Something Light and Refreshing

Grapefruit, Tangelo, Fennel, Red Onion and Arugula Salad in a Honey Citrus and Poppyseed Vinaigrette

I'm still working my way through all the citrus from our little Citrus Hurricane wind storm that I last posted about and enjoying the grapefruit granita from that post still.

Last year I stumbled upon the great combo of citrus and fennel and decided to revisit that idea. I also added in some arugula and onions. It's different from a traditional green based salad and I purposely go light on the arugula because of it's spicier flavor. I don't want it to overwhelm the delicate flavors of the fennel and citrus. The addition of fennel takes away the tartness of the grapefruit while the red onion adds the little pungent flavor.

The whole salad is a nice balance blend of spicy, tart, sweet and pungent and is quite good!

But please add as much as you like to your tastes.

These were our pink grapefruits, cut this way just to show the color

Grapefruit and Fennel Salad

2 pink grapefruits, segmented

2 tangelos, segmented

1/4 red onion

1 smal fennel bulb

handful of arugula

1 Tbsp lemon zest

2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp olive oil (EVOO)

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 Tbsp poppy seeds

Black pepper to taste

Segment your citrus over a bowl to collect the juices
Then squeeze out whatever juice is left in the fruit to get all the juice you can.
(see below for how to segment)
 Then set citrus aside

Slice the red onion and fennel on the mandoline or with a knife
Place in a big bowl
Toss in your arugula (I purposely didn't use much arugula)
Carefully add in your citrus segments

Honey Citrus Dressing

Take juices from citrus and place in a covered jar

Add in the honey, lemon zest, EVOO, sea salt and black pepper

 Close jar and shake

Add poppy seeds right before serving and shake again.

Gently toss salad with about half of dressing or to taste.
Plate and serve right away.
Will make 2 main salad servings or 4 side salads

Grapefruit and Fennel Salad Close Up

Note: You could easily also add some chopped avocado to this. 
The flavors would marry well.

Easy Video Tutorial on How to Segment Citrus

Tool Tips:


The Mandoline is perfect for this recipe for getting everything nice and thinly sliced!
If you want to see where I spoke more about this gadget and others that make life in the kitchen a little easier, check out my post about Cool Tools.

Another great kitchen gadget that I  am really enjoying is the Microplaner, which makes zesting and grating super easy!

No more scrape knuckles with this one!

Even fresh nutmeg is easy to grate!





I hope you give the salad a try and if you do please let me know what you think!

A Citrus Hurricane

Grapefruit Granita- Raw

If you don't follow professional golf and weren't watching the televised tournament last weekend, then you probably missed the little hurricane wind episode we had here in the California desert. The golf tournament formerly known as the Bob Hope Classic, now called the Humana Challenge was in full swing when hurricane force winds over 90 mph swept into town and blew over stands, leader boards, etc on the course and trees everywhere. It was so dangerous, they halted the play and called it a day. President Bill Clinton was here so you might have maybe heard something but probably not. With our mostly sunny climate, we get very little sympathy from the national news around here during the winters.

It was wild how the wind storm came out of nowhere and attacked us for the better part of the afternooon.  But during the winds our citrus trees were pelting out fruit to anyone that might get too close, kind of like the scene in the Wizard of Oz with the apple trees throwing apples at Dorothy and her crew except these trees had no visible arms. The fruit just came a flying!

The next morning it was completely still, the course was miraculously cleaned up and the golf tournament continued and looked like nothing happened but the rest of us where left with the aftermath of massive debris everywhere.

Eucalyptus trees were the biggest casualties, as they are just too bulky for the high winds around here.
This is our neighbor's unit as one of the golf course trees came colliding with their unit across the cart path and fence.

Trees out of the ground, roots and all.  See how "foggy" the sky is? Thats' sand!

The best little surprise out of the whole ordeal were scenes just like this one...

Citrus Fruit Everywhere!

Grapefruit both regular and pink, Tangelos, Meyer Lemons, Regular Lemons

It was all so exciting to get so much fruit but then we realized we only have so much time to eat it all! I'm a little acid sensitive so I can't do too much at once but Rich just loves "eating off the trees" as he calls it. This year they hacked up our beautiful Minneola Tangerine tree, the one I wrote about as giving off the juicy "Tangelo Bombs" last year. There are hardly any branches left to bear fruit. (That really irks me as it was totally unnecessary and we look forward all year to these delicious fruit!) Hopefully next year!

So in honor of all the fruit we have at our... table, I'm going to be exploring some citrus options for the next few posts, hope you don't mind. It's just that time of year.

First Up.... 

Grapefruit Granita- Raw

This is so simple and yet so refreshing. 

2 cups fresh grapefruit juice, strained

1/4 cup filtered water

1/4 cup agave syrup

1/4 cup lemon juice, strained

Blend together agave and water in a blender until well combined 

(room temperature water makes this easier)

Then add in the grapefruit and lemon juices and blend again. 

Pour into a non-reactive pan, I used a 8x8 baking pan.

 And freeze. 

Check every hour and scrape back the frozen top with a fork or back of spoon. 

3 times should be enough. 

It should take about 6 hrs but can be left for 3 days if you like.

Serve in a chilled glass with sprig of mint for garnish 

and eat right away!

Alternatively, you can let freeze solid and when ready

 break into chunks and pulse in food processor to get ice crystal shavings.

Add Some Booze!

For those non raw peeps reading this, 

you can add in a little vodka too- about 2 tbsp

 (this will keep it from freezing solid, among other things.)

Another option to dress this up is place in a chilled glass and 

pour your favorite champagne over for

 a specialty drink style bubbly slushie.

That's it for now!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and are ready for a great week ahead!

Breakfast is Served

Tangelo Kiwi Cups

We are really loving the citrus right now and with the trees still ripe for the picking, 

we are still exploring new combinations.

These little gems were almost too beautiful to eat!

But we got over it.

Tangelo Kiwi Cups

As you can see the ingredients are pretty straight forward.

Ingredients:

3 Tangelos, peeled and segmented

2 Kiwi, peeled and sliced

Pomegrante seeds

Mint for garnish

To use the tangelos as cups, I just sliced them in half and segmented with a grapefruit knife. 

Then used the electric juicer to swirl out the insides and get any remaining juice (to enjoy as I worked.)

Assemble all into the tangelo shell or bowl and garnish with mint.

Tropical Fruit Salad

This has been a total surprise!

While I love pineapple and bananas,  R. doesn't care for either of them and yet

 he's already asking for me to make this on a regular basis.

Go figure!

This recipe would be great all thrown in the blender too!

Ingredients:

2 Tangelos, peeled and segmented

1 Mango, peeled and diced

1 cups Pineapple, peeled cored and cubed

1 Banana, peeled and sliced

1 Lime, juiced

1 Tbsp Agave Nectar

1/4 cup shredded Coconut, unsweetened

Assemble first 6 items in the bowl and toss gently to mix.

Cover and let chill for about an hour.

Sprinkle with Coconut and Serve.

This morning's repeat.

Mmm....So good!

I called this breakfast but these are both good anytime!