Most people don’t eat the skins of the feijoa, finding them too bitter, and it can seem quite wasteful tipping out all those shells that are left over once you’ve removed the white flesh. This looks like a fabulous way to use up the skins which are, as described in the article that precedes this recipe, “poached to tenderness in a spicy syrup [to] make a sweet-sour relish that is very good with meats.”
Like the frozen feijoa cream recipe that it references, this comes from a feature article about feijoas on BNET, a CBS Interactive website.
SPICED FEIJOA SHELLS
Ingredients
- 18 to 20 feijoas
- 2-2/3 cups sugar
- 2/3 cup water
- 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
- About 12 whole cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks, each 3 inches long
Method
- Rinse feijoas; cut out stems, blossom ends, and any blemishes and slice in half crosswise. With a small spoon, remove pulp, leaving about 1/4-inch shells. Use the pulp as you wish, but a good recipe to use up this amount of pulp is the frozen feijoa cream.
- In a 4- to 5-quart pan, combine the sugar, water, vinegar, cloves, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Add feijoa shells, gently pushing them into syrup. Cover pan; simmer until shells are very limp and shiny, 45 to 60 minutes; stir occasionally.
- Serve at room temperature or chilled. To store shells, keep covered in the refrigerator as long as 2 weeks. Makes about 1-1/2 quarts; allow 3 to 4 pieces per serving.
*1 quart equals 0.946 litres
FEIJOA FEIJOA 
Thanks for the recipe I never thought of them as shells but come to think of it its a good description. I just ended up making jelly with some green food die it was kapow! Next season I’ll make this…
Just made so delish wish i had known this recipe years ago. Thankyou.