Title: TOO MUCH FRUIT SALAD
Categories: Fruit, Usenet
Yield: 1 batch
1 Pineapple, ripe
1 Melon, ripe
1 lg Grapefruit
-(preferably pink)
3 Oranges
11 oz Maraschino cherries
-(1 large jar)
3 Bananas, ripe
3 Kiwi fruits
1 lb Stewed prunes,
-in heavy syrup
-(1 standard can)
3 Peaches, sliced
-(or use 1 lb stewed
-apricot halves in
-heavy syrup)
1 c Apricot nectar
Peel and section the grapefruit and oranges. Remove the seeds and
membranes. Cut the sections into bite-size pieces and dump into a big
non-metallic bowl.
Peel and core the pineapple (making sure to get all the eyes), cut the
flesh into bite-sized pieces and add to the bowl. A typical whole pineapple
is usually too much, so you might want to reserve about 1/3 of the flesh to
eat by itself.
Peel and cut the melon, bananas, peaches and kiwi fruits and add to the
bowl. The kiwis should be sliced horizontally (so the seeds make pretty
circular patterns).
Add the stewed prunes, syrup and all. This will moisten everything. Add
the maraschino cherries and the syrup they came in (check for stems). Add
the nectar, making sure there is enough liquid to cover the fruit.
This is the hard part. Put it all in the refrigerator, and don't eat any
until tomorrow. It really needs to sit overnight for all the colors and
flavors to blend together.
NOTES:
* Many people think of fruit salad as that disgusting stuff that comes in
a can made from diced plastic fruit and heavy syrup. This is more like what
it is supposed to taste like, although some people might claim that my
addition of syrup makes this into fruit cocktail instead of fruit salad.
Whatever you call it, it's especially good in the summer. I make it every
couple of months (usually in vast quantities, even though there are only
two of us, hence the name). It rarely lasts very long, regardless of how
much I make. Yield: Makes too much.
* Some people might object to the use of maraschino cherries, they are
processed with sulfur dioxide, which isn't really good for you. I like the
way they taste, so I allow myself this one debauch.
* Unless you can find good-quality fresh fruit, it is better to use
canned. This is especially true of pineapple, canned pineapple is not as
good as good fresh pineapple, but is much better than a bad fresh one. For
the melon, I've used honeydew, cantaloupe and casaba with good results.
Watermelon is interesting, but has a very different texture from the
others. More important than the actual variety is that it is ripe.
Unfortunately, New York supermarkets only seem to sell the kind of melon
that goes from rock-hard to rotten without passing through ripe. Bananas
are best when they are just starting to get brown speckles.
* My mother uses orange juice for the liquid, but I prefer nectar. The
combination of the prune and cherry syrups give it a nice color. Sometimes
I add a bit of lemon juice for tartness. I've experimented with cherry
liqueur, but didn't really like the results.
* Use whatever fruit you find fresh in the market. The invariant part is
the grapefruit, orange and maraschino cherries.
