When grapefruit season rolls around in Texas, it’s time to stock the refrigerator with grapefruit jewels. These are perfect wedges of sweet Texas grapefruit, with none of the bitter parts. Here is the secret to our easy jewel-making technique.
1. First cut off the ends of the grapefruit with a serrated knife.
2. Next, cut around the outside of the fruit removing all rind and pith. Sometimes we can do this in one cut, and we feel proud.
3. After the grapefruit is peeled, place a bowl under your work and begin separating the sections. The first one is cut differently from the rest. For this one, cut downward on the inside of the first two membranes and pull out the segment.
4. For the remainder of the pieces, use your knife thus: Place your knife point at the center and slide it outward, directly along the next membrane.
5. Then, turn your knife back over and twist it counter-clockwise against the following membrane and watch the pristine section begin to peel away from the bitter membrane and drop into your bowl. Repeat for all sections.
6. Behold a bowl of glistening sweet citrus jewels! We keep a large container of them in the refrigerator for several days (if they are not consumed in one day). I, personally, like to take the bowl out a few minutes before devouring the wedges, so that the gems are closer to room temperature and not so icy cold. Caution: if you are NOT the one who produced the grapefruit jewels, it is proper etiquette to leave at least one wedge for the grapefruit chef. Trust me, I’ve been on both ends of this situation.
Now that you have a bowl of perfect grapefruit wedges (that is if they were not accidentally gobbled up prematurely), you might want to try one of our favorite recipes from the excellent Ina Garten cookbook, Barefoot in Paris. This Avocado and Grapefruit Salad recipe can also be found online here. See below for a festive way to plate your creation (I like to use “plate” as a verb now that I have watched so much “plating” on the food network. :-)
Ina’s salad is not only delicious, but it is a perfect color story for a holiday table. Don’t you just love a dish that is tasty and pretty all at once? We hope you have fun making your juicy jewels and enjoy a healthy holiday season with all this lovely vitamin C!
Related Articles
3 Comments
-
Beautiful. I printed this out and instead of a simple recipe, it looks like a precious little book. Thank you.
-
This looks beautiful and delicious… and reminds me of my sweet grandfather. He would peel perfectly clean everything for his grandchildren: grapefruit, grapes, pecans. You name it.
-
Author
Thank you for these sweet comments! Happy holidays to all!
