Fruit

Keep to the seasons with fruits. They will be at their best when in season and remember, use your senses. Fruit should look luscious and rich in colour and should be ripe and smell sweet and fragrant. Be careful when choosing berries: always check the base of the punnet to check for unripe or squashed items hidden below the better looking ones. Store fruit in the fridge to keep it fresher, some softer fruits like bananas should be stored cool and dry. You can freeze the best quality fruit when it is in season; summer fruits such as raspberries and blackberries freeze well as do stone fruits such as peaches, apricots and plums. Once frozen, they can be used later in the year for making compotes or jams. Before freezing you can also make them into purées which you can bring out and use later in the year for mousses. Frozen whole fruits never look as good as fresh ones once defrosted as they will soften. You should always use fresh ripe fruits for decoration.