The summer feast of seasonal New Zealand stone fruit is something I look forward to every year. Some of my first food memories are of stuffing myself with the fruit from the trees that my siblings and cousins – as all children seem to do – identified in our neighbourhood. Even here in Auckland, I can tell you where the stone fruit trees are on the route of my regular constitutional walk.

It was a pleasure thinking about all the ways I like to eat it for this feature. I was helped in this enjoyable occupation, during a break in the filming of the second MasterChef series, by a talented member of the film crew who is a great cook. She inspired a few of the following ideas.

Peach tart (pictured above)
Roll out some made-with-butter flaky puff pastry into a disc about 28cm in diameter. Fold the edges in all around to form a border and place on a baking tray. Place thickly sliced peeled peaches inside the border of pastry and place in a 200°C oven for about 25 minutes or until very well cooked. Remove from the oven and brush liberally all over with melted apricot jam and return to the oven until browned and bubbling. Remove from the oven and serve in wedges with crème fraîche.

Nectarine salsa
Make a quick nectarine salsa by dicing plenty of stoned nectarines and adding finely chopped onion that has been slow-fried in olive oil with chilli, a cinnamon stick, salt, pepper, chopped coriander, sugar and lime juice to taste. Serve on garlicky barbecued chicken or panfried duck breasts with rice and salad.

Roasted port plums
Bake whole plums in a small roasting dish with a vanilla bean, plenty of caster sugar and a big splash of port. Place in the oven at 180°C for 20-30 minutes until the plums are soft and bursting out of their skins but not collapsing. Spoon over savoiardi biscuits or good-quality trifle sponge and serve with plenty of whipped cream.

Baked chicken & apricots
Place chicken thighs on the bone in a roasting dish skin side up. Add some finely chopped garlic, chopped bacon, halved apricots, white wine, chicken stock and some brown sugar sprinkled over the chicken skin. Place in a 200°C oven for 30 minutes until the chicken is well cooked and browned. Remove from the oven and serve on rice or couscous with plain yoghurt and chopped coriander and mint.

Bellini sorbet dessert
For the perfect summer dessert, place a spoonful of raspberry or strawberry sorbet in the bottom of tall chilled glasses, add sliced, peeled white peaches and top up with Champagne.

Chicken & plum salad
Panfry boned chicken thighs in olive oil with a clove of crushed garlic and freshly ground black pepper. Remove from the pan and keep warm. Make a salad with chopped red onion, roasted baby beetroot, diced stoned plums that have been tossed in a tablespoon of brown sugar and left to macerate for 10 minutes, pitted Kalamata olives, roasted pine nuts and baby cos leaves. Slice the chicken across the grain and add to the salad. Dress with your best balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, season and serve.

Prosciutto & peaches
The perfect first course for a hot day’s big lunch is paper-thin slices of prosciutto wrapped around thick slices of ripe white peaches or nectarines.

Bread & butter pudding
Halve and stone apricots, slice and pile on to 2cm-thick slices of buttered French bread that have been cut on the diagonal. Sprinkle with plenty of caster sugar, place on a baking tray and bake at 190°C until the bread is crisp and browned on the edges, the apricots are tender and the sugar has melted with the apricot juice and is bubbling. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with brandy and serve hot with crème fraîche – a quick French version of bread and butter pudding, sans custard.

Plum sauce
For a quick, chunky sweet and sour plum sauce simmer chopped stoned plums with red wine, vinegar, chillies, brown sugar and a cinnamon stick and serve it with garlicky roasted lamb racks on steamed rice with yoghurt, chopped cucumber and spring onions.