Grapefruit

When I was a little girl my mother would give me half a grapefruit sprinkled with sugar, each segment delicately cut loose for me to eat it more easily. I still remember that bitter sweet deliciousness, it's such a fond memory, but thinking about it now I realise it was quite unusual for me to be eating, not to mention enjoying grapefruit at that age! Somewhere along the line, probably when I started doing my own shopping and choosing what to fill my fruit bowl with, grapefruit didn't quite made the cut and many years passed without me giving them much notice.

Then, a few months ago, a Taiwanese friend of mine invited my husband and I over for a traditional meal prepared by his mother who was visiting at the time. I was flattered that she wanted to teach me a traditional (with a South Africa twist) version of a rice flour tray-cake. So there I was, learning a little about Asian-style baking, a real first for me. For one, a small bowl was used for measurements, which generally seemed less precise and a lot more about 'feel'.

When we had all eaten more than our fare share and were waiting for the cake to cool, his mom disappeared into the kitchen and came back bearing gifts - a yellowish grapefruit and spiky dragon fruit! I had only seen dragon fruit in Indonesia at the road side stalls but was never brave enough to buy one. She told us that she had grown the tree herself from a fruit many years ago. We all sat around the dining room table sipping cup after cup of jasmine tea and nibbling on the most delicious grapefruit and dragon fruit chunks. The grapefruit was a variety that I hadn't tasted before with a more yellow peel and a light pink coloured flesh, just beautiful.

It's as if my appetite for grapefruit has been reawakened and I have since come up with some adventurous recipes using them.
Here are two inspirational ideas if you share my sentiments about the very under appreciated grapefruit.

   
Firstly, I made a beautiful salad with locally smoked salmon trout, grapefruit segments, radishes and radicchio, using grapefruit juice in my vinaigrette. Another idea is when roasting beetroot in the oven, add some slices of grapefruit to sweeten and caramelise in the pan with the beetroot, add some blanched baby leeks and you've got a delicious veggie side dish. 

Enjoy!