My friend Sienna has a thing about ginger. When we stop by our local bar to get a carrot apple juice, she asks for hers with so much ginger it burns your tongue. So when we were at the movies the other night, I shouldn’t have been surprised when she slipped me a candy, and it was a ginger bomb.
Since it was dark, and the movie (Carnage. Great. Go see it.) had already started, I had to keep my WOW to myself. Since my ginger love is almost as strong as Sienna’s I of course asked her for another half way through the movie. Once the lights came back on I was able to see what I was eating: Curiously Strong Altoids. But not the horrid mints that I can’t stand, but their newest flavor, ginger.
Which is all to say I had ginger on my mind the next day as I was making fruit salad. Sienna had invited me to lunch on her terrace and I’d offered to bring fruit. I’d planned on buying and bringing a gorgeous bunch of grapes, but forgot. I did however have a couple of apples, bananas and kiwis – as well as a handful of grapes. In other words, fruit salad.
But our friend Beatrice was also coming, and since she is an extreme judge of food quality (she owns Gustiamo, which imports some of the most amazing food from Italy to the States) I knew I had to up my game a bit. Also, Sienna – besides being a fantastic cook – runs a culinary tour company. It was one of those lunches that seemed simple, but the capers had just flown in from Stomboli with Beatrice and Sienna’s cheeses had arrived a few days before from Lyon. Plain fruit salad just wasn’t gonna cut it.
I couldn’t stop thinking about those Curiously Strong candies, and so thought I’d add ginger to the fruit salad – in large enough quantities to raise it above boring fruit salad into the realm of curiously delicious.
While I am usually pretty lazy when it comes to fruit salad, just dumping sugar and a bit of lemon juice directly into the cut up fruit, this time I actually made a ‘dressing.’ A huge knob of fresh ginger, grated, as well as lemon zest. Lemon juice as always. But instead of sugar, I opened a jar of honey I’d just gotten from a new company in Greece, Navarino. The gorgeous packaging lived up to the taste, which was redolent of wild thyme, giving the entire dish a slight resin flavor that was just right.
Adding ginger to fruit salad is one of those aha moments. I can’t believe I never did it before, and won’t ever make that mistake again. So now that I’ve got fruit salad taken care of, my only remaining ginger-related problem is where am I going to get more of those Ginger Altoids? If you’re coming over from the States, will you bring me a box or 12? I only had two, but I’m officially addicted.
Curiously Strong Ginger Fruit Salad
Serves Four
2 bananas
2 apples
2 kiwis
1 cup grapes
Big knob of ginger, about an inch and half piece
Zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon
2 1/2 Tablespoons of Thyme Honey
Peel and cut up the fruit, and place in bowl.
Grate the lemon peel and place in small bowl, with grated ginger. Add honey and mix to paste. Add lemon juice and mix well.
Add dressing to fruit salad and stir. Let sit in fridge about an hour before serving.
spacedlaw
I am going over to Wisconsin for Halloween. I could go and hunt for them there (they do sound terribly addictive – I am a ginger fiend too).
Elizabeth
@Spacedlaw: Wisconsin? What fun! Get some cheese along with those Altoids.
Ann
Elizabeth,
You always have the best recipes!
About that ginger- you just literally grated it roughly and added it to the fruit?
chefbea
You were right!!! I will definitely make this. Can’t wait to find the ginger altoids. Maybe you might find some in your Christmas stocking!!!
Elizabeth
@Ann: Thanks! I grated it very finely, on that grater you see in the photo of the lemons. Then added it to the dressing, as I explained in the recipe.
@Chefbea: Don’t know if I can wait till xmas!
Michelle Cervone
Elizabeth,
They are available on Amazon. Also, these are a great “holistic” remedy for an upset stomach. Still might be fun to get some in your stocking.
Sienna
Thanks Elizabeth! That was a fun lunch. And I hope we can find more of those Ginger Altoids soon! The capers from Stromoli that Beatrice brought were amazing with the smoked salmon and the onions from Tropea~ And I am dreaming of those Cerignola olives from Gustiamo.
jodi
I like what Michelle said about a holistic remedy for upset stomach. Will definitely try the Altoids, possibly the fruit salad.
Lost in Provence
Yet another I definitely will make–thank you! I have been cooking with ginger more and more in non-gingery type of things–it is a shape shifter!
And I bet that your friend Sienna doesn’t catch as many colds as the rest of us either.
CHC
As another ginger addict, may I reccommend Ginger Chews from Ginger People. Ginger anything from this wonderful company is terrific!
chefbea
Had the salad tonight!!! Soooo good!! Have not been able to find ginger altoids here in Wilmington NC