Ingredients
2L glass jar, sterilised
Feijoa skins, washed, enough to fill your jar
4 Tbsp raw sugar
Water
Summary
Feijoa season is here!
This one’s for all the Kiwis and Kiwis-at-heart amongst us. If you’ve ordered feijoas with us or have a local garden glut on hand, try this quick homemade ferment – it’s fragrant, refreshing and makes great use of scooped-out skins. Totally delicious alone or add it to your favourite spritz.
Thanks to our own chef, Hemi, for sharing this CERES Merri Cafe favourite with us 🍾
Feijoa Fizz
*This recipe uses quantities for a 2L jar filled with feijoa skins. Halve if using 1L or adapt as needed!
Put washed feijoa skins into a 2L sterilised glass jar, and top with water until just covered. Add 4 tablespoons of sugar, secure the lid and give it a gentle shake to help dissolve.
Let jars sit for 4-5 days, until you can see gentle bubbles and movement forming in the jar. Strain to remove the skins.
Run the strained liquid through a fine sieve to remove impurities (or as Hemi says, “all the bits”), which allows for a brief second ferment period.
For this secondary ferment, put the strained liquid into a sealed vessel for another day or two, where it will develop a deeper flavour profile and capture the bubbles for a lovely fizz. Hemi has used glass swing top bottles here, but this part of the recipe comes with a warning and he advises plastic bottles are safest, especially for first time fizzers:
“This is quite an active ferment so the second stage ferment will need to be ‘burped’, which is essential to release the build up of gas and avoid an explosion or sweet fizz all over your floor – it is safest in plastic bottles which also allow you to see the pressure building before being released, but if you are comfortable with this process and keep a close eye on your fizz you could use glass. Just a day or two in this second stage, then you’ll have a beautiful fresh feijoa fizz that’s naturally carbonated and tastes superb.”
