the jam is poured into jars and covered with a lid. Cranberries contain components, thanks to which such a composition itself a little thickens and gelled (as in the case of red currants), so it is not necessary to boil it, it can get too dense consistency. In addition, cranberries contain a lot of vitamin C, which can be destroyed by heat treatment.

Classic Recipes

You can also prepare jam according to the classic scheme, involving heat treatment of the product. It contains fewer useful substances, and quite a lot of sugar is added to it, but a certain benefit to health even such a product. For example, experienced cooks recommend the following varieties of this dessert:

1. Classic jam from feijoa. For this take berries and sugar in the ratio of 1:1. The fruits are washed, dried and crushed, but the skin is not removed. Pour sugar over the chopped berries, add 0.5 cup water, stirring, bring to a boil, then cook over low heat for 5-7 minutes. After this, give the jam cool, once again bring to a boil and cool. Finally, the finished product is poured into pre-steamed jars and sealed tightly with lids.
2. Jam from whole feijoa. For this you need 0.5 kg. berries, a cup of sugar, 1 tbsp. brandy and 0.5 l. water. The preparation of this jam is quite simple, the whole procedure takes about an hour. At the same time, the whole fruits look more beautiful, and the sugar content is reduced in this recipe. The berries are washed, cut off the skin to remove the sourness (but it is not thrown away). The peeled fruits are kept in water acidified with lemon juice. In a bowl with a sufficiently thick bottom, dilute the specified amount of sugar, adding 3 tablespoons of water. This mixture is brought to a boil, and kept on low heat until the syrup turns black. Then gently pour 0.5 liters of boiling water, add cut skin feijoa, cook together for 8 minutes and strain. In filtered syrup add fruits of feijoa, then bring it to a boil and leave over low heat for 40 minutes. A couple of minutes before it is ready, add brandy or brandy and stir. After that, the jam can be poured into pre-prepared jars.
3. Caramel jam with feijoa and ginger. For 0.5 kg of berries take a glass of sugar, 0.5 l of water, 1 tbsp. ginger powder or 2 tbsp. grated ginger root (it gives less concentrated taste), 1 tbsp. cognac. In general, the cooking process will be the same as in the above recipe. Only in this case, the ginger is added simultaneously with the feijoa fruit, brought to a boil and boiled for 40 minutes.
4. Feijoa and pear jam with the addition of nutmeg wine. The pear makes this dessert more delicate, and the wine brings out the flavor of the fruit. To make the jam you will need 0.5 kg of feijoa, two pears of any kind, a cup of sugar, 50 ml of white semi-sweet nutmeg. The berries should be washed, gently dried, cut off the top of them with sepals, but do not clean. Then the feijoa is crushed in a blender and the resulting puree is transferred to a pre-prepared container. The pears are skinned and cleaned of seeds, the flesh is cut into cubes and added to the mashed feijoa. Then pour the fruit with nutmeg, stir it thoroughly, bring to a boil and leave on low heat for another 15 minutes. All this time the mass is stirred so that it does not stick. Then remove the container from the fire, pour the sugar and leave for a few minutes until it melts. Then put the container back on the fire and cook for another 10-15 minutes, remembering to stir. After that, pour the jam in jars and close the usual way.

The advantage of feijoa is that it can be combined with almost any fruit and berries. This allows you to preserve the fresh taste and make the hue of the jam more pleasant.

Feijoa confit

For example, you can make confit from feijoa, melon and peaches. This is essentially a type of jam that is made by boiling berries and fruit in sugar syrup to get a jelly-like mass in the end. This allows you to soften the pungent or unusual taste of the fruit somewhat, so it's a great option for feijoa. Plus, in this case, you won't even need to boil the fruit.

To make the confit, take 250 grams each of feijoa, peaches, melon, 350 grams of sugar, 3.5 tbsp. spoonfuls of gelatin (already prepared), fresh orange peel, a couple of cloves. The melon is cleaned of seeds, having previously cut off its peel. Peaches should be blanched by removing the skin and cutting into thin slices. But it all depends on the type of peaches. In some cases it is enough to simply rub their surface under cold water to remove the fluff. Feijoa is sliced, the skin can not be removed. All sliced fruit is mixed with sugar, add gelatin, cover with a lid and put in the refrigerator overnight, so that after the juice secretion to get a jelly-like mass. In the orange peel poke a clove, boil for 3-4 minutes, cool, add to a container with confit for flavor.

How to store jam from feijoa

In its raw form, feijoa is stored very short. The maximum storage time is 2-5 days at room temperature. However, it can safely keep in the refrigerator for a month. The same applies to "live" jam made of berries grinded with sugar. However, if lemon and ginger are added to it, it does not darken, and the substances included in such additives allow you to store jam longer - 2-3 months. The darkening of jam, by the way, does not indicate that it has gone bad. This is just a result of the fact that the pulp contains the aforementioned useful substances - antioxidants or groups of polyphenols. Their oxidation occurs in an alkaline environment or under the influence of air. This is why it is recommended to cover jars with an airtight lid. In addition, the presence of lemon juice interferes with the oxidation process. But freezing berries grated with sugar is not recommended. Freezing will also destroy some of the useful substances.

Classic jam from feijoa, which was brought to a boil, can be stored for one year, without placing the jars in the refrigerator. But this requires that all the rules be followed:

1. Pour the jam exclusively in hermetically sealed glass jars. The optimal volume is 0.5 liters, so that they do not stand open for too long.
2. Before pouring jam, jars should be sterilized. This is done in water or steam, it does not matter.
3. In no case, you can not pour the finished jam ("live" or classic) in a wet container. You need to first turn the jar upside down on a paper napkin and wait until it dries completely. To save time, you can dry the jars in the oven at a minimum temperature.
4. Lids should be taken intact, without damage, with a uniform coating. The best - if there will be a layer of polymer on the metal (so-called "white" lids - they do not oxidize).
5. For live jam, which is stored for a relatively short time, you can take polymer lids. But it is recommended to cover the neck of the jar with parchment paper folded several times.
6. The more sugar - the more lemon juice is needed, this will prevent mold in the jars. And the thicker the product, the better, because the risk of spoilage is reduced.

It is not necessary to store jam, which has been heat-treated, in the refrigerator. But it is still desirable to find a cool place for it. Ideally, you need a specially equipped pantry or cabinets on an unheated balcony. In this case, you need to avoid direct sunlight on the jars, jam under their action will oxidize and deteriorate faster. In a private house, jam from feijoa is not recommended to put in the cellar, because because of the low temperature it can disappear, and at a sudden cold snap the jar simply "breaks".

Jam that has been heat-treated can be stored for at least a year. Some cooks believe that it can last even a few years, because feijoa has no pips like, say, cherries, which would contain a large amount of poisonous hydrocyanic acid. And if feijoa is cooked with apples, peaches or apricots, it is recommended to take the pips out of them. But still it is better not to risk: a year is the optimal period.

Interesting facts about feijoa

Europeans learned about the existence of feijoa only in 1815. It was discovered by the German biologist Friedrich Sellow during his expedition to the jungles of Brazil. However, the plant is not named after him, but after the naturalist Joao de Silva Feijo, who, however, also contributed to the exploration of Brazil. An even more interesting fact is that the naturalist himself was named Barbosa and took his pseudonym after the philosopher Feijo y Montenegro, who was popular in his youth. Such a complicated story it turned out.

What else interesting things can be said about feijoa? For example, cite the following facts:

1. This plant blooms very beautiful white flowers with a whole firework of red stamens. In the wild, it is pollinated by tiny hummingbirds. Well, for the garden variety of feijoa, the only option left is with bees.
2. The petals of feijoa flowers are also considered edible, they have a sweet taste. They are either added to fruit salads or dried and made into tea.
3. Europeans remind Europeans of strawberries and Latin Americans of guavas, in these countries the berries are often referred to as pineapple guavas.
4. In Europe, feijoa began to be grown in France in the 1890s, with the easy hand of the French botanist Edouard André.
5. In New Zealand, feijoa has caught on well from the beginning. Today here they get record harvests of this berry. So the country has come up with many ways to process it. Feijoa is added to various fruit soft drinks, made into wine and cider, used to make jam and "live" jam, used as a filling for pies, even used to make ice cream and yogurt. But a special success is the local vodka, in which in addition to feijoa, such exotic ingredients such as passion fruit, kiwi and tea tree honey are added.
6. Peeling ripe feijoa fruits is quite difficult. Their flesh is tender, but the skin is tough and can sometimes spoil the taste with its acidity. If the fruits are large, they are simply cut in half, and then take out the pulp with a teaspoon. If you get the hang of it, you can just break the berries apart and squeeze the contents of the halves right into your mouth.
7. In some countries, feijoa is dried by slicing into circles. They can then be consumed with other dried fruits, they are also brewed as a tea, as well as the peel. They are also used to make compotes.

It is also interesting that in Russian the word "feijoa" is feminine (because it is a berry, like strawberries, raspberries or blueberries) and is considered an indeclinable noun. But an adjective is not formed from it, no matter how many jokers exercise in wit.