Tuesday, July 5, 2016

A (Fruit) Salad

Summer fruit is getting into full swing here.  I'm still waiting for the stone fruit to be GOOD, but everything else is looking fresher and local, finally.  I had a small brunch this past weekend and wanted to serve some fruit with the light (cool) meal I was serving.  While I love fruit, it's always difficult for me to serve it.  Fruit doesn't last very long once cut into serving portions.  I'm the kind of hostess that likes to have as much as possible prepared before guests arrive, because once they do I lose focus and the cooking gets out of hand.  Whenever contemplating fruit as part of the meal, it ends up getting nixed due to the last minute prep.  It had been so hot here, and I did not want to turn on that oven, so I researched make ahead fruit ideas.  So many of the recipes had melons of some kind as part of most of the dish as they are easy to cut and store for a time.  Other than watermelon (which is too watery to cut ahead of time), I don't personally like melons like cantaloupe or honey dew, so those were off the table.
I stumbled upon this recipe and it looked delicious, plus most of it could be made or prepared the night before.  The strawberries and blueberries were rinsed in vinegar which supposedly kills bacteria that makes them go bad so quickly and stored in the fridge for the day.  The rest of the fruit was washed or peeled the night before the brunch.  I added it all to the bowl and wrapped it in saran before going to bed.  I didn't cut the grapes in half as I worried about about their juices making things too wet.
 All I had left to do the next morning was to core and cut the apple and banana.  Normally this couldn't be done until right before eating as the apple and banana start to go brown so quickly. But the "magic" dressing took care of that problem.
 The dressing is made from the juice of one orange and one lemon, some honey, and poppy seeds.  It's a very light mixture.
 So mixing the fruit up with the dressing an hour or two before guests arrived worked out perfect.  It coated the fruit keeping it from browning and the taste was so mild, not interfering with the fruit flavors.  I didn't use all of the dressing to keep if from pooling in the bottom of the bowl - just enough to see it glaze all of the fruit.
Having similarly prepped the Chinese Chicken Salad and the bread before everyone arrived, the only thing I had to do was pull the dishes out of the fridge, add the dressing to the salad, and serve.  I will definitely make this fruit salad again. It would even be great as take-to salad.  Before leaving for a party it can be made and mixed.  It would last a few hours before serving and there's no melon in it at all!

17 comments:

  1. That recipe looks delicious! Thanks for providing the link - I've bookmarked it for future reference. :)
    The only thing that makes me hesitate are the poppy seeds. I'm not a great fan. I bet it would be good without them, though.

    I have a similar recipe that uses more tropical fruits (kiwi & pineapple along with the strawberries, banana and grapes) only its dressing calls for honey and lime juice.

    Yours is just different enough from mine that I want to try it.

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    1. Yah, I'm not really sure of the poppy seeds' purpose, as they don't really have a flavor - maybe more of a textural ingredient? So I'm sure it would be just fine without them. I had to buy some and was disappointed that my grocery store didn't have it in a smaller package like they do some those other seed-like ingredients. I had to buy a rather large jar (considering they're not a common item in my cooking) and used such a small amount. The tropical salad sounds good too. Even the pineapple would be ok overnight. Yum!

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    2. You could use them on your morning cereal. They are supposed to, how do I put this delicately, I can't, so here goes, make people especially women, poop. And are something of a muscle relaxant for cramps.

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    3. Ha ha!
      I'm in pretty good shape digestively :), but I'll remember that...although I'd have to start eating cereal in the morning which doesn't sound appealing.

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  2. Pomegranete pips could add to the texture in exchange for the poppy seeds, and they are a good anti-oxident fruit like the blueberries. I love cantalope but it doesn't like me.

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  3. Oh I am a fan of pomegranate! I use those in a lot of other salads. That would be good!
    I don't even like the smell of most melons, but there's no reason why...I can't explain it. :)

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  4. For what it's worth that is more or less the recipe for the syrup they put in the cans. You wouldn't think of going that route and strain the juice and then put it in a salad spinner to dry then off.
    Or simply chop the fruit into a bowl filled with a bottle of wine/gin/vodka all three, and call it Fructa bibendum.

    I've been going through Cherries like that chick in the witches of Eastwick. They aren't grate this year. And about $11 a pound or €13 a kg here.

    By the way life's way to short to be cutting grapes, or anything smaller than your fist. Be easier to go to Ikea and get really unusual knives and a gigantic bowl and personal chopping boards and then the guests have at it. And anyway they are's 5, they can use sharps :-).

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    1. Yah, but the stuff in the cans is usually high in HFCS, plus the fruit isn't the same as fresh. Other than the possible GMOs (since the good people of CA voted against labeling those foods), the salad is au naturale. The canned stuff just isn't the same.
      Ha! That was my thought on the grape slicing...I eat them whole all the time! Usually I like to follow a recipe pretty accurately the first time I try it before doing any modifications, but that one I was pretty sure it'd still turn out ok.
      Do you have cherry orchards there or are your cherries imported? Our cherry season came and went like a flash. The weather has been effing up cherry crops the last couple of years. I used to go visit my friends in Leona Valley for cherry picking, and we could go for a few weeks before the trees were depleted. This year, cherry season there was only a week. They still pop up in the stores this time of year, but I got spoiled with the ones right off the tree. We pay anywhere from $3-$5 a pound,

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    2. We have cherries but none of the ones you can eat, at least no a second time anyway :-). No, in general we get them from Spain or the US. And sometimes Morocco.

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  6. This recipe sounds yummy...I was thinking of making a fruit salad this evening. I'm still not sure what I will use.

    I always loved eating fruits, but I actually had to reduce the amount of fruit I was eating because I was taking it a bit too far:)

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    1. Ha ha! I agree. There are certain fruits that are just so good there's a chance to OD on them. :) I hope you try it...it was worth the work.

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  7. Guess this is a dumb question but what is stone fruit??? Also, like them or not, you should never consume poppy seeds before a drug test!! 😀

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    1. The stone fruits, I believe, are any of those fruits with the big "pit" or stone inside. Peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries are considered stone fruits. Other than grapes, they are probably my favorite kind of fruit. The peaches and nectarines are so close to being so ready. :)
      Yes! Remember in the 80s that coming out as a problem on the drug tests. Elaine on "Seinfeld" flunked a test because she ate a poppy seed muffin every day. Ha ha ha!

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  8. Looks great.. maybe trying adding some pomegranate next time for a nice surprise.

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    1. Yes, I think I will. Pomegranates are sooo yummy! I just wish they weren't so expensive and so much work.

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  9. YUM! I would like a big bowl right this second : ).

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