June 9, 2011: Fruit Salad Recipe

During the increasingly hot summer days, nothing is better for a cool and delicious side dish than fruit salad. And with the abundance of fresh fruit available at the grocery store and farmer’s market right now, why not incorporate it into a light lunch or dinner?

This fruit salad consists of watermelon, pineapples and red grapes

There really isn’t much to making a fruit salad other than selecting your favorite varieties of fruit, cutting it up, and combining it in a bowl. Here’s some of my fave fruits:

• Watermelon, scooped into balls
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Blackberries
• Peaches, peeled and sliced
• Grapes (red, white, or green), halved
• Cherries
• Apples, peeled and cut into chunks
• Pineapple, cut into chunks
• Plums, peeled and sliced

If you like a dressing on your fruit salad, try using a container of vanilla yogurt or a bit of honey thinned with the juice of a fresh lime. Amaretto and cream is another good option – particularly delish on peaches and raspberries.

It’s summer so enjoy the fresh fruit while you can!

March 7, 2011: Plum Sauce Recipe

Do you ever dream about food? I do, quite frequently (guess that says something about my psyche!). The other night my dream was about fried rice so, of course, I had to make a Chinese meal for dinner the next day. I thought about making sweet and sour pork to go along with the fried rice but I didn’t have any pineapple. What I did have, however, were plums I’d canned last summer. So instead of the traditional red sweet and sour sauce with pineapple, I decided to try my hand at plum sauce. After doing a bit of research online, I came up with my own variation.

I don’t know if it was because I was really hungry that night or whether the sauce was just plain good but the meal came out fantastic!

This sauce is really versatile. It can be used as I did – added to stir-fried chunks of pork, onion, and bell pepper – or as a unique brush-on glaze for pork loin or ham, a dipping sauce for egg rolls, or for any recipe in place of sweet-sour sauce.

Plum Sauce

1 clove garlic, minced
1 t. finely minced ginger
2 t. sesame oil
1 t. – 1 T. red chili sauce (found in the Chinese food section of the store; the amount depends on the level of heat you prefer)
1 pint jar canned plums (or a store-bought jar of plums or plum preserves)
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup brown sugar

In a medium-sized saucepan, sauté the garlic and ginger in the sesame oil until soft and fragrant, approximately 2 – 3 minutes. While it’s cooking, pour the jar of plums plus liquid into a blender and liquefy (don’t worry if there are still small chunks of plums left). Add the chili sauce, plums, vinegar and sugar to the saucepan. Heat over medium heat until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened. If the sauce is too thin, thicken with a teaspoon or so of cornstarch mixed with water.

Enjoy!