A Christmas showstopper, Val’s Fruit Salad

Posted on
For all of my life I have associated Christmas Day with fresh fruit salad.
Since before I could remember, my mum prepared an enormous tropical medley to anchor the dessert table as we spent Christmases with friends or extended family (there was just two of us). It was a show-stopper, housed in a watermelon shell. Once I was old enough to help ball fruit, de-pip cherries and assist with the chopping, we would spend our Christmas eves standing side-by-side in a pristine kitchen which would eventually become sticky with juice and peel.
Jazz would play, we would snack on chocolates and treats (more often than not my mum’s classic boiled fruit cake which is another story in itself) and the odd flying cherry pip, wayward melon, or avalanche of grapes would have us doubled over in laughter. Those are my favourite memories. Of course, this dish is more than simply beautiful. Fruit is at its peak in December, it provides a lovely balance to all the rich pudding/trifles/extravagance on offer, and no cooking is required.

This needs to be approached with military precision, and coffee.
But here are a few words of wisdom before you get started from someone who is now a veteran and who enlists the help of her own daughter to keep the magic of Christmas tradition going – thinking of her beloved mum, Val, all the while.
Consider doing it the night before. It keeps well in the fridge and this exercise takes about two hours and creates mess you didn’t even know was possible. You don’t want to be frazzled on the day, and you’re going to need time to mop your floors! Also you can dry your watermelon shell out a bit once it is empty and it makes for a less sloppy result. Wear black. Seriously. Or wear white and bleach the cherry splatter out afterwards. This will feed an army. If you only have a small group for Christmas, give people bowls to take home. It will last till the next day. My daughter made popsicles with fruit and lemonade from our remnants. Delish. Finally, TASTE the fruit as you go. Only add what is ripe and sweet. Our kiwis and apricots did not make the cut this year, but (oh my!) the pineapple was stupendous.

No scrap of fruit was wasted in this fruit salad!
What you will need need:
A whole watermelon, size depending on how many you’re feeding, one small one will easily feed 15. Choose fruit on you own preferences, mine is just a guide. Note that you are only going to use about a quarter of your watermelon in your fruit salad so make sure you have hungry kids on hand to eat the offcuts.

Isn’t she gorgeous?
Half a rockmelon
half a pineapple
a handful of cherries
a handful of lychees
3 plums
3 mangos
3 apricots
3 nectarines or peaches
3 kiwi fruit
Small bunch green grapes
1 punnet of raspberries
1 punnet of blueberries
1 punnet of blackberries
1 punnet of strawberries
3 passionfruit and juice of one orange to mix and pour over the finished fruit salad.
2 star fruit for decoration

Orange juice, rind and passionfruit pulp. You can jazz this up with booze if you are so inclined…
What to do:
Clear your benches people, this is going to get messy! You need something to balance your watermelon on, I use a small shallow round dish that it sits on, but you can use a snug baking dish and if you are really stuggling you can make a nest out of scrunched up foil or a clean tea-towel. The shell needs to stand steady and not roll around. Wash the outside of your melon with a damp cloth and wash all your fruit.
Try and cut the top third of your watermelon off. Use a watermelon baller (available at large supermarkets or kitchen shops) and start balling! Put the watermelon balls in a separate large bowl and make sure you get the seeds out as you go. The beauty of a good fruit salad is not having to wade through any seeds, pips, skin or other bits. Scrape the rest out and give it to the worm farm or compost heap. Drain the watermelon thoroughly and use paper towel to mop up any juices that form at the bottom. Once empty, use a sharp knive to cut little V’s out of the top of the shell for Instagram, sorry, guests.
Chop up all your other fruit into small pieces (by small I mean small so that every spoonful has four or five bits on it, this is why it takes hours) and put into a second large bowl. Mix it gently.

It’s amazing how much better fruit tastes once someone has gone to the effort of peeling it and chopping it up for you!
When it comes time to fill your watermelon you are going to try and disperse fruit evenly, so take a large spoon and sprinkle some of the chopped fruit and the watermelon balls, and sprinkle the berries. Do it in layers until it is filled to the brim.
Scoop out your passionfruit pulp into a cup and squeeze your orange over it. Zest the rind and mix. Pour this over the top. If your Christmas is an adult-only affair and you like alcohol, you could also add a good slosh of Grand Marnier into the mix, or even gin (I’m thinking Canberra Distillery’s Summer Gin would work a treat).
Finally, if you can find some star fruit, slice them finely and grab a few tooth picks to stab them around the rim of the watermelon for decoration. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve and we like it with vanilla icecream, or thick cream, or custard. Or all three. It is Christmas after all.
PS: Thanks to all the mums out there making Christmas special and most of all, thank you Val! X