simple fruit salad

I had done my version of the Las Vegas Spin this past Saturday and was still not quite awake when presented with this great antidote to travel-lag by Greg on Sunday morning.

My version of the Las Vegas Spin is taking a crack of dawn flight into LV, spending the day at a tea convention seeing wonderful friends (what are we doing tasting tea in a place like this?), then flying back the same day, getting home shortly before midnight.  Long enough to smell like the invisible cigarette smoke that permeates every hotel there, but short enough to have enjoyed myself more than trashed myself.  I have to tell you, the smell of oranges and mint was a wonderful reminder of how lucky I was to not still be in Las Vegas.

Even though these oranges have been lurking in the fridge for the last month or so, they were still clearly flavorful and delicious.  Yes, if you are not sure what to do with those oranges, they seem to be one of the few fruits that can be stored in the fridge for a long time - they will keep their flavor and not mold away like they do on the counter.  Just plan ahead if you don't want to bite into ice cold fruit.

Putting this together is easy and Greg simply peeled the oranges (get those bioflavanoids!) instead of the fancier, messier supreme method ("soo-prem", french for what it sounds like, refers to the supreme cut, in this case, the way to cut oranges into membrane-less sections). Get those youngsters to help you hand peel- the results will impress them too.  

The magic is in assembling shortly before serving and using fresh mint - somehow it connects with the honey in a luscious way. I forget about fresh mint and what a great herb it is.  Actually, less or more of any of these ingredients should still yield accolades. And come to think of it, there are many other combinations of fruit you can use, so I've suggested some below. 

Simple Fruit Salad

4 small oranges/apricots/peaches

1 blood orange/1/2 cup strawberries/ 2 plums

1 Tablespoon honey

1 handful fresh mint leaves, washed & minced fine (chiffonade)

Peel or chop up the fruit, mince that mint and combine just before serving.  To make the honey more liquid, put the jar in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes and stir into thinner consistency before you pull some out.

I'll add a little detail on chiffonade soon but here is the short on it: 

• stack 5 or 6 of the leaves at a time
  
• fold the stack over as if you were turning tabacco into a cigarette (tighter gives you more control but remember the leaves are kinda tender too) 
  
• then slice crosswise as thinly as possible.  
  

I went a little overboard on the chiffonade, so we left out some of the mint when making the salad to make sure we weren't overdoing it - then forgot about it.  It dried in a few days on a plate and will make a delicious tisane.