Karl’s Grape and Mango Fruit Salad

I bought a mango several days ago and it was in danger of becoming over ripe. When I mentioned that I was thinking about making a fruit salad to go with my chicken dinner the response was quite positive. Gathering what fruit I had produced this salad.

There is a bit of a trick to getting at the fruit on a mango. Mangoes have a large, flat seed. Trim off the stem end and set the mango up right. Slice down along one side of the seed to free most of the fruit on one side.

Slice along the other side of the seed to free much of the rest of the fruit. This will leave you with the seed and a ring of fruit along its edge—there is

no way to cut this bit of fruit into pretty pieces, for most purposes I simply bury them under the attractive pieces. For this salad, I scrapped the fruit off and mashed it to make the dressing.

Cut away the skin on each half of the mango, which leaves you with two domes of solid fruit. Normally, I would slice these domes on the bias—as it makes a good display when you fan them out. For this dish, I cross cut the slices to make a course dice.

Asian pears are much crisper than their European counterparts. Generally they are pealed and eaten raw. They add a pleasant crunch to what would otherwise be a fairly soft salad.

Karl’s Grape and Mango Fruit Salad

Ingredients

1 cup red seedless grapes
1 mango
2 navel oranges
1 Asian pear
1 large Fiji apple (or 2 small)
Half a pinch of Kosher salt.

Directions

1. Slice each grape in half.

Tip: Supermarket grapes can be a bit old. Grapes also rot from the stem, so check each one as you slice it. If you would not pop it in your mouth don’t leave it for anyone else. Trim or discard as needed.

2. Cut the mango into small pieces.

3. Put the mashed bits of mango into a bowl.

Tip: These bits can be stringy, pressing the fruit paste through a coarse sieve will remove these.

4. Cut the top and bottoms off the oranges.

Tip: Squeeze the juice of these bits into the small bowl.

5. Lay the oranges on a cutting board and slice away the peels.

Tip: It is OK to cut into the sections a tiny bit, as you want to remove all of the white pith as well as the rind.

6. Hold each orange in one hand over the bowl and use a paring knife to slice along the membranes on each side of one of the sections.

Tip: Some juice will be released as you do this and drip into the bowl.

Note: After you have freed the orange sections handle them gently. Only the cohesion between the juice cell walls is keeping the pieces whole.

7. Put the freed orange section into the bowl with the grapes and mango.

8. Work your way around the oranges until every section has been transferred to the larger bowl.

Tip: Squeeze the juice from the remaining membranes into the small bowl.

9. Quarter, seed and peel the Asian pear and apple.

10. Dice into small pieces and add the large bowl.

11. Add the salt to the small bowl, mix well and pour it over the fruit.

12. Toss to coat and serve.

Tip: The acid in the orange juice will prevent the pear and apple from turning brown. You do not want to wait to add the orange juice, after you have exposed these fruits to the air.