Recipe: Moosewood Restaurant 14 Fresh Fruit Combinations and Simple Syrup

FRESH FRUIT COMBINATIONS

"If poets have license with words, then cooks should have license with ingredients - and fruit is the perfect medium for taking culinary artistic liberties. With a dazzling palette of common and uncommon fruits and vegetables, you can create refreshing seasonal salads, intriguing combo plates, and delicious accompaniments. Fruits from over the border and over the seas appear regularly in supermarkets across the United States. Fruits with names like blood orange, Australian orange, passion fruit, Asian pear, pomegranate, carambola, prickly pear, and persimmon catch our attention and pique our curiosity. Other "fruits" that have long been grouped with vegetables make tasty companions for their long-lost relatives: cucumber, avocados, tomatoes, and chiles add crunch, lusciousness, color, and spice to fruit salad.

Fruits such as pears, apples, and peaches stay bright and fresh when sprinkled with vinegar or citrus juice or when dipped in a light syrup. Here's our simple syrup recipe."

LIGHT SYRUP FOR FRUIT

Combine in a saucepan:
1 cup of water
2 to 4 tablespoons sugar
Add one or more of the following, if you wish:
Vanilla bean
Cinnamon stick
Slices of fresh ginger root
Rosemary leaves
Thyme leaves
Freshly grated lemon, orange, or lime peel
A few raspberries
Pomegranate seeds
Fresh mint leaves.
Simmer for about 10 minutes. Cool slightly and add:
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
Strain. Dip sliced fruit into the syrup and then add to salads.

We hope the following ideas will stimulate your imagination and add to your repertoire of appealing, beautiful salads:

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APRICOT BERRY SWEET TALK:
Steep sliced apricots, sliced peaches, and berries in vanilla, cinnamon-, thyme-, orange-, or raspberry-flavored syrup. Serve over mesclun.

ASIAN PEAR AND GRAPEFRUIT ON GREENS:
Prepare a abed of arugula on a serving platter. Arrange pear slices and grapefruit sections on it and top with sliced scallions. peel a pomegranate, remove the seeds from the membrane, and add them to the salad. Serve plain or drizzled with the light vinaigrette.

AVOCADO MELON MELANGE:
Peel, pit, and slice an avocado. Peel and seed a honeydew melon and 2 cucumbers and chop into bite-sized pieces. Peel and section a grapefruit. Gently combine everything in a serving bowl and stir in chopped fresh mint and cilantro Serve immediately.

CARAMBOLA, GRAPES AND APPLES:
Dip sliced carambola and apple slices in light syrup and gently toss with grapes. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

CHERRIES ROYALE:
Prepare our light syrup with fresh lemon juice and no other flavoring. Dip cherries and mango or peach slices in the syrup. Arrange the fruit on a platter or in a bowl and serve immediately.

MANGO SALSA SALAD:
Peel, pit, and slice a mango. Peel, seed, and slice a cucumber. Halve some cherry tomatoes and seed and dice a red bell pepper. Sprinkle with fresh lime juice, chopped fresh cilantro, and minced jalapenos.

MELBA VINAIGRETTE:
Peel, pit and slice peaches into a bowl. Sprinkle raspberries and vinaigrette over the peaches. Gently toss. Set aside for 1/2 hour before serving.

MELON AND MINT:
Sprinkle slices or chunks of honeydew, crenshaw, watermelon or cantaloupe with freshly squeezed lime juice and chopped fresh mint.

ORANGES, HOT AND SWEET:
Peel oranges and section into a bowl. Stir in a few tablespoons of honey ad minced jalapenos. Allow the oranges to macerate at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes before serving, or chill and then bring to room temperature before serving.

ORANGES EXOTIC:
Toast walnuts in a 350 degrees F oven for about 10 minutes. Combine peeled and sectioned oranges, a few pomegranate seeds, and few thin slices of sweet red onion in a bowl. Place the remaining pomegranate seeds in a sieve and press with the back of a spoon to drizzle their juice over the fruit. Top with walnuts and serve.

PEARS PARMESAN:
Thinly slice pears (and/or apples) and place them in light syrup. toast walnuts at 350 degree F for 10 minutes, cool, and coarsely chop. Remove the fruit from the syrup and arrange with the nuts on a platter. Top with slivers of Parmesan cheese.

PINEAPPLE PASSION:
Choose a ripe, mostly yellow pineapple with a sweet aroma. Peel the fruit and cut it into bite-sized chunks. Sprinkle the pineapple with fresh lime juice. Cut a wrinkled brown passion fruit in half and scoop out the seeds and juice into a small cup or bowl. Strain and discard the seeds and stir the juice into the pineapple. Serve at room temperature or chill until needed.

STRAWBERRIES WITH A TOUCH OF TART:
Hull the strawberries, sprinkle them with a little sugar and balsamic vinegar or fresh lemon juice, and stir gently. Set aside at room temperature for at least 1/2 hour before serving.

SUMMER FRUIT FEST:
Place peeled kiwi, hulled strawberries, and a little sugar in a blender and puree to a sauce. Drizzle the kiwi-strawberry sauce over summer fruits, such as peaches, nectarines, apricots, and berries.

Source: Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special by Moosewood Collective