Newswriting + Reporting

The Perfect Kiwi Slice...

Quick!

by Laura Haessler

Small, fuzzy and oddly intimidating, the ever-popular kiwifruit, or kiwi for short, is a relatively new entry into the US culinary scene. The kiwi is the juicy berry of the Actinidia deliciosa, a woody vine native to the southern region of China. Although the fruit has been cultivated outside of its homeland since the early 20th century, the first successful commercial harvest of kiwifruit in the US didn't occur until 1970. Since that time, this elegantly exotic fruit has become a familiar addition to fruit salads, tarts and other all-American dishes.

Pound for pound, kiwis pack a powerful punch. "One large kiwi supplies your daily requirement for vitamin C," says Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD, author of The Pocket Idiot's Guide to the New Food Pyramids. "It is also a good source of potassium, fiber, and a decent source of vitamin A and vitamin E, which is one of the missing nutrients, and kiwi is one of the only fruits that provides it." Yet, for all its nutritional beneficence, the hairy little beasts can drive even the most skilled knife handler back to the gadget aisle of the local kitchen store in mental anguish to search for the perfectly engineered unitasker*. 

Selecting the right tool can be tricky. While common peeling techniques abound, slicing the skin off of a kiwi with a paring knife leaves too much fruit on the skin and produces slices with angular edges. A vegetable peeler is... well, better suited to remove the skin from firm, dense vegetables than the rough covering from the soft fruit of the kiwi. Even if you do happen to remove its rough exterior, the squishy-slimy inner flesh is hard to hold on to when making those distinctive slices.  Luckily, the key to unlocking the delicious goodness inside a kiwi can be found in every utensil drawer... an ordinary teaspoon.

To create aesthetically pleasing kiwi slices for your next fruit salad or fruit tart, follow these steps:

Step 1. Chill. For best results, refrigerate kiwis until firm.

Step 2. Trim. Using a paring knife, cut one end off the kiwi.

Step 3. Spoon. 

Slip a teaspoon between the skin and the flesh of the fruit taking care not to push the tip of the spoon through the skin on the opposite end. 








Step 4. Slide. 
Holding the kiwi in the palm of your hand, with firm pressure against the skin, slide the spoon around the fruit until back to the starting point.






Step 5. Pinch. 
Using your fingertips, gently squeeze the fruit out of the skin, keeping a hold of the empty skin still attached to the uncut end.










Step 6. Slice. Using the skin as a handle, your smooth, round and perfectly peeled kiwi is now easy to cut into those distinctive slices.
Step 7. Indulge!

*A unitasker is a tool or device that does only one thing; a term popularized by the TV chef Alton Brown.