Abi Balingit's Fiesta Fruit Salad
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Abi Balingit's Fiesta Fruit Salad
As featured on Food with Mark Bittman
If you’re up for a little joy today, I suggest listening to Mark and Holly’s interview with dessert queen Abi Balingit, author of Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed, and of the blog The Dusky Kitchen. The fun the three of them had is contagious. This recipe, from Mayumu, was shared on the episode.
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Fiesta Fruit Salad
Makes 8 servings
Nothing screams party to me more than fruit salad. There is always a giant vat of the creamy fruit cocktail mix at my family’s celebrations. I’ve heard murmurs of American ambrosia salad over the years bearing some resemblance to it, but Filipino fruit salad certainly doesn’t contain marshmallows. Filipino fruit salad does have chewy ingredients like nata de coco, or coconut gel, and kaong, or sugar palm fruit, which you can find at your local Filipino grocery store. The biggest difference between my fruit salad recipe and my parents’ is the canned fruit selection. I have the strongest aversions toward canned pears and maraschino cherries (they taste so mushy and medicine-like to me!), so I opted for refreshing fruits that I prefer instead, like canned lychee and grapefruit.
— Mayumu
Ingredients:
1 (15.25-ounce) can peach chunks in syrup
1 (19.9-ounce) can peeled and pitted lychees in syrup
1 (20-ounce) can pineapple chunks in syrup
1 (15-ounce) can red grapefruit in syrup
1 (12-ounce) jar kaong in syrup
1 (12-ounce) jar nata de coco in syrup
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream, cold
Instructions:
1. Pour the peach chunks, lychees, pineapple chunks, red grapefruit, kaong, and nata de coco in a colander set over the kitchen sink. Give all the fruits a light stir with a wooden spoon until all the syrup is discarded. Place the drained fruit mixture into a large bowl.
2. In a large measuring cup, whisk the condensed milk and heavy cream together until smooth. Pour over the fruit mixture and gently stir until evenly distributed. Cover the bowl with a lid and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
3. Serve cold and store any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
— Recipe from Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed
