Winter Fruit Salad

We had our annual post-holiday blahs party on Saturday.  As usual, we made tons of food (we're still eating some of it!).  Surprisingly, though, the one thing we didn't have left over was a fruit salad that I found in Food Network Magazine. 

You can use whatever fruit you can find if you can't get those that are suggested--we used starfruit instead of kumquats, for example.  It's a little bit more involved than a typical fruit salad, but believe me, it's worth it.  The vanilla and ginger flavors really complement the sweet fruit.  Very delicious.



Photo courtesy of Food Network

 WINTER FRUIT SALAD (serves 6)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup sugar
1" piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
1 lemon
5 large navel or blood oranges (I used a combination)
2 mangoes, peeled and diced
2 firm bananas, peeled and diced
5 kiwis, peeled and diced
12 kumquats, very thinly sliced crosswise, seeds removed
1 cup pomegranate seeds (from 1 pomegranate--see my post, "Pom 101")

• Combine sugar, 2 cups water, ginger and vanilla seeds and pod in a saucepan.  Use a vegetable peeler to remove wide strips of zest from the lemon and 1 orange, add to saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat and simmer 5 minutes.  Refrigerate until cold.
• Meanwhile, peel the remaining oranges with a paring knife, cutting along the natural curve of the fruit.  Hold an orange over a large bowl and cut along both sides of each membrane to free the segments, letting them fall into the bowl.  Squeeze each empty membrane to release the juices.  Repeat with the remaining oranges.  Add the mangoes, bananas, kiwis, kumquats and pomegranate seeds and gently toss.  Pour the syrup over the fruit and chill overnight.
• Before serving, remove the citrus zest, ginger and vanilla pod.  (I put those things in a cheesecloth pouch to make removing them easier.)