A midsummer night’s dream ft. Feijoa doughnuts
Chef Archana Kurup is an #EatNZKaitaki based out in Pukekohe, she runs 'Eat with Me', a home based catering business, where you can book private meals. She shares a recipe for feijoa doughnuts.
Imagine a beautiful summer evening, one long table set under the red beech tree in my garden, an array of delicious food, music, good company and conversation. I realized this dream when I started ‘the social table’ back in 2020. Since then I have had the pleasure of feeding many a happy guest. Sharing my cooking is my way of spreading joy. I strive to cook delicious food that showcases seasonality and the incredible produce we have in Aotearoa. I like to cook food that appears simple but has got layers of flavour, time and technique. Minimizing food waste is a big part of my ethos and I’d like to share 2 dishes from that night that reflect my ‘food philosophy’
My personal favourite dish of the night; sweet corn bread, prawn head bisque butter, guacamole.
When I was working in a restaurant in the city, we had loads of prawn heads that were going into the bin. This was such a terrible waste of delicious food that could and should be used. I froze the prawn heads and when I had collected enough turned them into a prawn head bisque. I then folded butter through the bisque and set it like a sheet. The fresh sweetcorn bread was topped with the bisque butter and warmed in the oven - the rich and luxurious butter seeps into the bread and is then topped with guacamole. To look at, just bread and guacamole but once you put it in your mouth, it all comes together.
The crowd favourite dish of the night; feijoa doughnuts, white chocolate, vanilla bean crème anglaise.
In 2019, during feijoa season we had an abundance of feijoas from our two trees. We had more than we could eat, sell and give away. We scooped out the pulp and froze it thinking that they needed a recipe to use them all up. When the pulp gets frozen, it does discolour but that does not affect the taste at all. The dish needed to not be affected by the appearance of the fruit. A few trials, some error and with thanks to Claire Aldous and ‘Dish Magazine’ for the inspiration behind this recipe. They are crunchy and soft, hot and cold, fragrant and with just the right amount of sweet. Even my partner who hates feijoas, loves these doughnuts.
Feijoa doughnuts
Ingredients
Feijoa pulp – 312 gms
Self-raising flour/ Gluten free flour – 312 gms
Baking powder – 2.5 gms
Caster sugar – 45 gms
Milk – 60 ml
Melted butter – 30 gms
METHOD
- Add all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
- Next, add all the wet ingredients and mix well.
- Set aside for an hour before ready to use.
- Turn on the deep fryer at 170c.
- Add a teaspoon full of batter at a time and fry for a couple of minutes.
- Drain and plate.
- Grate Whittakers white chocolate on top.
- Serve with vanilla bean cream anglaise (optional, but recommended)
NOTES
- Depending on whether the feijoa pulp is fresh or taken out of the freezer you may need to increase the quantity of milk in the recipe. Fresh may need more milk.
- If you really LOVE feijoas you can add up to 400 gms of feijoa pulp in the batter.
- Best eaten as soon as they are ready.
See more from Archana at @eat.with.me.nz