The Best Fresh Fruit Recipe Ever

and Telling Stories

I've been feeding my father, who has been here in Alabama with us now for 3 months, some fabulous favorite recipes and I thought I'd share some with you that he thinks are the best. All of these recipes come from two sources, my favorite cookbooks. They are produced by the Australian Women's Weekly Books and Family Circle. I adore both series, though the Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks are awesome.

It's a pain in the butt to get my father to eat any fruit, so I was thrilled when this became a simple easy method to pour the fruit down his throat. He begs for it, so I keep a small bowl constantly filled in his fridge. While it's enough for two to three servings, it rarely lasts overnight.

This fabulous fruit recipe comes from the Australian Women's Weekly's Simple Beginner's Meals cookbook and it is called Fruit Salad With Star-Anise Syrup. This is super simple to do and great for children and groups. If you got a lot to feed, this is a fast and easy desert or snack. It's also great for taking with you in your RV. Little fuss and muss.

Ingredients

1-2 kilograms (enough for four servings) of just about any fruit: strawberry, melon, pineapple, mango, cherry, apple, orange, grape, kiwi, banana, whatever
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
4 cardamon pods
4 star anise

In a pot on medium heat, put the sugar, lemon juice, and water and begin to heat it (not to a boil). Bruise the cardamon, which means setting each pod on a cutting board, laying a big knife over it on its side and gently smacking your hand down on the knife to flatten the pod to open just a little, or doing the same thing with a flat heavy surface like a meat pounder. Put the cardamon with the star anise in the pot, but I want to give you an option.

If you are just doing this single recipe, you can pull the cardamon and anise out later so people won't eat it. If you are doubling or tripling the recipe, then put the cardamon and star anise in a cheese cloth made into a tea bag. This way, you can reuse it one more time and easily keep all the little bits and pieces from being eaten.

Heat the syrup until the sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. When the liquid is clear, though slightly reddish in color from the star anise, turn off the heat and let it cool.

Cut up the fruit into small bite-sized pieces and put into a sealed container that will easily fit into your refridgerator. When the syrup has cooled, pour it over the fruit, either leaving the cardamon and anise in or straining it into a cheese cloth and putting the collected seeds into the mixture, and store it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Overnight is great, too.

Serve it up in bowls and invite your guests to drink the syrup out of the bowl after they finish the fruit. They will want to, trust me. Slurping is required.

I always keep some syrup in the bowl and add more fruit as necessary, mixing it with the older fruit. keeping this on hand for several days before making a new mixture. It will store in the fruit for about 2 days with fruit in it. After that, the fruit starts to get soggy but is still okay for another day or so, depending upon the fruit. You can make the mixture up to three days ahead before putting on the fruit, though the cookbook recommends reheating the syrup before pouring on the fruit.

The Australian Women's Weekly's Simple Beginner's Meals suggests adding a small dollop of mascarpone as a topping, but whip cream will also work. We like it plain. DO NOT put it over ice cream as it will melt the ice cream really fast, unless the ice cream is rock solid frozen.

I'll be adding more of my favorite recipes soon, so stay tuned for more goodies as Lorelle learns more about how to cook.

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  1. […] I recently wrote about our favorite fresh fruit recipe and I’ve been asked to share more of our classic recipes. This one is from the Middle East, though some say it can also be found in India, called Chicken Tagine with Dates and Honey. […]

    Pingback by Taking Your Camera on the Road » Chicken Tagine with Dates and Honey — February 22, 2006 @ 12:19

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