Category Archives: Fruit

How to make the perfect vegan coconut ice-cream – recipe | Felicity Cloake’s How to make the perfect…

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The secret to an authentic taste and mouth-feel is fat, so what’s the best substitute for dairy? Our resident perfectionist tries them all …

Plant-based ice-cream, like so much else in the vegan world, has come on leaps and bounds in both range and quality in recent years as the market for it has grown, but many commercial varieties still replace dairy and eggs with a long list of perfectly harmless, yet still less than enticing ingredients such as fully refined soybean oil. Without stabilisers, the homemade kind may not last quite as well in the freezer but, frankly, it doesn’t need to: it’s unlikely to be in there long.

This recipe makes a virtue of coconut’s flavour, as well as of its natural creaminess, though you could also use it as a base for other ingredients, folding in fruit puree or chocolate chips after churning, say, or adding the likes of cocoa powder or peppermint extract to the base itself. Richer than a sorbet, lighter and cleaner than standard ice-cream, it’s really not just for vegans.

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Beat the heat! 40 ace ice lollies to make now – from honey parfait to piña colada

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Do you like your popsicles milky, fruity or boozy? Whatever your preference, here is a complete guide to making quick, delicious freezer treats

Along with bling and outrage, the ice lolly is probably the thing fashion designers and toddlers most have in common. It is instant dessert and an edible sticking plaster. Mostly, whether you go to town with the freeze-ins, the ombrés and the post-freezer coatings, it is heatwave relief on a stick.

Almost any liquid, bar neat, heavy alcohol, freezes well – from double cream and coconut milk to freshly pulped watermelon (for which there’s a stellar hack: slice off the top of the fruit, plunge in a hand blender and juice the inside, then strain). Make sure whichever option you plump for is overly flavourful – mild juice will make for a meh lick.

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Kiwi wars: the golden fruit fuelling a feud between New Zealand and China

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One firm’s attempt to regain control of illegal cultivation shows Wellington’s lack of leverage over its largest trade partner

It is the story of a global superpower, a smuggling operation, pestilence and a small hairy fruit.

Ubiquitous on supermarket shelves and in lunchboxes, the humble kiwi is New Zealand’s most valuable horticultural export. Recent battles for control of the fruit, however, have shone a light on tensions in New Zealand’s relationship with China.

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Ban the burger! Ways to raise your barbecue game | Kitchen aide

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Sweep aside those boring burgers and bangers, and instead let smoky veg, grilled stone fruits and knockout marinades steal the barbecue show

• Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

I always find barbecues underwhelming. Any easy upgrade ideas?
Megan, Bristol

“Vegetables and fruits are the real stars of the barbecue – this is the wisdom of the Middle East,” says chef Itamar Srulovich, whose latest cookbook, written with partner Sarit Packer, is called Chasing Smoke. “Everything that hits the grills get smoky and sweeter, even cabbage.” For something “really special”, Srulovich dresses charred wedges of the humble veg with chopped shallots, chilli and garlic, all fried in butter with a big handful of dill stirred through at the end. Steve Horrell, executive chef of Roth Bar & Grill in Somerset, meanwhile, tops charred hispi cabbage with caesar dressing or aïoli, pangrattato and parmesan, then lets it “all melt together”.

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‘Crumpets have been my saviour!’: readers on their 14 best comfort meals of lockdown

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Food has felt more important than ever this past year – particularly meals that offer solace. From rösti to Coco Pops, here are the dishes that got us through

For me, lockdown has meant an absolutely manic schedule, working from home with back-to-back Zoom calls and long hours. Crumpets have been my saviour. Yes, factory made, perfectly consistent and versatile: top with yoghurt and frozen berries at 8am, blue cheese and leeks at 1pm, followed by eggs and spinach at 7pm, and you have a full day’s menu. For a bit more lockdown spirit, I tried the sourdough version (delicious if squishy) and making my own (I promise you, it’s not worth it). Sophie, data analyst, St Albans

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Back in the mix: cocktails for outdoor meet-ups | Kitchen aide

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The secret to enterprising cocktails for picnic refreshments is to pack them in a flask to keep things cold

What cocktails are good to make for a gathering outside?
Jess, Bath

The key to park-time drinking (in moderation, of course) is keeping things chilled. “Warm cocktails are one of the worst things in the world,” says Claire Strickett, co-author with Bert Blaize of Which Wine When. Salvation, though, comes in the form of a vacuum flask: “Obviously it keeps things cold, too, so make a cocktail, put it in the fridge and then into the Thermos.” One such drink could be a cosmopolitan, or, as Strickett puts it, a Cosmos. “I’ve spent lockdown rediscovering Sex and the City, so I’m back into them.” She shakes 30ml Chase vodka, 30ml triple sec, 50ml cranberry juice and 20ml lime juice per person, chills overnight, then transports in her trusty flask and garnishes with a slice of lime on arrival.

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Strange fruit: how feijoas baffled a New Zealand immigrant – and polarise a nation

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When Polish-born Hania Żądło inquired about the strange avocado-like fruit, she was met with a mixture of indignation, hostility … and sympathy

When Hania Żądło, a new arrival in New Zealand, asked an innocent question about an unfamiliar fruit, she was not to know that she was undermining a national treasure.

As a registered nurse, Żądło and her husband, an anaesthetic technician, had both been granted “critical purpose” visas to take up jobs at Dunedin hospital. After landing in Auckland from the UK in late March, they were sent with their two children to the Crowne Plaza hotel for two weeks’ mandatory quarantine.

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‘Quince challenged me’: how to cook, eat and enjoy seven of the world’s most difficult fruits

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In her new book, Kate Lebo experiments with tricky fruit. Here she explains the best ways to ensure that even nature’s tartest, sourest offerings never go to waste

The Book of Difficult Fruit by Kate Lebo isn’t technically a cookbook. It’s a collection of personal essays about family, illness and nature, each linked to a different fruit that – over the years, warranted or otherwise – has developed something of a bad reputation. It is a beautiful read, and each chapter ends with Lebo’s attempts to make use of these under-appreciated foods. I spoke to her about eight of the fruits she includes, what makes them difficult, and what on earth you’re supposed to do with them.

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Tangy jam and vanilla cream: Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for rhubarb

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Reliable rhubarb spans the ‘hungry gap’ with a tangy rhubarb and lime jam squashed into a cheese toastie, and a refreshing cold dessert soup topped with mint sugar and cream

Whatever else is happening in the weather or the world, forced rhubarb is reliably, happily hot pink. Grown in warm barns, rather than facing the elements as field rhubarb does, forced rhubarb is tricked into an early harvest, which is why we get its pink fluorescence in the first three months of the year. The season ends around the end of March, when it hands over to its outdoor-grown cousin, so make the most of its sweetness and slender, bright pink stalks while you can.

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How to eat: toast and jam

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It is the simplest of comfort foods, but does the strawberry topping deserve its popularity? Which bread is best? And how should we punish those who get butter in the jar?

Politically, it is said, Britain tolerates endless promises of jam tomorrow, never demanding jam today. But now the country has seized its own destiny – at least in the literal matter of jam.

Rewind to 2019 and jam was over. Dying. In terminal decline. Jam was as cool as a tweeting a laugh-cry emoji about the state of Kings of Leon’s skinny jeans. But, during the pandemic, jam has enjoyed a dramatic revival. “Breakfast has been reborn,” trilled the Grocer magazine as it reported jam sales had increased in value by almost 23% last year.

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Ghanaian fritters and Venezuelan corncakes: Yotam Ottolenghi’s street food recipes

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Let’s travel again (at least in our kitchens): to south America, for arepas stuffed with feta, chilli and avocado, and then to west Africa for deep-fried plantain fritters

One of the many joys of street food is that you can move on from one country to another as soon as your tummy allows. Last week, we were in Mauritius and Brazil, snacking on jackfruit kati rolls and prawn pasties, and, having had seven days to digest those, I hope you’re all up for round two today. This time, we’re off to Ghana and Venezuela. As with so much street food, these dishes are best eaten by hand, standing up outside next to people you’ve just met. I may not be able to conjure up new friends, especially in these times, but I can supply recipes that will transport you to far-flung places.

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Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for Valentine’s Day

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A three-course showpiece to prep in advance, so you can spend more time with your better half: burnt aubergine with feta and harissa oil, prawns in vanilla and rum butter, and a chocolatey coffee mousse to finish

This time last year, many of us were looking forward to a special, one-to-one supper with a loved one. The partner we live with, for example, but perhaps forget to go on dates with; a special meal, quality time, stories saved up to be shared. The past year has, of course, brought a whole new meaning to the idea of “quality time”, and I’m not sure anyone has any great stories they’ve saved for this Valentine’s dinner. Be kind and cut yourself some slack: forget about the top new chat and focus instead on a top new meal. Pat yourself on the back for making it this far, and raise a large glass of something you adore.

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Orange appeal: 17 mouth-watering ways with marmalade

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From cake to pudding to panna cotta to pork ribs, this seasonal treat is endlessly flexible. And let’s not forget the cocktails …

We may never know how many surplus jars of marmalade were created during the lockdown year, just for something to do. There is, however, still time for one final push: marmalade – as detailed in this masterclass recipe from Felicity Cloake – is traditionally made with sour Seville oranges, which have a notoriously short season, due to end in just a few weeks’ time.

You don’t have to use Seville oranges, of course. You can make perfectly serviceable marmalade from regular oranges, or even from spent orange rinds, following Tom Hunt’s example. Non-traditional marmalades can also be derived from other fruits, such as pink grapefruit, as Nigel Slater demonstrates.

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How important are measurements, really?

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Do you have to be so precise when measuring ingredients? After all, what difference does 5g of flour actually make?

• Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

A recent Feast recipe uses three types of flour: two requiring 55g and one 50g. Surely 5g won’t make a difference? US cups are less accurate than British pounds and ounces, and American cooks get by on those. Why not use teaspoons for smaller quantities and round figures otherwise?
Judy, Leamington Spa

“I get Judy’s frustration,” says Feast perfectionist Felicity Cloake. “It often doesn’t make that much difference at all.” In fact, Nigella Lawson writes about this very predicament in her latest book, Cook, Eat, Repeat: “I struggle, as many food writers do, with just how precise to be, and my books reflect how I feel at any given time about what is helpful and what is confining.” Lawson might specify “a large onion”, give an approximate weight or simply call for “an onion”. “The truth is, the weight of an onion, or the size of it, is not always critical.” However, as Cloake points out, “Yotam Ottolenghi says that if one of his recipes stipulates an eighth of a teaspoon of ginger, that’s because it has been tested with that – and with more and less, too – and that’s what works.”

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Sour power: 17 delicious ways to cook with lemons, from sponge cake to sorbet

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Nothing says ‘summer’ like the scent of citrus. Brighten your winter with these mouth-watering recipes for pasta, pudding, slow-cooked pork …

It’s always lemon season somewhere. Even across Europe the harvest period is so long – running from November to July – that it would make more sense to speak of a brief off-season, and even then I’m sure you wouldn’t notice any shortage.

But for what it’s worth, we are now embarking upon the more lemon-saturated period of the year, and those fancy, expensive lemons with the leaves still on are just starting to appear in shops. They bring a strong note of summer to the dark winter months, and to almost any dish you make with them. Now is the time to expand your citrus repertoire.

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‘Everything tastes better’: Guardian readers on their culinary discoveries of 2020

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From turning up the heat with exotic chillies to the ubiquitous and ultimately rewarding rise of sourdough, readers share their ingredients of the year

Discovering – or rediscovering – the joy of cooking has been one of the few bright spots of a year spent largely at home. We asked 43 of Australia’s leading chefs, cookbook authors and bloggers to share their favourite ingredient of the year. Their answers ranged from the humble and comforting (flour, mince, red lentils) to ingeniously umami (kombu, chilli bean curd, prawn oil), with native Australian ingredients also making many a No 1 spot (wattleseed, karkalla, cunjim winyu).

Now it’s our readers’ turn to share their finds.

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Yotam Ottolenghi’s Boxing Day recipes for using up Christmas leftovers

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Boxing Day BLT, veg samosas with cranberry sauce, and Christmas pudding eccles cakes with marzipan – stylish ways to use up excess food

The thing about Christmas day, as no one’s stomach needs reminding, is that there is always so much food. It is, however, a truth universally acknowledged that the whole point of cooking a great big bird – not to mention enough vegetables to feed twice as many people as are actually eating them – is to be able to enjoy the leftovers the day after. For all the ceremony, and the focus on the food served at the right time in the right place at the right temperature on Christmas Day, does anything, truly, beat the likes of a soft-bun sandwich filled with all the good bits? Gravy sauce for dipping into (and a sofa for sinking into) optional.

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10 tasty salads for cold winter nights, from roasted cauliflower to grilled sardines

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Who said salads had to be eaten in the summer? From Ottolenghi’s classic roast carrot concoction to Fare Sage’s warm fruit variety, there’s something for everyone

This is a tricky time of year for food. The cold weather and dark evenings cry out for the comforting hit of stodge, and yet a part of you realises that it’s sensible to keep your powder dry for the non-stop gorgefest offered by Christmas. Luckily, there is a middle ground. Although nobody in their right mind would choose to eat a traditional salad in this weather, winter salads are another thing entirely. Light and simple, but substantial enough to get you served at a tier 2 pub, these recipes should do the job nicely.

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X-ray checked avocados: ‘It benefits us all if people will stop squeezing them’

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In an Australian first, a farm in Western Australia is using infrared technology to scan for unbruised avocados

Whether it’s a gentle pinch of the tip, or a full-handed feel of the base, touching an avocado before you buy it is a commonplace grocery store habit. But Suzie Delroy, a second-generation farmer based just outside of Pemberton in southern Western Australia, dreams of the day avocado shopping becomes contactless. “We always do the best we can to control the avocado, but by far the biggest bruising occurs when people go and squeeze them.”

Her assessment is backed up by a 2015 report from Australian Horticultural Innovation that involved, among other experiments, using an e-glove sensor to see how hard shoppers were squeezing the fruit. The report found “bruise severity at the retail store display, and from the consumers’ home, was significantly higher than at all preceding sampling points”. Avocados Australia also states that the average avocado is touched by four would-be shoppers before it’s bought.

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