Ambrosia

By norsegal8

My grandmother wouldn't make Ambrosia this way, but then she didn't have Ben Becnel's ditrus farm in Plaquemine's Parish nearby. Fall is our citrus season, and ambrosia is a great way to use all our different varieties of citrus at once. If you can't get your hands on this many varieties of citrus, just use what you can find.

Ingredients

• 2 satsuma or mandarine oranges
• 2 naval oranges
• 2 blood oranges
• 2 ruby red grapefruit
• 12 red seedless grapes, halved
• 4 kumquats, washed, thinly sliced crosswise and seeded
• 1 cup sugarcane juice or simple syrup
• 1 whole coconut
• small leaves from 10 sprigs fresh mint

Details

Servings 6

Preparation

Step 1

1. Using a sharp knife and working with one piece of fruit at a time, remove the segments of oranges and grapefruit by first cutting off the top and bottom of each fruit. then stand the fruit on end and slice from top to bottom, between the white pith and the fruit. Cut around the entire orange and grapefruit, removing as much peel as possible and leaving as much of the flesh as you can.

2. Working over a bowl to catch the juices, cut out each fruit segment from between the membranes on each side. Put the segments into the bowl and squeeze whatever juice remains in the cut fruit center into the bowl. Discard the spent centers.

3. Add the grapes and kumquates to the bowl of citrus segments and gently stir in the sugarcane juice or simple syrup. Crack open the coconut with a hammer and save the coconut water for another use. Pry the flesh from the shell, then discard the shell. Using a vegetable peeler, shave long ribbons of coconut and add them to the bowl of fruit. Scatter mint leaves over the salad.