We had some lovely home-smoked trout left over from Reiver's birthday and he suggested that it might go well in a soup.

I've made fish chowder plenty of times before, but never with smoked fish. So I went looking for something that was tailored to smoked fish specifically. I found this one on the Food & Wine website. I will admit that I tweaked it slightly, but only slightly. I omitted the water called for. Used a regular commercial chicken broth (rather than low-sodium), but then omitted the salt. Halved the thyme. And, after tasting it at the end of cooking, decided to add in some corn and grated carrot as it seemed like it needed some more veg to balance it out and I usually put those in my chowders anyway.

Photo goes here.

Smoked Trout Chowder

Slightly adapted from Food & Wine

Ingredients

• 1-2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 3-6 green onions, greens and whites kept separate and chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 450g potatoes, cut into 1cm dice
• 1/4 c. dry white wine
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 c. frozen corn kernels
• 1-2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 1 c. half-and-half (10% MF)
• 2 fillets smoked trout, skin removed and flesh flaked

Directions

1. Melt the butter over medium-low heat.
2. Add the celery, white parts of the green onions, and garlic and cook until softened (5-10 minutes).
3. Add the potatoes, wine, chicken stock, thyme, bay leaf, and pepper.
4. Increase heat to medium-high, bring to a boil, then reduce to medium and cook until potatoes are just tender (~15 minutes).
5. Stir in the corn and carrots.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir in the cream.
7. Cook for a few minutes, then stir in the trout.
8. Serve with crusty bread.

I decided to try another feijoa bread recipe. The first one was good as a fairly basic, neutral loaf. Not too sweet. Not too rich. Pleasingly straight-forward and simple to put together.

This one is a bit richer and a bit fancier. I mean, still nothing ludicrous, but it definitely feels a little bit more special than the previous one. Something you wouldn't mind serving as dessert (and would possibly feel at least slightly guilty serving for breakfast -- despite the name). We all quite liked this one!

Photo goes here.

Feijoa and Cinnamon Breakfast Bread

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 115g butter, softened
• 100g brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 400g feijoa pulp, mashed
• 1 large banana, mashed
• 1/3 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 125g whole wheat flour
• 125g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans
• 4-5 small feijoas, halved and scooped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a large (23x13cm/9x5") loaf pan.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar until light.
3. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
4. Mix in feijoa, banana, yogurt, and vanilla.
5. Add the flours and cinnamon, then sift in the baking soda on top.
6. Once all the dry ingredients have been added, stir to combine.
7. Stir in the pecans until just mixed.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, decorate with feijoa halves (and a little extra cinnamon, if desired), and bake at 180°C (350°F) until toothpick comes out nearly clean (~1 hour).
9. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

I think there are going to be a lot of feijoa recipes on the blog for the next few weeks!

We spent the day out in Te Awamutu today, so I didn't have much time for baking. But I did at least manage to get a feijoa loaf done before we left.

This is a relatively plain one, but that's not a bad thing here. I like that it's just feijoas. Without any other fruit, no butter or oil, and not too much sugar either. I made it with a mix of plain and whole wheat flour this time, but I think it would also be good done as a 100% whole wheat loaf.

Recipe as written, this only makes a fairly small loaf. I think the pan I used was ~18x8cm (7x3"). And the loaf just filled the pan nicely once it baked up. So, if you're happy with a pint-sized loaf, then this is perfect. I would recommend doubling the recipe for a 23x13 (9x5") pan however.

Feijoa Loaf

Slightly adapted from My Kids Lick the Bowl

Ingredients

• 225g whole wheat flour
• 60g ground almonds (almond flour/meal)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 60-90g brown sugar
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 250g feijoa pulp, mashed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a small loaf tin.
2. Combine the flour and almonds and sift in the baking powder.
3. Add the sugar and mix well.
4. Beat the egg with the milk and vanilla.
5. Add the wet ingredients and the feijoa pulp to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until done (~45 minutes).
8. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

This was meant to be a kale gratin. But Reiver has a bunch of silverbeet (Swiss chard) planted out back, so we made it with that instead. Either one will work fine. I would normally default to kale because I like it better and am thus more likely to have it on hand, but I actually quite liked the silverbeet here!

Photo goes here.

Silverbeet Gratin

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 500g silverbeet (or kale), chopped
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. water
• 3/4 c. fresh breadcrumbs (preferably whole wheat)
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Heat 1 Tbsp. of the oil over medium heat.
3. Add the kale, salt, and water.
4. Cover and cook until wilted.
5. Transfer to shallow gratin dish.
6. Combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and remaining 1/2 Tbsp. of oil and toss to combine.
7. Top the kale with the breadcrumb mixture.
8. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15 minutes.

Pullum Parthicum (Parthian Chicken)

I quite enjoy a bit of historical cooking. Cooking in the Archives has been a lot of fun (even if I don't always agree with their interpretations). And I've quite liked some of the recipes from Shakespeare's Kitchen and Townsends as well.

Reiver was actually the one who originally put me onto Townsends. And now he's shared a few more of his favourite cooking channels. One of which is Max Miller's Tasting History. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of the videos I've watched on his channel, but Reiver has his cookbook and had pointed out that we had all the bits for this chicken recipe. And, unlike some of his other recipes, he actually seems to have a reasonable source for this one and hasn't been overly... "creative" in his interpretation of it.

This was quite a surprising recipe. It honestly didn't really grab me at first. It looked unusual, but not that exciting. But, I have to say, this turned out very nice in the end! I don't think it was quite a favourite for me, but it was nice.

I never would have thought of combining red wine and fish sauce, but the combination works surprisingly well! And the caraway, black pepper, celery, and asafetida is a somewhat bewildering -- but not unpleasant -- way to complete the flavours.

I think I might put somewhat less wine next time. I do feel like using a full cup was a bit heavy-handed and possibly excessive for a recipe that calls for "seasoning" with wine. But otherwise, I really can't complain or suggest any changes or alterations. This was actually quite lovely!

We served our Parthian chicken over a bit of saffron rice with a slice of buttered rye bread and some silverbeet gratin on the side. This turns out to have been an excellent (and fairly thematically appropriate) combination. Would definitely recommend!

Parthian Chicken: Open the chicken and quarter. Pound pepper, lovage, a little caraway, moisten with garum, season with wine. Arrange the chicken in an earthen dish and put the seasoning on top. Dissolve silpuium in warm water, and put it with the chicken and cook. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.
-- Apicus, De re coquinaria

Pullum Parthicum

Slightly adapted from Tasting History by Max Miller

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (~1.5kg)¹
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lovage or 1/4 c. celery leaves²
• 1/2 Tbsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. caraway seeds, ground
• 1/2-3/4 c. dry red wine
• 3/4 tsp. ground asafetida
• 1/4 c. warm water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
2. Quarter the chicken and place the pieces, skin-side-up, in a baking dish.
3. Combine the fish sauce, lovage (or celery), pepper, and caraway and mix well.
4. Stir in the wine.
5. Pour this mixture over the chicken. Try to distribute the spices as evenly as possible and press them into the chicken skin a little.
6. Stir the asafetia into the water and pour it over the chicken as well.
7. Roast at 230°C (450°F) until chicken is cooked through and meat registers ~74°C/165°F (~45 minutes).
8. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes.
9. Serve drizzled with the sauce and extra black pepper.

---

¹ Honestly, any skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces should work reasonably well for this. I actually ended up using a bunch of thighs for my rendition. ^Back
2 I used both the leaves and the ribs of the celery for my rendition and liked that quite a lot. I only used one rib this time around, but Reiver and I agreed that a bit more would have been even better. Personally, I would recommend 1/4 c. of leaves + 2 ribs of celery if going that route. ^Back

Feijoa season is in full swing and, in addition to just snacking on them daily, I've been trying to use some of them up in baking as well.

I've already made two huge apple-feijoa crumbles. They're great as a quick and easy dessert to use up large quantities of feijoa pulp. But I also didn't want to end up just making crumbles forever. So I went poking around the Internet looking for other recipe ideas. And boy-oh-boy, do I have a lot now! It was hard to decide where to start!

In the end, I opted for a feijoa custard tart. Mostly because Reiver really likes custard, so I figured that might be an agreeable way to use up a few feijoas.

The custard recipe called for egg yolks. I was going to just swap out the yolks for whole eggs, soas not to end up with surplus whites kicking around. But then I saw the note at the bottom suggesting that you use the surplus whites to make these chocloate-feijoa friands.

So, on the one hand, that meant committing to making two desserts tonight. But, on the other hand, it would neatly use up all of the eggs and let me use even more feijoas! And neither recipe looked terribly difficult or complicated to put together, so I figured I'd just go for it and make both of 'em.

I haven't had a chance to try the pie yet, but these friands were incredible! I wasn't entirely sold on chocolate friands. Classic friands are so good as is, I felt like adding chocolate and fruit could only possibly detract from them. But this combination really works! It's definitely quite different from a standard friand, but, I would argue, equally as good.

Chocolate-Feijoa Friands

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 5 large egg whites
• 120g ground almonds (almond flour/meal)
• 195g icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1/2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) or gluten-free flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 200g butter, melted
• 9 small feijoas, halved and scooped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and grease a muffin tin (or two)¹.
2. Beat the egg whites slightly to break them up. (No need to beat until stiff; slightly foamy is fine.)
3. In a separate bowl, combine the almonds, sugar, and flour.
4. Sift in the cocoa and baking powder and mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the egg whites and stir to mix.
6. Pour in the melted butter and stir until just combined.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Don't fill them too full; ~2/3 full is plenty!
8. Press a feijoa half into the top of each friand.
9. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 20-25 minutes.
10. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.

---

¹ The recipe claims that this makes 12 friands, but I actually got 18 using standard 5-cm diameter muffin tins. Obviously the exact number you get will depend on the size of your tins and how full you fill them. I felt like 18 was pretty much perfect though. ^Back

I've been continuing to try to work my way through the ridiculous quantity of feijoas that we've suddenly come into. So far I've made two apple-feijoa crumbles, a batch of chocolate-feijoa friands, and a feijoa custard tart. I have a bunch of other feijao recipes queued up as well. But, for today, I decided to give this chutney a try.

It was certainly... interesting.

Recipe as written called for a truly terrifying amount of both vinegar and sugar. I tried it with half the amount of vinegar and no sugar at first. But it tasted a little flat, so I decided to add some of the sugar called for in the recipe and adjust from there.

I actually started with only 1/3 the quantity of sugar called for. I felt like that was being quite conservative. But, having tasted it, I think it probably could have done with even less. I'd probably cut the sugar back to just 50g (1/6 the amount called for in the original recipe) next time.

I also added a few more seasonings after tasting it several times. I think the seasonings helped. A lot. But, I have to admit, this is still not an amazing recipe. It's fine. It's not bad. It's just not great either. All-in-all, I think I'd rather do other things with my feijoas.

Feijoa Chutney

Adapted from RNZ

Ingredients

• 1kg feijoa pulp
• 500g onions
• 300g dates
• 200g raisins
• 400-500mL malt vinegar¹
• 1/4 c. tomato paste
• 50g brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. curry powder
• 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 2 tsp. Maggi liquid seasoning
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cayenne

Directions

1. Purée the feijoas with the onions, dates, raisins, and vinegar (or blitz in a food processor).
2. Stir in the tomato paste, sugar, curry powder, ginger, garlic, Maggi seasoning, soy sauce, salt, and cayenne and bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. Reduce heat to low and continue to simmer, stirring often, until mixutre is heated through and desired conistency is achieved.
4. Adjust seasoning to taste.

---

¹ The original recipe called for a whopping 1L of vinegar. I cut this back to 500mL in my rendition. That said, I think it probably could have stood to have been cut back even further. I might try it with just 400mL next time. This would make the vinegar a little less overpowering and hopefully make the chutney a little thicker as well. ^Back

Definitely not for the faint of heart when it comes to sweets! These are sugar bombs. No doubt about it. But they are also a Canadian classic. I like them with pecans in as I find the nuts attenuate the sweetness somewhat. Or, for a less traditional (but no less delicious) option, try adding a little dessicated coconut!

Maple Butter Tarts

Slightly adapted from Fed by Sab

Ingredients

• 1 recipe sourdough pastry
• 1/4 c. butter
• 1/4 c. maple syrup
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• inclusions: pecans, dessicated coconut, dried apple, raisins, etc. (optional)

Directions

1. Make your pastry, wrap, and chill for 20-30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
3. Remove the pastry from the fridge and allow to rest at room temperature while you prepare the filling.
4. Melt the butter over medium-low heat.
5. Remove from heat and add the maple syrup and the brown sugar.
6. Add the eggs and mix very well.
7. Roll out the pastry and cut circles to fit the wells of a muffin tin.
8. Press the pastry rounds into the wells of the muffin tin.
9. If you are adding inclusions, place them in the tart shells now.
10. Spoon a little filling into each tart shell. Be careful not to overfill! Half-full is plenty. The pastry will likely subside slightly and the filling will bubble up as it cooks. If it overflows, it will be very difficult to get the tarts out of the tin.
11. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-25 minutes.