An Easter Treat: Chocolate and Pistachio Kiwiberries

Easter food is synonymous with chocolate for many of us (go on, admit it!). It was the first thing I thought of when I read about Johanna’s ‘Waiter, there’s something in my … Easter basket!‘ event and I’ve been thinking about it pretty much ever since. Here is a sophisticated, fruity and very pretty way to get your chocolate fix – chocolate coated kiwiberries. There’s something very spring-like about these, with their mini egg appearance and beautiful colour co-ordination between the vibrant lime flesh of the berries and the green-tinged pistachios.

There’s still very little seasonal fruit in the UK at the moment (just rhubarb!) so I have temporarily drifted back into occasionally buying exotic air-freighted fruit. I had never tried these kiwiberries before this punnet but I had read about them and was definitely keeping an eye out for them. They are essentially little tiny kiwi fruit (about 1-2 cm in diameter) without all the furriness and supposedly sweeter and even higher in Vitamin C than a full size kiwi fruit. Kiwi fruit are ridiculously high in Vitamin C already (better than oranges) so I was intrigued by something supposedly even better. But there was another reason why I wanted to try them – I don’t really like kiwi fruit and was hoping to be converted! There, I feel better now I’ve admitted it. Everybody else seems to like them – surely it’s not just me? It’s a texture thing: those pesky seeds, that unexpected grittiness. It reminds me of when you add some spinach to a curry or sauce and then bite into it only to realise that you hadn’t washed it.

Anyway, I tried a couple of these little fellas and they were definitely tasty and sweet, but they still had that weird texture thing going on. I think I’ve figured out how to get round that now; a coating of dark chocolate and a peppering of chopped pistachios has me converted! The sweet but bitter dark chocolate is a perfect complement to the tart kiwi flavour and the crunch of the nuts and chocolate disguises the texture of the fruit. Try this on any kiwi-hating friends and family members and let me know what they think. But no trying to trick the kids by telling them that they’re solid chocolate eggs – they won’t thank you for it and may exact their revenge later (or worse still not share any of their own chocolate!).