Thursday, October 13, 2011

Ottolenghi's grapefruit brekky

Breakfast serial part xv
October 9, 2011
After roughly a year's break we're trying an organic fruit'n'veg box delivery again, this time from Aussie Farmers Direct. Our first one arrived on Thursday and included a grapefruit. Grapefruits weird me out. I'd never eaten them growing up - I just saw them mentioned again and again on the diet pages of the women's magazines my grandma and aunties read. This had me assuming they weren't tasty. Since then I've enjoyed a few grapefruity beverages and desserts while eating out but not ventured to do much with them myself.

Ottolenghi has a grapefruit breakfast recipe online, which I figured must be a good bet. It's pretty simple - halve a grapefruit, sprinkle over sugar and star anise, grill it to a syrup and serve with a little yoghurt. It was... just barely OK. Messy to eat. I didn't really get into the flavour combination. I'm pretty sure it's not the thing to sustain me through a weekday either.

Does anyone out there have a favourite thing to do with grapefruit? There's every chance we'll be delivered a few more.

10 comments:

  1. No tips, but I wonder if cooking it in the skin affected the taste? I find grapefruit unbearably bitter unless I peel it and remove all traces of pith.

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  2. I'm actually quite clueless when it comes to grapefruit haha. I love this recipe tho! Having fruits for breakfast. What a great way to start the day =)

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  3. My dad is quite into having grapefruits for breakfast and he has this trick where he cuts them open the night before, sprinkles them with sugar or spices or however he feels like flavouring them, then leaves them sandwiched back together overnight so that the sugar seeps through the whole fruit. They're very yummy this way, but I would still recommend eating something else alongside them, grapefruits aren't terribly filling on their own!

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  4. We've been getting an Aussie Farmers Direct fruit & vege box too! It's great. Hmmm the only thing I've done with grapefruit is grill it with sugar and cinnamon, could you use it in a salad?

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  5. Hmmm maybe a sorbet - grapefruit (lots of sugar) and elderflower????

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  6. Not for breakfast, but why not try a kale and grapefruit salad?

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  7. Dark rum and a salted glass. Lots of ice and a hot day.

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  8. Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

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  9. Actually you've reminded me about an awesome grapefruit salad I used to make all the time, but haven't for years because I associated it with salmon (which I had it with at the time, it was just my system!) It's from Jill Dupleix's Good Cooking, and she says it's a good brunch, too:

    1 ripe grapefruit
    2 tbsp olive oil
    salt & pepper
    2 avocados (I'm pretty sure I only ever used 1...possibly I only used half the grapefruit too, because upon checking the recipe serves 4 but I only ever made it for 2. She says sliced lengthways but I think I chopped mine.)
    lettuce (I used cos)
    3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
    pink peppercorns (I never used these)

    Peel the grapefruit with a knife over a bowl, to catch the juice. Cut the grapefruit into segments.

    Whisk grapefruit juice, oil, salt & pepper together: voila, dressing.

    Tear lettuce into bite-size pieces. Lightly toss everything together.

    I'm bummed I don't have a grapefruit now!

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  10. I want what Nudbot's having.

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