Feijoa zest meringues

In this post I mentioned using feijoa zest, I have use them before for this cordial, but I wanted to experiment more. Feijoa zest is bitter, that kind of bitter that makes you think that in large doses could be poison (possibly, anyone knows?) just like apricot kernels or fern fronds, but in small amounts, and occasionally, they feel safe (and I am still alive!). And they were good, possibly not as good as my favourite passion fruit meringues, but still good! 

First I put into a pot the zest of about 20 feijoas (you don't need all these, but there is another recipes coming out of this!) with 500 ml of water and 100 g of sugar, and I made a thin syrup. Then I drained about a tsp of zest and set it aside for the meringues. With the rest I made agar agar jelly (the next post). For the meringues I used 3 eggs white at room temperature and 150 g of sugar (normal white sugar). Once the egg whites and sugar were well beaten and stiff I added the zest and also one tbsp of cornflour to 'dry' the mixture (moisture from adding fruit or something moist to the meringue mixture can ruin meringues). I spooned the meringues on an oven tray and baked them at 50°C for about 4 hours. They were crunchy outside but moist inside. I tasted them first, for poison of course, and then I offered them at my Slow Food committee meeting. Nice to have foodies to experiment on!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©