# Cooking Kiwi?



## urmaniac13

The other day at the market we found very very mature kiwi on sale at 70 cents per kilo. There weren't many left and the vendor who was evidently anxious to wrap it up and go home, gave all of them to us for 1€, which were nearly 2kg. They were very good, only one of them being gone over the hill.

We didn't have much problem gobbling them down within a few days (aside from making some more kiwi ice cream... mmm), we came to wonder, just in case we find similar deal again, if kiwi are good for baking (pies, crostatas...), making jams or comports etc. We just realised we don't remember seeing the fruit being utilized this way. Could that mean kiwi are heat intolerant fruits which causes unpleasant reactions when they are cooked? Or have we been missing something and there are great recipes with cooked kiwi? Has anyone tried it? 

We are very curisous!


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## amber

Actually I've never had cooked kiwi either.  To me they taste like a cross between a strawberry and a banana, so I think it might make a good cooked fruit topping(along with strawberries) for a tart, maybe use puff pastry and pour the fruit compote on and partially fold over the pastry leaving the fruit expose a bit and then bake it.


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## Alix

I've made fruit pizza with them. But thats just pouring hot glaze over the kiwi...never heard of anyone cooking them. Cool question, I'm going to google.

Edit: Found this link for you. Cool history, I didn't know they were called gooseberries.

And another. OK, this one is the best I think. Its an actual site dedicated to Kiwi's. 

In summary, I think kiwi's are OK either fresh or frozen, but the only cooking anyone does with it appears to be a marinade. Its like pineapple apparently with the enzyme that prevents gelling. The green one also curdles dairy but the gold one doesn't. Very cool indeed. Thanks urmaniac, I learned something today.


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## urmaniac13

Wow thanks Alix, you are indeed the queen of googling!! (is that why you are so good at movie lines and song lyrics game?  )

Collected oodles of interesting ideas and recipes, though as you pointed out, very few cooked recipes. I did find the jam recipe among the recipe list from about page, I shall give it a try if I can find them that cheap again, hey, at 2kg of kiwi for 1€, what the heck! Even if the bright green turns ugly brown or something from cooking, considering its flavour it can't turn out so bad me thinks...
Anyway even if that doesn't work out now I have plenty of ideas with kiwi, though, I bookmarked them all!!


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## The Z

Alix said:
			
		

> I didn't know they were called gooseberries..



I think gooseberries are something completely different, and I think if you google them and look at the google images you'll see what I mean.  We had gooseberries on our farm and they were nothing like kiwis.


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## daisy

Kiwifruit used to be known as Chinese Gooseberries, until they New Zealanders took them over! But they aren't real gooseberries at all.

Kiwifruit is _Actinidia chinensis, A. deliciosa.

_Gooseberries are _Physalis peruviana, P. edulis (and others).  _Also called Cape Gooseberry or Ground Cherry. 

As you've probably noticed, Australians and NZers call them 'kiwifruit'. This distinguishes them from 'kiwi', which is a NZ bird!


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## babyhuggies

strawberry kiwi jam is a favorite at house....i try and make some every year.--usually make the freezer jam


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## Alix

urmaniac, indeed I rule at Google, but I always try to do the lyrics and quotes from my brain first. I have a truly stupid amount of trivia floating around in there. 

Z, oops, I forgot to type in the "chinese" part of the gooseberry thing. I think regular gooseberrys are those really sour green thingys aren't they? Man those have pucker power!


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## attie

Alix said:
			
		

> I've made fruit pizza with them. But thats just pouring hot glaze over the kiwi...never heard of anyone cooking them. Cool question, I'm going to google.
> 
> Edit: Found this link for you. Cool history, I didn't know they were called gooseberries.
> 
> And another. OK, this one is the best I think. Its an actual site dedicated to Kiwi's.
> 
> In summary, I think kiwi's are OK either fresh or frozen, but the only cooking anyone does with it appears to be a marinade. Its like pineapple apparently with the enzyme that prevents gelling. The green one also curdles dairy but the gold one doesn't. Very cool indeed. Thanks urmaniac, I learned something today.


Now the secrets out, those Kiwis pinched them from China and re-named them. A big no-no to freezing them, been there and done that, they break down to mulch. You are right about using them in/as marinade, I use them or pineapple as a tenderiser. Nice links, thanks Alix.


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## attie

Opps! May I say "and those Kiwis improved on them"


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## karadekoolaid

Wow! That's a compliment, coming from a Aussie   !

I made some Kiwi Chutney about 6 months ago. 
Yeah, well, OK, but nothing to write home about. 

I'm now working on Kiwi Jam. Since it's got a good citric content it should be good, and the seeds give it a nice crunch.


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## TommyV61

This is great. I was looking for a substitution for cape gooseberries  for a chutney and stumbled across this thread. Our vendors have had such a hard time getting us a frozen gooseberry lately and with the volume we do in the restaurant, it isnt cost effective to use fresh ones. It would be cutting into the bosses kids college funds. Anyhow, I am going to try making a chutney with kiwi and tomatillos and see what I come up with. Good stuff... will follow up and let you know how it turns out.


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## CharlieD

My gosh, I looked at the original poster (without noticing the date) and said to my self, wow, that's the name I have not seen around here for a while. 
I actually picked up a small jar of qiwi jam the other day it was quite good, actually surprisingle very good.


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