Apple-feijoa crumble and feijoa jam seem to be the two most popular ways to use up feijoas. That said, I've alredy done a couple of crumbles at this point, so I've been looking around for other feijoa recipes. There are lots of interesting options, but I settled on this feijoa custard tart to start with, both because it looked fairly easy to make and because Reiver loves custard.

I'm pretty happy with how this one came out! The custard set up nicely and the crushed gingernuts and whipped cream make a nice complement without overpowering the fruit.

I have scaled the recipe up slightly from the original because the pie plate that Reiver has is quite large, so I felt that it might want a bit of extra filling. I used an extra 1/4 c. of milk, one additional egg yolk, an extra teaspoon of cornstarch, and one more feijoa. This just filled the pie nicely. (Plus, the extra egg yolk meant that I had the right number of whites left over to make friands!) If you have a particularly large or small pie plate, you may wish to scale the recipe up or down somewhat.

Feijoa Custard Tart

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 1 recipe sourdough pastry¹
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/2 c. milk
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 7-8 feijoas, halved (and sliced if large)
• whipped cream, to serve
• crushed gingernuts, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Roll out your pastry and use it to line your pie plate.
3. Trim and crimp the edges.
4. Prick with a fork, line with baking paper, and fill with pie weights (baking beans).
5. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for ~15 minutes.
6. Remove the baking paper and pie weights and bake for another 5 minutes to dry out the bottom.
7. Meanwhile, heat the milk and cream until steaming and just beginning to tremble.
8. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla until pale.
9. Slowly pour the hot cream mixture into the eggs while wisking.
10. Pour the custard into the par-baked pie shell.
11. Arrange the feijoa slices in the custard.
12. Reduce oven temperature to 160°C (325°F) and bake until custard is just set (~50 minutes).
13. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
14. Cover and chill for ~1 hour.
15. Serve garnished with crushed gingernuts and whipped cream.

---

¹ The original recipe calls for a sweet shortcrust pastry, which, to be fair, I'm sure would have been lovely here. But I also don't really feel like a sweet shortcrust is necessary most of the time. And I love my sourdough pastry so much that I will happily substitute it for most other varieties of shortcrust. Personally, I think it worked quite well here! ^Back

It's feijoa season!

I'd never even heard of feijoas before coming to New Zealand. But they're apparently a big thing here. They're originally from South America and the fruit are quite prolific. Unfortunately, they don't keep or ship very well at all, but the trees grow quite well here. So, once the season rolls around, you start seeing them everywhere!

I tried a few fresh and they were quite good. But we've now got a glut of fruit. More than I'll be able to eat before they go off. So Reiver suggested an apple-feijoa crumble as a way to use up some of the excess fruit on hand. Especially since we also had some apples that needed to be used up as well.

He couldn't find his usual crumble recipe, so I just used the one from the Countdown website. I scaled back the sugar somewhat and slightly increased the proportion of apples. I think I ended up doing 1 1/2 c. of feijoa pulp and 4 small apples with 3 Tbsp. of sugar in the filling and 2/3 c. in the topping. And, while I'm happy with the results, I think that even more fruit and less sugar would have been better. The write-up below reflects this.

Photo goes here.

Apple-Feijoa Crumble

Adapted from Woolworths/Countdown

Ingredients

Topping

• 1 c. rolled (old-fashioned/whole grain) oats
• 1 c. plain or all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 120g salted butter, melted

Filling

• 2 c. feijoa pulp
• 5-6 apples, peeled and sliced
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine oats, flour, coconut (if using), cinnamon, and ginger and mix well.
3. Add brown sugar and stir to combine.
4. Pour in butter and mix well. Set aside.
5. Combine the feijoas, apples, sugar, and lemon juice and mix well.
6. Dump the fruit mixture into a 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish and spread into an even layer.
7. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit to cover the entire surface.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~25 minutes.
9. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving.
10. Serve with cream, whipped cream, or ice cream.

So, I found this recipe on the Internet. It claimed to be a 2-ingredient chocolate cake ready in the microwave in 90 seconds. I was dubious, but decided to give it a try anyway.

Unfortunately, recipe as written, it didn't really work.
Four tablespoons of Milo mixed with a tablespoon of milk just produces a thin layer of chocolate cement at the bottom of the mug when microwaved. It's not inedible, but it's not very good either.

For attempt #2, I doubled the recipe -- 1/2 c. of Milo and 2 Tbsp. of milk -- and also added 1/4 tsp. of baking powder because it seemed like it really wanted some leavener. I gave that 2 minutes in the microwave (checking it every 30 seconds or so) and that seemed to work much better!

Don't get me wrong, it's still not great, but it's a marked improvement over version 1. And not the worst thing in the world if you're craving a quick chocolate fix.

Milo Mug Cake

Adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Milo
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. milk

Directions

1. Combine the Milo and baking powder in a mug.
2. Stir in the milk.
3. Microwave on high for 30 seconds.
4. Stir, then microwave for another 60-90 seconds, checking every 30 seconds or so.
5. Serve with fresh berries and/or ice cream.

Okay, so, I am apparently not entirely with it today and forgot the egg on my loco moco! Very sad. I mean, it was still tasty, but the egg is a key component and, when the dish is this simple, it makes me extra sad to have left it out. Whoops! My apologies for the goof. Definitely fry up an egg and add it if you're making this dish for yourself.

We had some leftover burger patties sitting in the fridge, so I didn't make the patties from scratch for this one. Go ahead and make patties according to your preferred recipe if you're doing this from scratch. But, otherwise, whatever you've got is fine. You'll miss out on some of the pan juices by cooking the burgers separately/ahead of time, but other than that, it's really not a problem.

Loco Moco

Slightly adapted from Ono Hawaii Recipes

Ingredients

• 2-3 burger patties
• 2 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• handfull or two of sliced mushrooms (optional)
• 1 c. beef or chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. tomato sauce/ketchup
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2-3 eggs
• 1-1 1/2 c. cooked rice
• 1-2 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. If the burger patties are uncooked, fry them up in the pan first.
2. Once the patties are cooked through, remove from pan and set aside.
3. Melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter in the pan.
4. Add the onion and cook until softened.
5. Add the mushrooms (if using), cover, and cook until they release their liquid.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, for another 3-5 minutes.
7. Combine the stock, soy sauce, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and cornstarch and mix well.
8. Add it to the pan with the onion and cook until thickened.
9. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
10. Melt a little butter in a separate pan and fry the eggs until desired doneness.
11. Put ~1/2 c. of hot cooked rice in each bowl.
12. Top the rice with a burger patty and a generous quantity of the gravy and a fried egg.
13. Garnish with green onion and serve.

This worked out really well!

I'd never made a boiled pudding before. Or baked with suet. Lard, yes, but not suet. I'd used suet in cooking and making things like mincemeat. But I don't think I'd ever done a classic suet pudding before. So this was a bit of an experiment, but also a lot of fun.

I made this as a gluten-free, dairy-free clootie dumpling. I just used a commercial gluten-free flour mix and some rice-based GF breadcrumbs and then swapped in some oat milk for the cow's milk. The flour I used did have some vegetable gums added to try to compensate for the lack of gluten, but my dumpling was still somewhat lacking in structural integrity. I might try adding an extra egg next time, just to help bind it a little more. It was still delicious either way, it just didn't stay intact.

Clootie Dumpling

From BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 175g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 175g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 175g beef suet, grated/shredded
• 100g dark soft brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 100g currants
• 175g sultanas
• 2 tbsp black treacle or golden syrup
• 150mL milk
• 1 large egg

Directions

1. Boil a pudding cloth for 15-20 minutes, then wring it out and dust it liberally with flour.
2. Tip the breadcrumbs, flour, suet, sugar, salt, baking soda, spices, and dried fruit into a large bowl and stir to mix.
3. Whisk the treacle or syrup into the milk and egg using a fork until well blended.
4. Stir the mixture into the dry ingredients with a fork or butter knife to make a soft dough.
5. Use the floured pudding cloth to line a large bowl and then press the dough into it to make a large, round ball.
6. Dust the top of the pudding with more flour and then bring the edges of the cloth up around the top of the pudding and tie it off, leaving enough room for some expansion.
7. Fill a large pot with water, place an upturned plate in it, and bring to a simmer.
8. Place your cloth-wrapped pudding into the simmering water, cover, and cook for 3 hours.
9. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
10. Tip the pudding into a colander to drain, then carefully peel off the cloth.
11. Place the pudding on an ovenproof dish or baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes to dry it off and produce the classic skin.
12. Serve sliced with custard, cream, or ice cream—and a dram of whisky if you like.

---

Variations

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Version

Ingredients

• 175g gluten-free breadcrumbs¹
• 175g gluten-free flour, plus extra for dusting
• 175g beef suet, grated/shredded
• 100g dark soft brown sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 100g currants
• 175g sultanas
• 2 tbsp black treacle or golden syrup
• 150mL oat milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice)
• 1-2 large eggs

---

¹ As noted above, I used some dry, rice-based breadcumbs for my version in order to keep my dumpling gluten-free. This seemed to work fine. That said, I think I'd probably aim to get a loaf of GF bread next time and make my own fresh breadcrumbs. ^Back

Scottish food has the best names! Neeps (turnips), tatties (potatoes), clapshot (mashed neeps and tatties with chives), skirlie (suet-fried oats and onions)... the list goes on.

I was initially going to make some clapshot to go with the haggis, skirlie, and whiskey sauce for Reiver's birthday. But it ended up working out better to do a pot of plain mashed potatoes and then have the other veggies separate. At which point I figured it might be fun to just do up a few extra tatties, grab some cabbage, and turn it into rumbledethumps. (I mean, it's worth making for the name alone!)

Rumbledethumps

From BBC.co.uk

Ingredients

• 600g potatoes, peeled and cut into large pieces
• 400g turnips, peeled and cut into large pieces
• 75g butter, divided
• 250g cabbage (preferably savoy), sliced thin
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 25-50g cheddar cheese, grated

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 23cm (9") square baking dish or other large casserole dish.
2. Place the potatoes and turnips in a pot with enough water to cover them and bring to a boil.
3. Cook until tender, then drain and return to the pot.
4. Meanwhile, melt 50g of the butter over medium heat.
5. Add the cabbage to the butter and cook until tender.
6. Add the cabbage and the remaining 25g of butter to the pot with the tubers and mash.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Transfer the mash to the prepared baking dish and top with cheese.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F), covered, for 30 minutes.
10. Uncover and continue baking for another 15 minutes.

Skirlie is a simple dish of suet-fried onions and oats. It's somewhat similar to white pudding (without the casing), but has proportionally more oats and less suet. I'm also used to white/mealie pudding being quite heavily spiced. And, while skirlie can be spiced, it isn't necessarily prepared that way. For this version, I kept it very simple and only added salt and pepper.

Skirlie

Slightly adapted from Scottish Scran

Ingredients

• 120g suet, grated/shredded or 60g suet + 60g butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 340g steel-cut (pinhead) oats
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Heat the suet (or suet and butter) over medium heat.
2. Add the onions, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until onions are soft and beginning to brown (~10 minutes).
3. Add the oats, reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring frequently until oats have darkened and softened slightly (~20 minutes).
4. Serve with whiskey sauce and/or mashed potatoes.

In theory this was meant to be an udon dish, but I'm not crazy about udon, so I decided to try making it with fettuccine instead. I also added a whole bunch of extra veggies to the sauce, both because we had them and they needed to be used up and because I figured it would make it both tastier and healthier.

Photo goes here.

Korean-Style Curry Noodles

Adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 200-250g beef, cut into bite-sized pieces or sliced thin
• 1 carrot, halved and sliced
• 1-2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 tsp. gochugaru (Korean chile flakes)
• 55-65g S&B Golden Curry mix
• 1 c. milk
• 250g dry fettuccine (or other pasta)
• 200g broccoli florettes
• 200g cauliflower florettes
• 1 c. pasta cooking water
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium-low heat.
2. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion has softened and is just beginning to brown (~10 minutes).
3. Increase heat to medium, add the beef, and sear on all sides.
4. Add the carrot and butter and cook for another minute or two.
5. Add the gochugaru, curry mix, and milk.
6. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, while pasta boils.
7. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the fettuccine.
8. Cook the pasta for 3-4 minutes, then add the broccoli and cauliflower and continue cooking until vegetables are tender and pasta is al dente.
9. Reserve 1 c. of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta and veggies.
10. Add the noodles, veggies, and reserved pasta cooking water to the sauce and stir vigorously for a few seconds.
11. Once sauce thickens, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Yesterday was a weird day. We were all pretty tired. Reiver spent the day in the office (rather than working from home). I didn't get enough sleep, forgot my meds, and was pretty much a zombie for the whole day. And the Kidlet was still recovering from whatever NZ hell-virus she contracted here. So we were all a little out of it and ended up eating at somewhat weird times.

Since lunch was relatively late and large, none of us felt like a very big dinner. (The Kidlet didn't actually want any dinner.) And I wasn't really feeling energetic enough to make anything too substantial anyway. That said, I knew that I'd want something before bed. So I decided to throw together this quick tteokbokki recipe along with some Korean-style corn cheese as a light supper later in the evening. I think it worked quite well (if I do say so myself)!

Photo goes here.

Fried Tteokbokki

From Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. gochugaru (Korean chile pepper flakes)
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. corn syrup or honey
• 1/2 Tbsp. gochujang (Korean chile paste)
• 1/2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• black pepper, to taste
• 250g tteokbokki (Korean-style rice cakes)
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1-2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Combine gochugaru, sugar, corn syrup, gochujang, oyster sauce, garlic paste, and pepper and stir to combine.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the tteokbokki. Boil until just tender (but still a bit chewy).
3. Drain the tteokbokki and toss with the sauce and oil.
4. Heat a pan over medium-low heat and add the tteokbokki along with the sauce.
5. Pan-fry, stirring often, until sauce is a bit caramelized¹ and tteokbokki is cooked through.
6. Sprinkle with green onion and sesame seeds and serve.

---

¹ I didn't cook mine for long enough. The taste was still excellent, but it didn't get the crispy exterior that Claire raved about in the video. I was just too impatient to wait for the crust to develop. ^Back

It was my birthday yesterday. (I guess, technically, it's kind of still my birthday; it's still the 8th back in Ontario.)

Anyway, it was a pretty low-key birthday overall. Both because I didn't really want to do anything big for it and because the Kidlet had caught a cold and was feeling a bit under the weather. I did want to at least make a cake to mark the occasion though. And, after perusing the various recipes in my collection, I decided to hit up this one from my collection of recipes from the Something Awful CAKE thread.

It's a pretty simple, no-bake cheesecake recipe. Nothing too fancy. Just make the crust, beat together all the ingredients for the filling, pour it over, and chill until set. No fancy techniques or decorations. No icing. No layers. But that was honestly exactly the type of thing I wanted for the day. And, if I was going to do a cheesecake, how could I resist the Milo one? It was the perfect recipe to try out while I was here in New Zealand.

Not only is it a straight-forward, chilled cheesecake full of Milo. The crust is basically just a batch of chocolate crackles mushed into the bottom of a springform pan!

I mean, it's not quite exactly the recipe from Edmonds, but only because the author has you use real milk chocolate rather than getting you to make ersatz chocolate by combining shortening, icing sugar, and cocoa powder the way the Edmonds recipe does. Same idea though.

And, given that this recipe specifically calls for 250g of "good quality milk chocolate", Reiver pointed out that the author almost certainly had Whittaker's in mind. Since it's one of the only brands that still comes in 250g blocks. So, between that, and the Milo, and the inclusion of thickened cream, this does, indeed, feel like a very NZ recipe.

It is also, as it turns out, delicious! I liked this one a lot. It's easy to make, not too sweet, and nicely flavoured. The chocolate crackle crust comes out pretty firm, so it can be a bit challenging to get your fork through it, but it tastes lovely and adds an interesting texture to the base. Also, the fact that the crust is so sturdy makes it relatively easy to lift off the pan in one piece. I mean, it was a little tricky to get any implements under it initially. But once we managed to wedge the edge of a spoon under there, we were pretty much able to lever the whole thing up and slide it over onto a plate without any worries about the structural integrity. So that was handy!

I don't think this is my favourite cheesecake that I've ever made, but it is certainly a good one! I liked it a lot, I'm glad I tried it, and I would definitely make it again.

ETA: Now that I've clicked through to the link provided in the original post, I see that this was presented as an Australian recipe, not a NZ one. Oh well... I still think it was very approparite to NZ, so no complaints here.

Milo Cheesecake

From Raspberri Cupcakes via the Something Awful forums

Ingredients

Crust

• 250g milk chocolate (preferably Whittaker's)
• 1/3 c. dessicated coconut
• 2 c. Rice Krispies

Filling

• 300mL thickened cream or heavy (35%) cream
• 340g cream cheese, softened
• 75g sugar
• 4 tsp. unflavoured gelatine
• 3 Tbsp. cold water
• 200mL milk
• 1 1/2 c. Milo (plus extra to decorate)

Directions

1. Lightly oil a 20cm (8") springform pan.¹
2. Melt the chocolate over low heat.
3. Mix in the coconut, then stir in the Rice Krispies.
4. Once everything is well-mixed, press the chocolate mixture into the bottom of the springform pan in an even layer.
5. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Set aside.
7. In a clean bowl, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
8. Beat in the sugar until well-combined.
9. In a small bowl, combine the gelatine with the water and set aside.
10. Heat the milk over medium heat until just boiling.
11. Remove milk from heat and mix in the Milo.
12. Add the softened gelatine to the Milo mixture and stir until smooth and well-mixed.
13. Add the Milo mixture to the cream cheese mixture and beat until evenly mixed.
14. Fold in the whipped cream.
15. Pour the filling over the crust.
16. Chill for at least 3 hours.
17. Run a hot knife around the edge of the pan and pop off the sides.
18. Carefully lift the cake off the base and transfer to a serving platter.
19. Sprinkle with additional Milo and serve.

---

¹ I ended up using a 24cm (~9") springform pan for my rendition of this cake. Obviously this resulted in a wider, but shorter cake, but it was fine. The crust was still thick enough and everything seemed to work out fine. That said, if you'd like a taller cake, the smaller pan is definitely the way to go. ^Back