Recipe: Melon Tray

Melon Tray

Preparation Time :1:30

Ingredients

2 each Honeydew melon—medium-large
2 each Cantaloupe—medium
1 each Pineapple, Hawaii—large
5 each Kiwi fruit
8 each Oranges Valencia—medium-large
2 lb Grapes Ribier
1 bunch Mint
1 each Mango Ripe—about 1 lb
3 each Apples Red Delicious—medium-large
2 each Apples Golden Delicious—medium-large
1 pint Strawberries
1 cup lemon juice, bottled
1/2 cup sugar

Preparation

Reserve 1 honeydew to make the swan. (See Melon Swan recipe)
Peel the melons, pineapple, oranges, and kiwis.
Halve the cantalope, quarter the honeydew and pineapple.
Channel and slice the melons.
Slice the pineapple, oranges, and kiwis.
Cut the cheeks from the apples and V wedge cut them and fan them out. Dip them in lemon juice and sugar.
Cut the cheeks from the mango, and slice almost through, leaving connected at tip, dip in lemon juice and fan out.
Cut the grapes into sprigs.
Hull and split the strawberries if large.

Layout the tray

Make an outside ring of honeydew slices by laying out the sliced quarters and spreading them out a little. Leave room at 12 oclock for the melon swan.
Lay the cantalope out inside the honeydew.
Lay the pineapple out inside the cantalope.
Fill the center with orange slices.
Enclose the orange slices with a row of sliced kiwis on top.
Add the color accents, apple, strawberries and mango in symetrical fashion.
Place the Swan in the place reserved. Surround it with grape bunches and mint leaves. Place some more grape bunches and mint leaves around the outside of the tray.

This recipe by Frantze Saint-Fort. Frantze was born in Haiti, and now lives in Hempstead, L.I., NY, with her husband Wille Lewis Saint-Fort. She worked for 9-1/2 years as a garde manger at the New York Marriot Hotel on Broadway and 45th St. While working there, she attended NYC Technical College, receiving both a BA and an AAS in Hospitality Management. She served an apprenticeship in France, and participated in an MIT internship program for management at the Marriott. She is currently (1995) Chef de Buffet at the Encore Restaurant in the Marriott.