Back in Autumn, Dougal Munro (below) showed me the enormous kiwi tree that was engulfing/had engulfed (it’s debatable) the old dairy shed in his orchard. It was a mass of round green leaves and looked fabulous. Now, it’s a mass of what looks like dried sticks piled on top and around said shed. But hanging from these sticks are masses of furry brown orbs. A winter’s harvest of kiwi fruit. And on invitation, I popped over last week to pick some.
Kiwis are a big hit in our house, the kids have them for their morning fruit snack at school most days at the moment and that makes me feel pretty good. Because, did you know that kiwis have the highest nutritional density of any fruit? Well they do, and right now, they are bang in season, well priced and tasting fabulous.
We usually just halve our kiwis and scoop them straight from the skins, but I was flicking through a new favourite cook book (Matt Wilkinson‘s Simply Dressed Salads) the other day and his recipe for kiwi fruit and papaya with lime and chilli caught my greedy eye.
Not having any papaya on hand, I dropped that part but it was absolutely beautiful nonetheless and gorgeous for pudding after a rich venison casserole.
Kiwi fruit salad with lime and chilli syrup
This recipe, as I mention above, is slightly adapted from one in Matt Wilkinson’s latest book. Its really refreshing and delicious, especially with the addition of a sprinkle of pink sea salt flecked with lime zest and a bowl of Sarah Glover’s coconut yogurt on the side. Serves 4-6 as a light dessert.
75g caster sugar
pinch of chilli flakes
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
zest and juice of two limes
6 kiwi fruit, peeled and cut into wedges
Combine the caster sugar, chilli, rice wine vinegar and 50mls water in a small saucepan on medium. Bring to the boil then remove from heat. Stir in the lime juice and zest and let cool for a few minutes. Place your kiwi fruit on a platter and pour over the syrup. Serve with coconut ‘yogurt’, plain yogurt or sweetened ricotta.
There’s another fantastic kiwi recipe over here at My Darling Lemon Thyme and its author Emma also suggested to me recently that excess kiwis are great blended into smoothies like this one or made into chutneys.
Above is Dougal’s kiwi fruit tree photographed back in March. And below, in August.
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