Daz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz

At the Tauranga Farmers' Market before Christmas the throngs of market goers stocked up their fridges and pantries with the best seasonal produce.

Farmers' markets are becoming more popular throughout the country and now with the Food Bill before Parliament passing its first reading – this positive trend and habit is at risk.

I'm hoping opposition to this astonishing proposal grows as people become aware of its implications and how it would affect our basic freedom to choose where we buy our fresh food.

Mother Nature plays a vital role in providing us with fresh seasonal food and sometimes we don't get the usual quality we expect.

For example, the strawberries we devour at this time of the year, not to mention the cherries, seem to be somewhat affected by unseasonal fluctuations in temperature and rainfall. Mamaku blue blueberries are late this year because of the weather, but I did notice they had fresh gooseberries.

It's been about 15 years since I have tasted these old school, interestingly tartberries, and I never buy strawberries after it's been raining, so I opted to buy a kilo for Christmas.

Along with the Heilala vanilla syrup and a revamp of an old rhubarb custard tart recipe, I came up with this week's recipe for gooseberry custard pie.

Ingredients:

1kg fresh gooseberrys topped and tailed

½ cup of sugar

Pastry

1 cup of baker's flour

½ cup cornflour

½ cup icing sugar

100g butter cubed and frozen

1 egg

zest of one lemon

Custard

½ litre of milk

¼ cup Heilala vanilla syrup

4 large egg yokes

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon of sugar

Method:

Cook the gooseberry and sugar together with a splash of water for only a few minutes. Make the custard by warming the milk and Heilala vanilla syrup together, beat egg yokes and flour and sugar together then pour in the warm milk whisk well and place back in pot stirring on a low heat until you can feel the mixture thicken, allow to cool.

To make the pastry place the dry ingredients in a food processor blix and gradually add the frozen butter a bit at a time.

Lastly, add the egg.

Stop the machine as soon as the dough has formed wrap in cling wrap and place in fridge for about an hour.

To assemble pie, I find it easier to slice the chilled pastry and press it into a cake tin, or if you don't have one, a heavy cast iron skillet works well.

Spread the gooseberries onto the pastry then pour on the custard bake at 200C for about 20 minutes to half an hour depending on your oven.

The custard will appear wobbly, but will set when chilled.

I prefer this pie cold the next day, maybe that's because we were so filled up with turkey and Christmas mince pies that we just couldn't face it on the day.

It's delicious with fresh cream and ice cream and a sprinkle of icing sugar to compliment the tartness.