Salatat Fawakeh (Fruit Salad)

I had been intending on making a peach coffee cake for dessert last night. Only to check the recipe and find out that it calls for peach preserves in addition to actual peaches. I didn't really feel that any of the preserves that we had would make a good stand-in for the peach ones, so I set that plan aside for now and started flipping through cookbooks for other dessert ideas.

I'd initially thought to make a carrot cake. But, after examining the amount of sugar and oil called for in the recipe, I couldn't bring myself to make it. Plus, I didn't have the buttermilk for making the soaking syrup anyway. (Yes, this cake calls for a huge amount of sugar in the batter and then soaking it in a buttermilk-sugar syrup before icing it with cream cheese frosting.) So that was out...

I considered a few different cookies. There were some interesting, not-too-sweet-looking, yeasted ones in the Italian cookbook my mom got me for my birthday this year. And the anise and nigella cookies from the Syrian cookbook were also tempting. In the end though, I decided to go for this fruit salad. We didn't quite have all the ingredients it called for, but we came close enough that I felt like I could make a reasonable approximation of it.

The original recipe (which is what I've given here) called for apples, bananas, mangoes, kiwi, and strawberries. I had the apples, bananas, and strawberries, but was bereft of kiwi and only had mangoes in frozen form as part of a "tropical mix" with pineapple, coconut, and dragonfruit. I realize that this wasn't exactly the blend that the recipe was calling for, but I decided to give it a go with the "tropical mix" standing in for the kiwi and mango.

The dish is meant to be topped with "milk curd" -- a soft, fresh, Syrian cheese. The author notes that ricotta makes a reasonable substitute if you don't feel like making your own cheese for this. I decided to try it with fat-free cottage cheese since I that is a "zero Point" food for me. The cottage cheese was fine with it, but I think the saltiness of it clashes a little bit with the fruit. Next time I think I'll follow the Kidlet's example and have it with plain Greek yogurt instead.

The salad is also meant to be topped with raisins, whole almonds, and honey. Conveniently, we still have a partial jar of whole mixed nuts packed in liquid honey, so I just used those -- along with a few raisins -- to put the finishing touches on the salad. I went with ~4 almonds, 1 tsp. of raisins, and a teaspoon or so of honey (estimating how much came with the nuts) for each portion. I think I probably could've gotten away with a little less for the raisins and honey, but it's certainly very tasty that way! (Just a little more calorically dense.)

Salatat Fawakeh

From Our Syria by Dina Mousawi and Itab Azzam

Ingredients

• 1 mango, peeled and cubed
• 1 apple, chopped
• 1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
• 1 banana, sliced
• 8 strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 200g ricotta, cottage cheese, or plain Greek yogurt
• 16-20 whole almonds
• 4 tsp. raisins
• 4 tsp. honey

Directions

1. Toss the mango, apple, kiwi, banana, and strawberries together.
2. Divide into four equal portions and top each one with ~50g of cheese, 4-5 almonds, and 1 tsp. of raisins.
3. Drizzle each with 1 tsp. of honey and serve.