Filipino Recipes: Fruit Salad with a Twist

The noche buena feast in Christmas cannot be complete without the famous fruit salad. While fresh fruits is always preferable because of the distinct and original flavors imparted by the produce, city-dwellers would have to make use of other alternatives such as canned fruits or fruit cocktails available in different combinations. You may get them easily off the shelf in your favorite grocery or supermarket everywhere.

Being a perennial favorite, you can put a twist to your own Fruit Salad by adding some new ingredients such as in my recipe below:

Filipino Fruit Salad with a Twist

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-sized (360gm) Fiesta Fruit Cocktail
• 1 medium-sized (360gm) halved Peaches in heavy syrup
• 2 cups' buko' (young coconut) meat, shredded
• 4 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and cut into small cubes

• 1 medium-sized ripe cantaloupe (yellow melon), peeled, seeds removed and cut in small cubes
• 6 pcs ripe lakatan bananas, peeled and diced
• 1 1/2 cup seedless raisins
• 1 small cheese diced (1 cup)
• 3/4 cup peanuts (ground)
• 1 big can Condensed Milk
• 1 cup Nestle cream

1. Get a large salad bowl and prepare the needed fruits. Make sure to prepare a bowl of water with 3 tbsp lemon juice where you can soak the cubed apples and diced bananas right after slicing them to ensure that they don't turn black. Make sure to drain this water well before you add the apples and bananas to the rest of the ingredients.

2. Strain the fruit cocktail and set aside. Do the same with the peach halves. You may slice the peach halves into smaller cubes. The heavy syrup from these canned fruits can be refrigerated in a different container since they may still be used in another recipe.

3. Put all the fruit, including those that are canned, the 'buko' meat, ground peanuts, raisins and cubed cheese in the big mixing bowl. Add the whipped Nestle cream, as well as the condensed milk. You may use just half or the whole lot of the condensed milk depending on you preference for sweetness.

4. Put the salad in the freezer for an hour before serving in small individual salad bowls. The fruit salad can last until the next day. Just make sure to put it in the freezer.

5. Enjoy! Makes 10-12 servings.

Note: The fresh young buko meat and the ground peanuts gives this fruit salad its distinct taste that will have you wanting more.