I felt bad bringing this to Vivian's surprise bday potluck dinner last night because I really did not have anything in my house that I could cook an entree or appetizer with. Problem was that I didn't have a car. I had planned on doing a last minute run to buy ingredients. At the very least, I could do a simple but tasty stirfry. Without my car though, this was what I had on hand 2 hours before go-time:
-2 sweet potatoes
-a bag of yellow onions
-frozen chicken breasts in the freezer
-bag of old carrots
-carton of leftover chicken stock
-not enough time to make anything with any of the above
-half a head of napa
-head of bibb lettuce
-bananas
-1 ruby red grapefruit
-3 blood organes
-honey tangerines (for my grandparents)...2 of which I ended up using
...ergo, Citrus Salad. I made this for my belated bday dinner party last year and it was a wonderful palate cleanser...but this time I didn't have as much citrus fruit as before. Still, I had to bring *something right?
Without further ado, the recipe:
Citrus Salad with Vanilla Bean Syrup and Mint
Having great ingredients is half the battle. The other half of the battle is having a really really sharp knife. Without a sharp knife, you'll bruise the fruit, crush the cells of the citrus fruit, thus crushing out too much juice in the process, and end up with ugly, haggard, bedraggled citrus segments. You want clean, cute little slices...with minimal juice dripping from your hand as you go along.
Salad:
-1 ruby red grapefruit
-3 blood oranges
-2 honey tangerines
Sauce:
-1 vanilla bean, split, scraped
-1/2 cup granulated white sugar
-1/2 cup water
-1-2 tsp leftover blood orange+tangerine juices
Garnish:
-fresh mint
Equipment:
-REALLY SHARP KNIFE
Directions:
1) To make the simple syrup, in a small saucepan, add 1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 cup water. Take 1 vanilla bean, split, scrape out the gooey black seeds. Chuck the v. bean seeds in with the sugar/water mixture.
2) Stir on med or med-low heat til all sugar has dissolved and consistency of liquid is slightly thicker..syrupy. Then take off heat. Takes about 5 minutes tops.
3) Pour into a container and chill to room temp. I put it in a freezer and shook it up to help it cool down faster. If the vanilla beans are still clumped up and not dispersed in pretty black speckles all throughout the sauce, then take a whisk and whisk it a bit until the v. beans are well incorporated.
4) Set v.bean simple syrup aside til ready to serve.
5) With your really sharp knife, supreme (segment) each citrus fruit, working over a different bowl/plate for each type of citrus. Alot of juices will come out while you do this. Keep the plates/juices/diff citrus separate from each other at first, so you can decide later how much you want to use of each juice. Keep in mind that grapefruit will leak the most. Since grapefruit is the most bitter and stringent tasting citrus, you probably don't want very large quantities of the grapefruit juice mingling with the blood orange/tangerine juice. (Well, you might. But I didn't. Personal pref.)
Here's how:
-Cut off both ends of the citrus fruit so that the fruit sits flat on your cutting board. You want the fruit to be exposed on both ends. Make sure to cut enough off so that no membrane or pith is showing on either end. You want the meat of the citrus fruit to show.
-Take really sharp knife, and cut the pith off the fruit methodically, making sure to cut the pith off in slices thick enough so that no membrane is showing.
Doing this neatly, efficiently, and without wasting too much fruit in the process, takes a little practice. It's all in the motion of your knife.
6) Find a nice big serving platter: you don't want to pile the fruit on top of each other. Pick a plate with enough surface area to spread the fruit out a bit. White is a good contrast to the gorgeous colors.
After you're done segmenting the various citrus, using clean hands, gently transfer all of the fruit onto the serving platter, leaving the juices behind. Pour a bit of the blood orange and honey tangerine juice on top, using your best judgment. More juice will leech out while they rest. You don't want your citrus to be swimming in all the unnecessary juices.
Reserve 1-2 tsp of both orange juices to add to vanilla bean simple syrup if you want. I did. I don't like waste. I drank the rest. (Or save for other uses. Sorbet? Granita? Vinaigrette?)
7) When ready to serve, sprinkle fresh chopped mint all over the citrus. Drizzle vanilla bean simple syrup to taste. Keep it on the side for people to add more if they want.
8) Let the compliments roll.
Long and verbose for something simple, but when it comes to simple things, the little details add up. If the fruit isn't cut well, if there's too much liquid, if there's no mint, no v. bean, the subtle variations in flavor that make this so tasty to eat will be gone. The difference between good and great is the interplay between tart/sweet/bitter/herbal mintiness/mellow, round flavor of the vanilla. Oh yea. I didn't have any fresh mint in the house, so I asked Dave (my ride) if we could swing by a Shaw's on the way there. Problem solved.
Enjoy.
bad picture. the best i have.
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