A few weeks ago, we went to a new restaurant in Windsor Locks, CT by the airport. It's a sports bar, for lack of a better description, with more TV's than food options, almost. We had some appetizers to start and ordered some burgers for our main entrees. The appetizers were really good- we had scallops wrapped in bacon with a maple glaze and calamari fries, which coincidentally, are 100 times better than the usual rings. Our burgers were good, but the best thing on my plate was a jicama & mango "slaw". I'm always nervous about fruit served with dinner, usually because they throw pineapple in things like slaws and salsas. I'm allergic to pineapple (it really is hell) so my first question about a fruit slaw is always what's in it.
Okay, moving along...
The fruit slaw was purely that, jicama- a weird fruit that looks(ish) like a potato and tastes(ish) like an apple- and mango. It was really refreshing and super tasty. On my trips to the local produce store, I was in search of jicama to make my own little "slaw" with jicama and apples and maybe some mango. Too bad I couldn't find it. Instead, I grabbed a few fruits [inspired by a mango-tropics 'salad' that I sometimes get at the local fruit marker] and decided to make my own slaw.
Here's what I did....
Ingredients:
1 medium apple (used a boring red apple but could use any kind you like)
1 mango
4 large strawberries
3 kiwi
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1+ tsp honey
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp cilantro
I peeled the apple, mango and kiwi and pitted the strawberries. I cut the apple and kiwi into really thin slices and then cut those into little strips. I did something similar to the strawberries. Turns out, however, that a mango is a weird fruit to cut. There's a pit of sorts in it (I honestly did not know that) and so I ended up with a bunch of weird shaped chunks that I had to then cut into nice slices before I could cut them into little strips. I threw them all into a bowl together and tossed them around. Then, I mixed the juice of a lime and some honey together with a little salt to cut the sweetness of everything. I heated up my honey (in the jar) to make it easier to blend them together. In hindsight, way less of the 'dressing' is needed, hence the 1/2 a lime. I tossed them all together, chopped up a little bit of cilantro and tossed it in. [I appreciate the non-judgement of my not so uniform fruit cuts... I wouldn't have made it on top chef]
Next time, I'll probably let the fruit drain in a strainer for a little bit prior to mixing the dressing in. And, I'll probably leave them a little chunkier than I did this time. These fruits have produced good amount of juice so I may have to strain it a bit before eating it but it's pretty amazingly delicious and makes a great treat when you're in the mood for something sweet!
Do you have a favorite fruit pairing?
Happy Fooding!
