Transatlantic Fruit Salad

On a sunny March afternoon earlier this year as I prepared myself to head to a friend's house for an overdue catch up I decided I fancied making something suitably refreshing as a result of the un-seasonal summery sunshine.

The soundtrack was the Rolling Stones' somewhat lethargic live double album Love You Live from 1977 which, although it contains a lot of unfocused playing in large stadiums, redeems itself with four excellent blues and rock 'n' roll songs recorded on stage in a very small and intimate club.

The dish I made was a Pear, Cinnamon and Pomegranate Fruit Salad which is recipe that is popular across the Atlantic in North America. The recipe itself is pretty straightforward but consuming the finished product is a slightly different matter.

I first took three pears, peeled them and then cut them into baton shapes before placing them into a glass serving bowl. It's true to say that pears have a reputation as being very sloppy and therefore after preparing them I made sure that I cleaned my hands thoroughly.

The next task was even more messy; preparing a pomegranate. I first removed the skin with a peeler and then ripped out the cardboard membrane with my bare hands to leave lots of red and magenta seeds that were very juicy. I added the seeds to the pear batons in the bowl and mixed them well together.

I followed up by taking a lemon and squeezing half of its juice over the pomegranate seeds and the pear pieces. I then found a separate bowl and added two tablespoons of brown sugar, quarter of a teaspoon of nutmeg and half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the bowl and stirred them all together. I then added this fine smelling mixture of seasoning to the bowl of fruit and mixed it in until the fruit turned a muddy colour.

This New World fruit salad was now ready, but what would it taste like? I have to say I am not usually a fan of English fruit salads as they are usually a banal mixture of oranges, strawberry, banana and kiwi fruit- food that in my view should never be seen dead in the same bowl. However this fruit salad was a revelation; the cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg elevated the taste of the pears and the pomegranate juice into something special. I felt that I had been transported three months forward into mid-summer so much did the taste evoke  sunny Sunday afternoons sitting in the garden. The only downside to the dish is that each of the pomegranate seeds needs chewing individually to get the goodness out of it and then the husk needs to be thrown away as it cannot be eaten safely. Still as the fruit salad's taste is top quality this tedious job is well worth it for such a rewarding meal.

In the serving bowl and ready to eat- but be ready to pick through those Pomegranate seeds