Recipe for "fruit-salad"

NAME

     FRUIT-SALAD - Generic fresh fruit salad
     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.

INGREDIENTS (Makes too much)

     1         ripe pineapple
     1         ripe melon
     1         large grapefruit (preferably pink)
     2-3        oranges
     300 g     maraschino cherries (1 large jar)
     2-3        ripe bananas
     2-3        kiwi fruits
     500 g     stewed prunes in heavy syrup (1 standard can)
     2-3        ripe peaches, sliced (or  use  500  g  of  stewed
               apricot halves in heavy syrup)
     250 ml    apricot nectar

PROCEDURE

          (1)  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.
          (2)  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.
          (3)  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 cir-
               cular patterns).
          (4)  Add the stewed prunes, syrup and  all.  This  will
               moisten everything. Add the maraschino cheries and
               the syrup they came in (check for stems). Add  the
               nectar,  making  sure  there  is  enough liquid to
               cover the fruit.
          (5)  This is the hard part. Put it all  in  the  refri-
               gerator,  and  don't  eat  any  until tommorow. It
               really needs to sit overnight for all  the  colors
               and flavors to blend together.

NOTES

     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, canteloupe, and casaba with good results.   Water-
     melon  is  interesting, but has a very diferent 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 invari-
     ant part is the grapefruit, orange, and maraschino cherries.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy.  Time: 30  minutes  preparation,  1/2  day
     waiting.  Precision: approximate measurement mandatory.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Roy Smith
     Public Health Research Institute, New York, NY, USA
     {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy