Ambrosia Salad Recipe

Back in the age of Achilles when Greek gods walked among the humans and directed the course of history, ambrosia was the food that sustained the Gods and gave immortality to mortals who were fortunate enough to taste it. These days when Greek gods are only found in museums and underwear ads, ambrosia salad is the closest we can get to that sublime food but, if made properly, ambrosia salad can be confused with the food of the Gods.

But Would Zeus Eat It

Ambrosia salad is a traditional Southern dish and since I grew up in New York, I had very little exposure to it until I learned how to make it at culinary school. Up to that time, I was under the impression that ambrosia was only available to the Pantheon. Since that class, I have experienced every variation of the ambrosia salad. Some that contained Jell-o, some that where made with non-dairy whipped topping, all that had fallen short of the ambrosia salad that I was taught to make at the Cordon Bleu. I think the defining difference that placed the school's version of the salad above the less traditional variations was the freshness of the ingredients, including homemade whipped cream. Although I believe that using only fresh fruit helps make our ambrosia salad taste the best it can, I would like to suggest that you use canned pineapple if you want.

When I was taught how to make this salad it was for 30 servings, which calls for a full pineapple peeled, cored, and diced. I have reduced this recipe to serve 15. One 12-16 ounce can of pineapple will suffice unless you either want to make enough ambrosia salad to feed 30 people, in which case go ahead and use a large fresh pineapple, or you can use fresh pineapple if you have other uses for fresh pineapple. Either way, about 12 ounces of pineapple will work for the 15 servings version of the recipe.

For the oranges, the term "suprêmes" refers to when you peel an orange, cut off the outside pith (white stuff), and then cut out each segment so they are separate and clean of the pith. Basically, trimmed orange segments.

Ambrosia Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 ounces heavy cream
• 1 ounce sugar
• 6 oranges cut into suprêmes
• ½ pineapple peeled, cored, and diced or 1 12-ounce can of pineapple, diced.
• 1 pound of bananas, peeled and sliced
• 8 ounces of green seedless grapes, sliced in half
• 4 ounces dried unsweetened coconut flakes

Instructions

1. Spread the coconut out on a half sheet pan or cookie sheet that has been lined with a sheet of parchment paper.
2. Heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Toast the coconut flakes for about 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Keep this aside.
4. Using a whisk, whip the cream until it starts to become whipped cream.
5. Then add the sugar and continue to whisk the cream until it has stiff peaks.
6. Fold in the oranges, grapes, bananas, and pineapples.
7. Let the salad rest in the refrigerator for at least thirty minutes.
8. Scoop the salad into bowls and top each serving with the toasted coconut flakes.