|
Fruit
makes the perfect ending to any meal. Low in calories and fat, high in
nutrition and flavor, it makes an easy weekday dessert. While
slices of pears or apples with a good cheese is delicious, if I have several
fruits on hand I often like to make a fruit salad. There are two ways to make a fruit
salad; one is to just
sweeten the fruit with a little sugar and maybe a splash of lemon juice and
liqueur. The second way, is to macerate the fruit in a flavored sugar syrup.A sugar syrup, also called a simple syrup, is a boiled
mixture of sugar and water that is often used to soak cakes and pastries.
But it can also be used to soften and sweeten fresh fruits. Different
ingredients can be added to flavor the syrup; a
vanilla bean, lemon or orange juice, liqueurs, a
cinnamon stick, lavender, chopped fresh mint, or even a few whole
cloves.
Roger Verg?in his book "Cooking with Fruit" tells us that "a
successful (fruit) salad has everything to seduce you: the lush flavors of
cut fresh fruit, the explosive colors of the exposed flesh, and the
contrasting soft and crunchy textures that tickle the palate." From
his lovely description you know that the fruits you use, and their quality,
are very important to how flavorful your salad will taste. Summer does offer the widest selection of fruit (all kinds of berries,
peaches, nectarines, apricots, and plums), but even in the dead of winter
there are fruits like apples, oranges, pears, pineapple, seedless grapes,
kiwi, and bananas to choose from. And don't forget about adding dried fruits, as
dried figs, cranberries, cherries, apricots, and raisins add both color
and flavor to fruit salads. It is best to cut large fruits, like apples,
pears, and peaches, into bite
size chunks or wedges. Cantaloupe and honeydew can be cut into pretty round balls with a
tool called a melon ball scoop. If using oranges or grapefruit, remove the
rind and the inner white pith as it can be quite bitter tasting. The fruit
then needs to be separated into sections and all the seeds removed. Do this over a bowl
to catch any juices. The salad can be made several hours in advance of
serving and kept in the refrigerator. You can serve the fruit salad cold or at
room temperature. Softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream make nice
accompaniments as do shortbread cookies.
|
Page loading ... Please wait.
Note: Do not
throw away the used vanilla bean. Rinse it off, let it completely dry, and then
place the vanilla bean in a canister of granulated white sugar. After a week or
two you will have vanilla scented sugar. 
