Spiced-Up Summer Fruit
28 July 2009
Fruit salad - such a lovely summer dessert. And no need it should always taste the same! There are plenty of ways to spice it up for a change. The basis always being really tasty and juicy fruit, of course; even the best dressing could not disguise the missing flavour of the main ingredients if they're bland...
This whole idea came up during our recent trip to Napa Valley, where we stayed at a charming little B&B called Chanric Inn. The breakfast was a culinary surpise, indeed. Every morning we were pampered with home-made cake, scones or muffins (always deliciously juicy), followed by fresh fruit (some of them home grown, and all of them extremely tasty) and finally the "breakfast main", such as for example poached eggs on ratatouille (always perfectly to the point of cooking, and seasoning).
All the dishes had some little twist to them, just a small but essential detail in the seasoning that made them extremely interesting. And one of the biggest surprises were indeed the fruit salads. Not only was the produce itself superbly aromatic, but it was also subtly spiced up with different herbs or dressings – such as lemon thyme or amaretto, just to name a few condiments. Absolutely delicious and also a fantastic dessert idea, especially when the latter isn't meant to be a heavy cream or cake, but rather just a swift little sweet and refreshing aftertaste in your mouth to conclude dinner.
Varieties to this are of course endless. To start with I opted for some seasonal white peaches and apricots, and gave them a bit of an oriental touch of saffron, nutmeg and cointreau…
Peaches & Apricots with Saffron Dressing
| serves 4 |
| 4 ripe peaches |
| 8 ripe apricots |
| about 160ml cointreau |
| 1 pack (about 3 teaspoons) of vanilla sugar |
| about 4 threads of saffron |
| a generous pinch of nutmeg, freshly ground |
| a tiny little pinch of salt |
In a small saucepan, bring the cointreau to a light simmer. Add the vanilla sugar (take one that contains real vanilla, not just aroma; alternatively use the content of a vanilla bean), the saffron threads, some freshly ground nutmeg as well as a tiny little pinch of salt (you should not taste it, but it will really make a difference!). Let reduce on moderate heat for some 15 minutes or so.
In the meantime wash and cut the fruit (the riper and tastier the better) into bite-sized bits and place in a bowl. Pour over the juice while it is still warm, cover the bowl with a lid or some clingfilm and let it rest for at least half an hour.
Enjoy as it is or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
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