Ken Downie
When renowned restaurateur Al Brown goes looking for your product, you know you’re on to something.
Zoe Bone only began making her seasonal fruit pastes last year, but she has quickly found a loyal fan-base, and her pastes are now used at Al’s award-winning Depot Eatery in Auckland.
“He called me the fruit paste princess,” laughs Zoe. “It’s pretty exciting for me, having one of my food heroes love my product, especially when I’m such a newbie.”
The road to paste perfection began on the wild west coast of Auckland, during a gathering at a bach at Bethells Beach. One friend turned up with her homemade feijoa paste for everyone to enjoy with blue cheese and crackers.
“I had wicked memories of that paste,” says Zoe. “We all asked her to make it again, but she wouldn’t.”
Eventually Zoe was resigned to making her own and experimented with a variety of recipes until she came up with a method and recipe that worked for her tastes. She also realised why her friend refused to make any more paste after the Bethells trip: “It takes so bloody long, you have to make it in small batches and cook it down for hours!”
But after trialing her feijoa paste on her father and his partner, they suggested she have a go at making pastes to sell. “And I thought, why not?” Zoe laughs. With most fruit paste recipes, you weigh the fruit pulp and put in the same amount of sugar, but Zoe says she has managed to reduce the sugar by two-thirds, and by using the whole fruit rather than the flesh, was able to get a better intensity of flavour and more natural pectin – the natural setting agent in fruit.
Fruit paste is a two-step process: after cooking the fruit in water until soft, Zoe pushes it through her Westmark Passing Sieve, then slow cooks the pulp with sugar to get the beautifully silken paste that is the perfect addition to a plate of cheese and crackers.
Zoe currently makes plum, tamarillo, feijoa, apricot and brandy, guava and quince pastes. In addition, she makes an apple butter, which comes in a jar and is used more as a spread.
“The Americans use apple butter on toast, but over here, it’s more popular in pork dishes and paninis,” says Zoe.
Beyond their natural home on a cheeseboard, Zoe says there are a number of other uses for fruit pastes such as pairing it with meat or as a stuffing. “Tamarillo paste goes really well with venison. I’ve done platters using sliced venison loin with a slice of tamarillo paste on top and it’s amazing. You can use it in a stuffing for chicken, or stuff it into a whole camembert and bake it.”
Zoe says her favourite matches with cheese are the tamarillo paste with chèvre, and the plum paste matched with Kapiti Washed Rind Ramara.It’s a labour of love for Zoe, from the first taste at a bach by the beach, to an expanding condiments business, but she has no shortage of ambition for her fledgling company Zoe Bone Foods.
“I want to take over the fruit paste world. Move over Maggie Beer, there’s a Kiwi in town!”
Where to get it:
Farro Fresh, The Cheese Room, Scarecrow, Parnell Farmers’ Market, Hobsonville Point Farmers’ Market.
Photographs by: Ken Downie
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