Grapefruits gain in popularity thanks to tv show
An episode of “Sex and the City” just may have saved the day for a struggling segment of American agriculture. The Florida Department of Citrus jumped all over a chance to promote its faltering grapefruit market when the high-maintenance women of the popular HBO show were seen sipping grapefruit martinis.
“After that episode ran, we all screamed, ‘Did you see that?’ They had been drinking cosmos on the show for so long,” Michelle Chandler told an Associated Press reporter. Chandler, the citrus department’s deputy executive director of marketing, said, “This is a great opportunity to contemporize grapefruit juice.”
And it did.
The Florida Citrus Commission, which oversees the department, approved $470,000 to help promote the drink – called the Ruby – at trendy clubs and bars across the country and sweeten the juice’s stodgy image.
Whether the target audience for the campaign – women like “Sex and the City” characters Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda – can save fruit growers is yet to be seen.
Saving agriculture is a lot to ask of the nation’s size-3s wearing clingy next-to-nothings, but as recent months have revealed, heroes come from all walks of life. So let’s give them a chance.
In the meantime, for those whose last clingy piece of clothing was a diaper, head to the grocery store instead of the bar for a hit of vitamin C instead of vodka.
Bob Fejes, a store produce manager, said the finest grapefruit coming out of the Indian River area in Florida will start to taper off soon. “Everybody prefers the Indian River product. The Florida citrus commands a higher price than product from Texas or California.”
The result is the Florida fruit may cost a little more, but the quality overcomes that inequity.
Maybe the reason the ruby reds and the Duncans from the Sunshine State have the edge over fruit from other regions is because Florida is the U.S. birthplace of grapefruit.
Food historians generally call the large, tart pomelo the father of modern grapefruit. It first became noted by botanists in the 1700s in Jamaica and was transferred to the Barbados by an English sea captain named Shaddock. The fruit was known as shaddock until it was introduced to Florida in 1823 by the French count Odette Phillippe. It’s thought the name changed to grapefruit in Florida because it grows on the branch in clusters, much the way grapes grow.
At first glance, pomelo looks like a huge, green grapefruit. Also spelled pommelo or pummelo, the fruit grows grows like crazy in Malaysia and is considered a delicacy by many Asian cultures.
Inside the pomelo’s extremely thick rind is white to deep-pink flesh. Compared with grapefruit, the firm flesh of the pomelo is sweeter and less juicy. Pomelos commonly have 16 to 18 segments while most grapefruit have about 12.
Choose pomelos that are heavy for their size and avoid any with blemishes. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week. Here are other members of the grapefruit family:
– White grapefruit
– Red grapefruit, sweeter then white grapefruit
– Minneola, a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit; recognized by “the little nose.”
– Sweeties, a cross between the pomelo and the grapefruit. Looks like a green grapefruit and tastes sweet.
– Uglifruit, a misshapen fruit that has similar sweet qualities of red variety.
And while grapefruit contain many healthy benefits – lots of vitamin C and significant amounts of potassium – they can cause medical problems if consumed at the same time as some medicines.
SHRIMP AND AVOCADO SALAD WITH GRAPEFRUIT VINAIGRETTE
Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Salad:
1 pink or red grapefruit
1 white grapefruit
1/4 cup hazelnuts, lightly toasted and any loose skins rubbed off
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 firm-ripe California avocados
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1/2 pound large shrimp (8 to 10), shelled and deveined
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups baby spinach (2 ounces)
1/4 cup trimmed sprouts (preferably radish)
Whisk together vinaigrette ingredients with salt and pepper to taste.
Cut peel, including all white pith, from fruit with a sharp paring knife and cut segments free from membranes. Halve enough grapefruit segments to measure 1 1/2 cups.
Coarsely chop hazelnuts. Melt butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then cook hazelnuts with salt and pepper to taste, stirring, until a shade darker, about 5 minutes. Transfer nuts to paper towels to cool, reserving skillet.
Quarter avocados lengthwise, then pit and peel. Cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Drizzle with lime juice and season with salt and pepper.
Pat shrimp dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then saute shrimp, turning them, until golden and just cooked through, about 3 minutes.
Toss together spinach, half of grapefruit segments, and half of vinaigrette with salt and pepper to taste.
Arrange avocados and remaining grapefruit on plates and top with shrimp, salad, and sprouts. Spoon remaining vinaigrette over salad and sprinkle with nuts. Makes four servings.
– from Gourmet
SPRING GREENS WITH SOPPRESSATA AND GRAPEFRUIT
2 large red grapefruit
1 small shallot, minced
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Additional fresh grapefruit juice
1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon
6 tablespoons walnut oil or olive oil
8 cups (packed) mixed baby greens (about 5 ounces)
4 ounces thinly sliced soppressata or other Italian salami, cut into thin strips
Parmesan cheese shavings
Cut peel and white pith from grapefruit. Holding grapefruit over bowl to catch juices, cut between membranes to release segments.
Combine shallot and vinegar in small bowl. Let stand 15 minutes. Add enough additional grapefruit juice to collected juices to measure 1/4 cup; whisk into vinegar. Add tarragon. Whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Place greens in large bowl. Drizzle 2/3 of dressing over and toss to coat. Divide salad among four plates. Scatter soppressata over each. Top with grapefruit and Parmesan. Drizzle remaining dressing over and serve. Makes four (first-course) servings.
– from Bon Appetit
SCALLOPS WITH PINK GRAPEFRUIT
1/4 pound sea scallops, patted dry and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons bottled clam juice
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/3 cup fresh pink grapefruit juice
1/2 teaspoon grated pink grapefruit zest
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 tablespoon thinly sliced scallions
fresh pink grapefruit sections for garnish
In a bowl toss together the scallops, flour, and salt and pepper to taste. In a skillet large enough to hold the scallops in one layer, heat the oil over moderately high heat until it is hot but not smoking and in it saute the scallops, stirring, for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, or until they are just firm and lightly golden.
Transfer the scallops to a plate. Add the wine to the skillet, deglaze the skillet, scraping up the brown bits, and stir in the clam juice, the shallot, the grapefruit juice, the zest and the sugar. Boil the liquid until it is reduced to about 1/3 cup and strain the mixture through a fine sieve set over a saucepan. Set the pan over low heat and whisk in the butter, 1 at a time, lifting the pan from the heat occasionally to cool the mixture and adding each new bit of butter before the previous one has melted completely. (The sauce should not get hot enough to liquefy. It should be the consistency of thin hollandaise.) Add the scallions and the scallops with any juices that have accumulated on the plate and heat the mixture until the scallops are heated through. Divide the mixture between 2 plates and garnish each plate with some of the grapefruit sections.
Serves 2.
– from Gourmet
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.)