Harry's Amazing Fruit Salads

This one is my brother-in-law Harry's specialty. No breakfast is complete without it when we are all together. It's a super healthy meal in a bowl and so refreshing. My sister wrote the rest of this.

Harry’s theory is to use the same base for all the types of salad and then change the main ingredients to suit the type of salad. The presentation and the preparation are part of the what makes it so good. So you can prepare these salads in front of your friends, family or guests or as a special ritual for yourself.

His Four Versions of Fruit Salad are:
1) Dessert
2) Breakfast
3) Salad served with the main evening meal
4) There is a fourth type which is a brunch salad, which can be a variation of the three.

Basic Fruit Salad
To start with, here are the Five “Must Do Basics” for all types of salads.
1) Basic Ingredient #1: The base is always oranges and grapefruits. The peeling of them is very important. First, cut off the ends, then slice down all sides. What is left is just the meat of the fruit. Then cut out each one of the segments with a sharp knife. Do this over a large bowl so that you catch all of the juices that drip into the bowl. It’s very quick after you get used to doing it. Then squeeze the juice out of the remaining pulp. This makes a nice presentation and no pulp in the salad for your guests.
2) Basic Ingredient #2: Fresh Ginger grated to taste.
3) Basic Ingredient #3: sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
4) Basic Ingredient #4: A good extra virgin cold pressed olive oil.
5) Basic Ingredient #5: Finely grated hard Reggiano cheese on top.

Version #1 - Dessert Salad
Start with a martini glass or some kind of see through dish for nice presentation so that you can see what’s in the salad.
Line the martini glass with fresh baby spinach leaves.
Put in the orange and grapefruit, less for a dessert salad and add “tropical” fruit like banana, kiwi, mango or papaya. Mix it nicely into a large mixing bowl.
Inside the bowl, grate fresh ginger, a fresh lime which you cut the same way that you do the oranges and grapefruits…cut the wedges out with a sharp knife, then squeeze the juice out of the remaining pulp.
Melt a little honey in the microwave. Drizzle on salad – not too much, not to take away from the salt and pepper taste. But it pulls together the fruit flavours.
Put all the fruit onto the lined spinach leaves in your dessert dish.
Grate an excellent Reggiano cheese with a fine grater on top. Just a little.
Top with mint leaves. Serve with a fork.
At the end, a special treat is to drink the remaining juice mixture out of the martini glass.

Version #2 - Breakfast Fruit Salad
Berries go well in this salad – blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries. It all depends on what you like and what your guests like or what is available.
Leave out the spinach leaves, no avocado, no citrus fruit is necessary.
A nice Brie or Camembare cheese can be used as a garnish.
For example, this morning Harry made a warm Brie and Blackberry salad.
Slice a little banana, maybe ½ per serving, into the bottom of a serving dish. Place the ¼ round of Brie or Camembare per person on top of the banana. You will not see the banana underneath. Warm in microwave for 25 to 30 seconds. You will not notice the banana flavour but will think that the cheese and the banana are one. It will have a combined flavour that is indescribable.
Around the sides arrange blackberries and drizzle warmed honey mixture and olive oil on top. In this case, Harry warmed up some dried herbs from the garden in a cast iron frying pan (mixture of all types including lavender, sage, basil, etc.) and added the warm honey. Then he drizzled this mixture on top of the Brie, banana, and blackberries. If using the Brie or Camembert, then you don’t need the grated cheese.
Serve a thinly sliced toasted heavy German or Transylvanian or multigrain bread cut into wedges on the side of the dish. We also had some bacon as a side dish with this which worked with the dried herb flavours.

Version #3 – Evening Meal Salad served with or before the main dish
Serve this salad in a larger, deeper, wide rimmed white bowl. Put more spinach leaves in..again that show at the edge of the bowl.
Herbs – Put in fresh herbs - more dill, cilantro, basil, mint, whatever you have.
Add sliced green onion or shallots.
No honey on this one.
Use more citrus fruits, less banana, less tropicals.
Add the sea salt, pepper, ginger and EVOO
Add Brie or Camembert or your favourite cheese (a five year old white cheddar is also good) in wedges around the edge of the bowl.
Garnish with sliced avocado.
Grate Reggiano Cheese on top and add mint leaves.
This salad goes well with fish, smoked salmon, or smoked goldeye.