Fruit Maven » Grapefruit http://fruitmaven.com Your guide through the wild world of fruit. Mon, 21 May 2012 17:54:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 10 Ways to Cook with Grapefruit http://fruitmaven.com/2012/03/10-ways-to-cook-with-grapefruit/ http://fruitmaven.com/2012/03/10-ways-to-cook-with-grapefruit/#comments Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:42:37 +0000 Fruit Maven http://fruitmaven.com/?p=3269 It’s grapefruit season! Well…it’s been grapefruit season for a while actually. I adore grapefruit. The Melogold, Marsh, Cocktail, Ruby Red…I love them all. Here are a few ways to perk them up when you find you have a few too many on your hands to just dive in with a spoon.

cooking-with-grapefruit

Sidenote to say that link up there for the spoon will take you to something called an “Endurance Grapefruit Spoon“. Can you imagine the meeting where that name was decided? Did those people even like grapefruit?

“People are exhausted from having to pick up their knife to cut around each segment of the grapefruit to then  have to pick up their spoon to actually eat it.

We can’t just call it a grapefruit spoon. No one would buy it.

You have to put the benefit in there somehow.

It’s Marketing 101. Everyone knows that.

I’ve got it. They are exhausted right?

How about ENDURANCE GRAPEFRUIT SPOON!!!

Can I get a high five here or what?!?”


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10 Ways to Cook With Grapefruit

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The acidic and light light qualities of grapefruit pair well with moderately heavier foods that have mild flavor to support but not compete with the fruit. Play with avocado, cream cheese, banana, vanilla, and honey.

  1. Appetizer: Spread a touch of cream cheese on a cracker and top with a small segment of grapefruit and avocado.
  2. Dessert: Remove a few segments of the grapefruit after slicing in half. Stuff with banana slices, sprinkle with coconut and a touch of brown sugar. Bake for 7-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Broil to caramelize the top if desired.
  3. Tea: Juice grapefruit. Add honey and a small chunk of fresh ginger. Boil and strain into mug.
  4. Salad: Cut membranes away to remove peel and white parts leaving only the fresh segments. Sprinkle with chopped fresh mint. Lay on a bed of fresh greens. Drizzle with honey and olive oil. (You can also put this whole thing right inside a hollowed out half of a grapefruit.)
  5. Breakfast: Mix flesh and juice in to yogurt. Top with pecans.
  6. Cocktail: Add a squeeze of juice in to cheap champagne. (I often do this with lemons too.) Or just squeeze in to sparkling water for something non-alcoholic.
  7. Compote: Boil grapefruit segments with equal parts water and sugar until dissolved. You can incorporate additional flavors like chunks of ginger or star anise. Strain and use as a topping for ice cream, waffles, pancakes, etc.
  8. Candy the peels and chop. Mix into your favorite muffins, scones or cookie recipe.
  9. Fill endive spears with a grapefruit segment, slice of avocado and a piece of cooked lobster, crab or shrimp. Season with salt and pepper.
  10. Dip fresh segments or candied segments in melted chocolate. Sprinkle with toasted coconut. Refrigerate until firm.

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]]> http://fruitmaven.com/2012/03/10-ways-to-cook-with-grapefruit/feed/ 0 Cocktail Grapefruit (Mandalo) http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/cocktail-grapefruit-mandalo/ http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/cocktail-grapefruit-mandalo/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:39:10 +0000 Fruit Maven http://fruitmaven.com/?p=1063 If you look like a duck and walk like a duck but are actually half a cat, then this is the fruit for you! Cocktail Grapefruit
APPEARANCE 3 out of 5 stars

Green and yellow blotchy skin; squatty body, with pale yellow flesh and white seeds. This is a funny little frump of a grapefruit in the looks department.

AROMA 5 out of 5 stars

Strong, floral, sweet and acidic; pure grapefruit scent. Smelling this I am oddly compelled to wash my hair.

TEXTURE 3.5 out of 5 stars

Little capsules of extremely juicy flesh; tons of seeds.

TASTE 4 out of 5 stars

Sweet, not acidic at all, quiet and concentrated grapefruit essence.

OVERALL 3.88 out of 5 stars

In some ways this is a confusing grapefruit to me. It is mild and lacks the sourness that so many grapefruits have and yet it isn’t extremely sweet like a ruby red either. It’s just a mellow yellow grapefruit with an insane amount of seeds. Nonetheless I keep buying it because it tastes so refreshing. If only I was inclined to do some kind of cleanse. This would definitely be my grapefruit of choice. But I won’t be doing that any time soon as I have spent a good number of years amassing these toxins and have no intention of letting them go that easily. Mine!  I did just get a juicer though. You can read about my new fancy Breville Juice Fountain Elite 800jexl here.  Oh yeah – say that 3x fast.

FRUIT

Grapefruit

VARIETY

Cocktail

PEAK

Winter

ORIGIN

University California Riverside

GROWN

Unknown

PURCHASED

Grocery Store
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NOTES

So this grapefruit just gets more confusing with every bite and every lookup. Apparently it isn’t really a grapefruit exactly. It is a cross between a Frua Mandarin orange and a Siamese Sweet pummelo. And a Frua is actually a cross between a King mandarin and a Dancy tangerine. All of which is why it has another name too, the Mandalo. I have one word for you Cocktail grapefruit — Imposter!

]]> http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/cocktail-grapefruit-mandalo/feed/ 0 Melogold Grapefruit http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/melogold-grapefruit/ http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/melogold-grapefruit/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:22:59 +0000 Fruit Maven http://fruitmaven.com/?p=1142 If you are the kind of person who would start the grapefruit diet and then proceed to cheat by eating the absolute biggest one you can find, then we should be friends and this is the fruit for you!
APPEARANCE 3 out of 5 stars

Extremely large (6+ inches across) with yellowish green pebbly skin and pale yellow flesh (in that top picture over there it is the big one sitting behind a normal size grapefruit); weighs over two pounds. Not completely round as it has a bit of a squatty, mountain top shape to it.

AROMA 4 out of 5 stars

Perfumy and sweet grapefruit fragrance.

TEXTURE 4 out of 5 stars

Juicy! with little soft pockets of flesh; very few seeds.

TASTE 4 out of 5 stars

Only the slightest bit of acidity at the very first taste that mellows into complicated and lovely grapefruit flavor.

OVERALL 3.75 out of 5 stars

I have such a hard time with fruit that is gigantic. I just have a bias toward small, cute, little nibbles. Don’t get me wrong, I love things with ridiculous proportions, in fact the more ridiculous the better. But if its just BIG, then my response is usually – eh. I liked this grapefruit well enough, but after going through my ritual of cutting it in half, cutting between the membranes and scooping out a bite, I had to then take it to the cutting board and slice the “bite” in to three more bites. RITUAL RUINED. Then after I was full from the “one” bite, I had no idea what to do with the rest of it. I ate it every day for a week.

FRUIT

Grapefruit

VARIETY

Melogold

PEAK

Winter

ORIGIN

UC Riverside
California

GROWN

Unknown

PURCHASED

Asian Market

NOTES

The melogold is a cross between a pummelo and a grapefruit, developed at University of California, Riverside in the 1950s. On a more important note, grapefruits can be used to cure nail fungus. What? You don’t want to hear about nail fungus on a fruit blog? You just think about how sorry you would be the next time you got a nail fungus if I held back this information. You are welcome. So I was thinking with this humongous grapefruit maybe you could just do some sort of foot soak. Just cut it in half and stick your toes in each half. Yeah, so I just saved you $50 at the spa and cured your disgusting foot problem. Oh the value I am offering the world is just growing exponentially.

]]> http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/melogold-grapefruit/feed/ 0 Marsh Grapefruit http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/marsh-grapefruit/ http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/marsh-grapefruit/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:33:14 +0000 Fruit Maven http://fruitmaven.com/?p=864 If you think the spork was the greatest invention of the last century, then this is the fruit for you!
APPEARANCE 3 out of 5 stars

Yellow skin, yellow flesh – big as a grapefruit!

AROMA 4 out of 5 stars

Sweet and floral

TEXTURE 4 out of 5 stars

Extremely juicy with very few, quite small seeds (most sites claim this is a seedless variety), very thick pith

TASTE 4 out of 5 stars

This has a pure grapefruit flavor – not overly acidic or tart but not super sweet or sugary either

OVERALL 3.75 out of 5 stars

I love this grapefruit. For some reason it reminds me of grapefruits in my childhood before I knew they came in the super candy sweet versions. This one kept squirting juice in my eye every time I dug in to take a bite. Also, my lips tingled like crazy after eating it. All of which, I found completely charming.

FRUIT

Graperfruit

VARIETY

Marsh

PEAK

Winter

GROWN

Creekside Tropicals
California

PURCHASED

Farmer’s Market

NOTES

I have somewhat mixed feelings on the fact that this fruit warrants a spoon specifically designed for eating it. Behold the Grapefruit Spoon! I have always painstakingly used a knife to cut the fruit in half, then slice between each and every little wedge so that I could later scoop it out with a spoon at my leisure. Grapefruit spoons essentially save a step. As previously mentioned on this site, I am all for laziness but somehow this just seems wrong to me. I suppose we could label it “efficiency”, take joy in “needing” a new cute little spoon and call it a day, but I think I might just take stand here and say NO! The ritual of the grapefruit must be maintained, passed down. What kind of world do we want to leave to our children? A world with confusing drawers of specialized spoons? I think not!

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