I have blogged before about an upcoming herb gardener's retreat on June 23-24, so I've been testing a few recipes in advance. We had fruit salad at supper last night, and since I've been planning to serve fruit salad on Sunday morning or the retreat, I thought I use the leftovers to test a couple of herbal combinations I've been meaning to try. Everyone has seen recipes for fruit salad with mint, but I've also had a very fine dinner salad with orange slices, red onion, and slivers of fennel bulb that was excellent. The light licorice flavor of the fennel complemented the orange very nicely.
I have plenty of spearmint in the garden, so I snipped a few sprigs of that along with fennel and anise hyssop (this last herb having a similar but distinct licorice flavor as well). I minced the herbs fine with my mezzaluna. In one bowl I tried mint and fennel with the orange/pineapple/strawberry/melon mix, in the other bowl mint and anise hyssop and the same fruits. I let the flavors marry for about two hours and then tested it with my chef friend Chad who happened to be in the kitchen. We both agreed that the mint and fennel combination was much better, even after multiple tastings back and forth.
So a basic recipe: 2 cups of mixed fruit (make sure there's some orange in there, go easy on the strawberry, and keep all the juices); and 2 teaspoons each of fresh minced spearmint and fennel leaves. Toss the whole business gently, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. You could try other mints (lemon mint, apple mint, peppermint) or even pineapple sage or lemon verbena. A pinch or two of ground coriander could give it a little exotic edge, as would freshly grated ginger.
Tonight, back to bread--potato bread, to be exact, because we had lef
I have plenty of spearmint in the garden, so I snipped a few sprigs of that along with fennel and anise hyssop (this last herb having a similar but distinct licorice flavor as well). I minced the herbs fine with my mezzaluna. In one bowl I tried mint and fennel with the orange/pineapple/strawberry/melon mix, in the other bowl mint and anise hyssop and the same fruits. I let the flavors marry for about two hours and then tested it with my chef friend Chad who happened to be in the kitchen. We both agreed that the mint and fennel combination was much better, even after multiple tastings back and forth.
So a basic recipe: 2 cups of mixed fruit (make sure there's some orange in there, go easy on the strawberry, and keep all the juices); and 2 teaspoons each of fresh minced spearmint and fennel leaves. Toss the whole business gently, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. You could try other mints (lemon mint, apple mint, peppermint) or even pineapple sage or lemon verbena. A pinch or two of ground coriander could give it a little exotic edge, as would freshly grated ginger.
Tonight, back to bread--potato bread, to be exact, because we had lef
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