Stonefruit – plums, peaches and apricots – are our fruit buys of the week, along with lovely crunchy South Island cherries that are at their cheapest and sweetest.
When it comes to stonefruit desserts, Warren Elwin's deconstructed cheesecake (photo below) takes some beating. It's the perfect finale for January and February dinners and it's so easy. The grilled (or baked) fruit is topped with 200g each of cream cheese and mascarpone whipped with ⅓ cup cream and 1-2 Tbsp caster sugar along with the zest and juice of a lemon. To finish, Warren crumbles over crushed gingernut biscuits.
Angela Casley has a tasty topping for baked stonefruit too (see photo below) and it won't destroy your New Year healthy eating intentions. It's as speedy as Warren's recipe and both are great to have in your repertoire while that luscious fruit is so abundant and cheap.
The good news is that stonefruit, left at room temperature, will continue to soften and ripen after picking. Store it stem-end down. To speed up the process, put peaches and nectarines into a paper bag, out of direct sunlight. Both will smell sweet when they are ripe at which point, if you don’t plan on eating them up immediately, they should be refrigerated, unwashed, in a plastic bag for up to one week.
Coming into stores soon: Tatura Belle golden peaches, which are great for bottling and cooking, and early season Carmen pears. New season passionfruit will be on sale shortly to replace strawberries for your pavs. Use the last, a bit squishy, strawberries to make jam instead.
Blood oranges, Farro Fresh reports, will be in their stores soon as well. Watermelonis in good supply everywhere and they are super sweet.
You may still have it in your garden but wild rocket is in short supply due to a poor harvest and asparagus will disappear soon. Sweetcorn, eggplants, tomatoes, courgettes and the Fresh Grower's snowpeas are all plentiful and good buys.
If you are market shopping, fancy a stir-fry and are out Avondale way, pick up a long bunch of snakebeans – the quality is great - and grab a green papaya while you are there for a flavourful (and light) som tam salad.