In her book, A Continual Feast, Evelyn Birge Vitz says that, "It has long been traditional to list twelve fruits or graces of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, Galatians 5 having provided the essential idea. The twelve are charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity. This is a wonderful season for fresh fruit. What could be more fitting or appetizing for this feast than a mixed fruit salad?"
Twelve Fruit Salad
Ingredients:
Directions:
- 12 kinds of fresh fruit. Some possibilities include: red or green grapes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, pineapples, plums, apples, oranges, bananas, grapefruit, kiwi, mangoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and honey dew.
- Sugar (optional)
- Lemon juice (to prevent fruit from browning.)
Wash, hull, peel and slice the fruit as necessary. If you are using melons, cut into bite-sized chunks or melon balls.
You can either mix all the fruit together in a large bowl or lay them in an attractive pattern on a bed of greens.
Sprinkle wit ha little sugar if you wish, and then with a little lemon juice.
Evelyn also recommends serving the Twelve-fruit Salad with a Curry Mayonnaise. I haven't tried it before, but it sounds interesting!
Curry Mayonnaise
Ingredients:
Combine all ingredients. Yield: about 1 1/4 cups sauce.
- 1 cup Mayonnaise
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
There are so many great meal ides for the feast of Pentecost, I am really looking forward to celebrating!!!
We make a similar fruit salad and coat it with condensed milk. It is very tasty and not overpoweringly sweet as you may think.
ReplyDeleteWe do the fruit salad each year and will be making a cake this year thanks to you and a lady who belongs to STMHE. Thank you once again for starting this wonderful blog.
ReplyDeleteA few ideas for decorating include using a white or red tablecloth. If it is white, red flames cut from construction paper can be scattered on the tablecloth and hanging a dove from the dining room ceiling (either handmade or purchased from a craft store).
The curry sauce is very "East meets West" but not in the way we might think, since actually the chilli pepper came from America (West) and made its way around the globe with the trade in spices (East) finding favor among the Arabs, Persians, Indians, Mongols, Chinese and Indonesians. I first encountered fruit with pepper in Singapore on a business trip. Its called Rojak and quite delicious:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rojak#Fruit_rojak
But I would suggest that milk and honey are the key ingredients for anything pentecostal, for these are the ingredients the Hebrews use to celebrate Shavuot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavuot
"Dairy foods such as cheesecake and blintzes with cheese and other fillings are traditionally served on Shavuot. One explanation for the consumption of dairy foods on this holiday is that the Israelites had not yet received the Torah, with its laws of shechita (ritual slaughtering of animals). As the food they had prepared beforehand was not in accordance with these laws, they opted to eat simple dairy meals to honor the holiday. Some say it harks back to King Solomon's portrayal of the Torah as "honey and milk are under your tongue" (Song of Songs 4:11)."
I love this fruit salad. Will surely use it along with the cake idea this Sunday for my niece's Confirmation. Thank you very much.
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