I made this recipe to bring to a cookout with my wife's "moms group." It's just a simple fruit salad of cherries (pitted and sliced), peaches (pitted and sliced) and green grapes (seedless and sliced). But being a Gourmet recipe, it has a special touch that takes it from ordinary to extraordinary. That special touch is the mint sugar.I took about a quarter-cup of packed whole fresh mint leaves and three tablespoons of granulated sugar and whizzed it up in the food processor. The mint leaves got finely chopped and fully incorporated with the sugar. When I opened the food processor, I was pleasantly surprised by the intense, sweet mint aroma. All of the mint's essence was released by the processing with the sugar. It had the smell of those LifeSavers Wint-O-Green mints, but it was a fresher, and even more intense scent. Awesome!
Right before we left for the cookout, I sprinkled the mint sugar over the fruit and gently stirred it to coat all of the fruit. As the fruit sat, the sugar combined with the fruit's juices to make a light, sweet and minty syrup. This was a delicious and simple fruit salad, and just the thing if you're looking for something a little different. The only drawback is that at first glance, the fruit salad looks like it's been sprinkled with dried oregano.
Date Cooked: June 14, 2009
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: A
