Sub-tropical fruits make good buy at present

Press, 29 May 1981, Page 2

Sub-tropical fruits make good buy at present

Seasonal North Island . fruits, such as kiwi fruit,.tamarillos, and mandarins, are all plentiful at the moment and prices are accordingly reasonable. Now is the time to buy them in bulk and treat yourself or your family. Most of the year, kiwi fruit lovers have to content themselves with using it sparingly as a garnish on top of cakes or the traditional pavlova. But now is the ideal time for peeling,' slicing, and eating kiwi fruit by the kilogram. There was a shortage of kiwi fruit last year and prices rose greatly iq June and July. Kiwi fruit is about the same price as in May last year, which means that neither increased freight

charges nor inflation have affected its-price. Kiwi fruit sold yesterday for $B. to $l2 a half-case, and $4.50 to $6 a tray — about the same price paid during the stone fruit season for top-quality stone fruit. Most of the kiwi fruit on sale now should be ready to eat and be of top quality. If it is not quite ripe, place it in a plastic bag with an apple, seal the bag, and leave it for 48 hours. It will soon ripen.

Mandarins are in season now, too. The satsuma variety — an early line, which is easy to peel — is the one that is most abundant at the moment. These mandarins have come from Kerikeri and the Bay of Plenty. At $9 to $l2 a half-case, the mandarins are only slightly more expensive than they were a year ago, which again shows that freight rates and inflation are not accounted for., Tamarillos are the third winter fruit at the peak of their season, although they will probably be longer in season than the others. They sold yesterday at $lO to $l3 a half-case.

Although tamarillos are delicious,,, raw, with or

without added sugar, it is a simple matter to cook them for a special dessert. Bring them to the boil in water until the skin starts to split, then remove them from the pan at once, peel them, slice them and place the slices in a dish, in layers, sprinkling sugar in between layers, Refrigerate and serve with cream. Many people ruin tamarillos during cooking by letting the juice spill into the boiling water. Feijoas are still available, although supplies are gradually diminishing as their season ends. Yesterday they

were $5 to $8 a half-case. Bananas, Californian oranges, New Zealand lemons, and ruby grapefruit are plentiful and more oranges and grapefruit are expected from California next week. The price of tomatoes is fairly stable at present, with hot-house tomatoes coming from Christchurch and glasshouse tomatoes from Auckland. Now that frosts have started in Canterbury, the

hot-house tomato growers will face increased costs to keep their fruit warm. The local tomatoes sold yesterday for $8 to $l2 for a

4.5 kg carton, while the North Island tomatoes were $ll to $l3 for a 7kg carton.

A few cucumbers are still available, although prices have risen as the season has ended and the demand has fallen off. Short cucumbers were about $1 each at the markets yesterday — not very long ago they were selling at $1 a case. The season for capsicum seems to have been longer than usual this year. They are still available at reasonable prices. Capsicum can be eaten as a vegetable accompaniment to a meal, by cooking them for a short time in butter — just long enough for them to soften.

The vegetable market is well supplied this week, with cabbages carrots, parsnips, silver beet, broccoli, lettuces, leeks, and celery being plentiful.

Big quantities of lettuces have been arriving this week, and with the fall-off in demand, they have been selling for as little as 80c to $1.50 a case.

This week’s recipe TAMARILLOS IN WINE While your oven is slowly cooking a , casserole, cook some tamarillos in wine at the same time. 6 to 8 tamarillos % cup port wine ’/i cup sugar % cup water Method: Remote skins from tamarillos by immersing in boiling water for two or three minutes, The skins will easily pull away. Place the whole tammarillos in an ovenware dish and cover with sugar, port* wine and water. Bake in. a slow oven for about two hours turning fruit once or twice. Remove from syrup. Place syrup in a saucepan - and reduce it by boiling briskly until thick. Pour over the tamarillos and serve with cream.