9.21.2008

cocoa-gingered apple & orange salad

Photobucket It is amazing to believe that my Baba's generation rarely had the luxury of enjoying fresh fruit, when in her youthful glory. Certainly in the summer there were berries on the farm, but citrus fruit was only featured on a rare and special occasion. She remembers fresh mandarin oranges around Christmas time, and little else. Today we are spoiled rotten, with the wide-availability of fruits and vegetables available to meet our every whim and fancy. But yet, we are so accustomed to a varied selection of plump and juicy tomatoes, perfectly glossy apples, and seedless watermelons. Many times we take it for granted, moaning when produce is less than perfect, and not every variety of heirloom fig is available. So apples and oranges it is. Luxurious items 60 years ago, in the Canadian prairies, but today are commonplace market staples. But still we get bored. As a university student, I can count endless numbers of bags of apples and oranges I purchased, since they were relatively inexpensive, convenient, and healthful. I also consumed countless combinations of apple and orange salad. Red delicious apples, green apples, honey, no honey, mandarin oranges, navel oranges, fresh lemon, no lemon. Then recently, I discovered a nice batch of candied ginger. Jeff loves candied ginger, especially chocolate covered candied ginger. It's alright, but I think I prefer the ginger in smaller doses. It is however, especially nice when literally pulverized, and used to enhance other ingredients, like oranges and chocolate. Wanting to do something a little bit different for a late breakfast one Saturday morning, I decided it would be nice to include the candied ginger. Cocoa-gingered apple & orange salad For the topping: 3 tsp cocoa nibs 6 cubes candied ginger 1 tbsp sliced almonds 1 tbsp raw hempseed 1 apple and one navel orange, per person 1. Toast the almonds in a medium-high heat sauté pan. 2. Using a coffee grinder, combine the almonds, and other topping ingredients and crush. (lasts in the fridge up to one week). 3. Wash and chop fruit, and place into large bowls. Drizzle with lemon juice if not consuming immediately. 4. Sprinkle the cocoa-ginger topping evenly over the fruit. Enjoy!

12 comments:

tintallie said...

I like my candied ginger without the chocolate, thank you very much ;)

Hmmm maybe I should get you to plan my meals then since I might be having problems with wheat now....

I had whole wheat pasta on Thursday night and paid dearly for it while at work on Friday. It was as bad as digesting dairy. Josh says that every time I have bread, I seem to have problems as well...it really doesn't help that everything contains flour or wheat gluten these days.

gail said...

Sorry to hear about your tummy! Dairy & wheat too?! Oh dear. Yes, the candied ginger is yummy, I think I just like little teencey tastes of it at a time.

I'm game :)

tintallie said...

It almost makes sense really....remember when you were in Toronto and I was on that dreadful internship in Riverbend? I was having a LOT of digestive problems during that time and I really couldn't figure out what it was and my family doctor even had me drink a a radioactive barium shake to try and figure out what was going on.

I must have been consuming enough wheat and dairy at that time because when Mom forced Dad to eat lots of salmon, veggies and rice after his heart surgery, I didn't have as many issues. (I ate whatever Mom made...I was lazy though).

Anonymous said...

Hi Gail!

Fantastik blog! Hey - do you happen to have a recipe for the candied ginger that you tried? I NEVER had any success with any of them. For some reason the ginger taste goes out the window. I wish there would be a trick to preserve that in the candies version.

Thanks again!

Cheers!

Gabi @ Mamaliga.com

Cynthia said...

This sounds soooooo good.

Anonymous said...

Gosh, this sounds tooooootally delish! Never used Hemp for cooking...just want to also mention that if anyone's using ginger or candied ginger for ANYTHING and it's made in China...toss it. 99% chance it'll make you sick....

Anonymous said...

Hi !
it's my first time on your blog/site. Great stuff ! I love everything that is SIMPLE ! why are so many things so complicated ? Your recepies are simlpe and i'm sure taste as good as they look !
I was looking for a desert...
... now i have one !
Thanx

gail said...

haphazards - Yikes! Too bad my ginger came from a bulk bin... Fortunately, I have eaten very little of it.

fredskitchen - hehe, yes simple is so good. Complicated is fine, but only if it's worth it :)

Zesty Cook said...

Salad Looks great..... yum I do love candied ginger as well

Anonymous said...

This recipe sounds delicious, this is now on my to make list.

Anonymous said...

Candied ginger is one of my favorites and this salad looks delicious!

generic cialis said...

It looks delicious, the combination of ingredients is quite interesting.

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