Why Don't we Dress our Fruit Salads?

Fruit salad!

What are you picturing? If you're like me prior to around 6 months ago, you're imaging a big Lexan bowl in a cafeteria full of lightly-oxidized chunks of Granny Smith apple, split grapes, maybe some kiwi and pineapple, and a handful of blueberries, but it doesn't really matter because everything kind of smells and tastes like the mushy slices of bananas that were tossed in there anyway.

My friends Anne and Robert Moser run a bakery in San Mateo, CA called Backhaus. (Disclosure: I'm a partner in the business, though I have no hand in the day-to-day operations, nor can I claim any credit for their incredible bread, pastries, and coffee.) A few months back I visited them for the opening of the new Backhaus outpost in Burlingame, where they serve a full sit-down hot brunch menu. We had shoulder bacon, crostock French toast, a German breakfast plate, and a sandwich with homemade sausage and runny eggs on a poppyseed brioche bun. It was all excellent (as was the coffee).

We didn't order one but their chef, Michael Miyahara, wanted us to a fruit salad, so he brought one to our table. I'm glad he did, as it was the surprise hit of the meal for me.

It wasn't the fruit itself that was surprising–the grapes, berries, and melons were all as excellent as you'd expect market produce from California to be–but it was the... dressing? Glaze? Sauce? It's a fruit salad, so I'm going to go with dressing.

It was a barely-there type thing, coating each piece of fruit in a lacy, faintly white sheen dotted with poppy seeds. It added a faint touch of sweetness to the fruit–not enough to make it cloying, but enough to make each piece taste just a tiny bit riper than reality–a distinct yogurt-y tang, and a hint of vanilla. I spoke to Michael about that salad and he confirmed that the dressing is essentially thinned out yogurt lightly sweetened with confectioner's sugar, seasoned with a hint of vanilla and some poppy seeds. Just like a great vinaigrette or dressing adds to and intensifies flavors while still allowing vegetables and greens to shine, this dressing does the same for fruit.

This made me wonder: why don't we always dress our fruit salads?

Since then, I've been playing with variations on that theme all summer. I always start with a bit of yogurt –about a tablespoon for a quart of chopped fruit–thinned out to a glaze-y consistency with water. To that I've experimented with various flavorings, including the vanilla and poppy that Michael uses. Favorites so far have been orange zest and a tough of fresh orange juice to thin the yogurt, lemon zest and mint sweetened with a touch of honey, and a version with a hint of cinnamon and Sichuan peppercorn.

 As long as the flavors are applied subtlely enough that they don't everwhelm the fruit, I've found that anything that sounds like it shuold taste good, will, in fact, taste good in this scenario.

Here's another fun thing: There are a couple of local rosemary bushes that can deal with some aggressive trimming, so I've taken to grabbing a handful of rosemary stems to use as kitchen tools. They're wonderful tools for brushing melted butter onto roasting or grilling meats or vegetables, or for stirring up pots of soup or beans. On a whim I tried using a handful of rosemary as a makeshift whisk when putting together the dressing for a stone fruit, melon, and berry salad, finishing by adding the whole stems in the bowl before tossing the fruit with the dressing. It worked a treat, adding a faint aroma to the salad and saving me from having to wash up a whisk.

Rosemary is a hardy plant that grows in a wide range of climates, so I'd venture to guess that most folks reading this have some rosemary growing within a short walk from their front door.

How to Make-Ahead Fruit Salad

If making fruit salad ahead of time, I find that as the fruit sits in the dressing, the sugar in the dressing can draw out liquid, which ends up watering everything down. So how can you make a fruit salad ahead of time and still have the dressing come out nicely glaze-y?

The simple trick is to just refrain from watering down the yogurt in the first place. Keep the dressing extra-thick and as the fruit releases moisture, it'll naturally thin out to a good consistency with a little toss just before serving. The added bonus is that the liquid thinning out the dressing is now concentrated fruit juice, not just water, which helps the whole salad meld together, flavor-wise. (Unless you're the kind of person who keeps their food from touching on their plate.)

If you've got other ideas for improving fruit salad, share them below, and thanks!

A Well-Dressed Fruit Salad

For the Dressing:

1 tablespoon yogurt

1 teaspoon water

1 teaspoon honey

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

The zest of half a lemon, and about a teaspoon of its juice

For the Salad:

1 quart of chopped fresh seasonal fruit

A few mint or tarragon leaves, torn into tiny bits with your fingertips (optional)

A teeny pinch of salt

1. Whisk the dressing ingredients together (use a bunch of rosemary sprigs to do this if you'd like), then add the fruit, the mint, and a pinch of salt. Toss everything together.

2. Eat it.