Why fruit is great in main course with recipes to prove it
FREE TO READ: Fig & feta flan, charred chicken & nectarine salad, plus SEVEN more recipes to get you started.
Fruit in main course is a thing.
At least amongst the sun-kissed culinary youth of Instagram with their effortless lunches, excellent table linen and single-estate olive oil.
And I’m not talking tinned pineapple with gammon here. (Though that is a favourite of mine.) Most prominent in the modern iteration of this Fruit-in-Mains thing (FiM? No?) is stone fruit – apricots, nectarines, peaches – with any combination of cured ham, burrata, basil and, of course, top notch olive oil. Earlier it was cherries, and as summer wanes blackberries will take their place bringing a little burst of excitement to otherwise workaday savoury dishes.
Fruit in savoury dishes is a good idea
It’s not a fad. It’s common sense. A sweet, tart pop cuts through fatty meat, balances things out, adds interest; somehow heightens the savouriness of the main ingredient.
That’s why apple sauce and pork works so well, figs and blue cheese, even sultanas and apple in a Waldorf. Sweet and salty is so much better than just one or the other. (Which goes for popcorn and caramel too.)
How to put fruit in your main course
Here are some recipes from the archives and beyond to get you started. Turns out, I put fruit in main courses quite a lot…
A fruit-filled summer lunch menu
And once you’ve tried all of those, here’s a late summer lunch menu featuring nectarines and figs that reiterates my FiM point.
I should point out, I don’t even attempt to grow nectarines. (Come on, be reasonable, I haven’t mastered a cauliflower yet. Step at a time). I’ve bought them in.
The fruit I do have in abundance though, is figs. The fig tree is exceptional this year (more of which in a couple of weeks), so I use them in this lunch as well, just to really drive my point home. FiM. It’ll catch on, I’m telling you….
Fig & feta flan
Low effort, high impact. This tart is, as with so much summer cooking, simply a matter of bunging together peak-season ingredients and standing back, or tucking in, as the culinary fireworks start. The contrast of sweet, jammy figs and salty feta with the crunch of puff pastry below is enough to send me into raptures and will likely do the same to any guests. They don’t need to know that it took you all of 10 minutes to make.
Serves 4
200g feta
2 tbsp full-fat plain yogurt
1 tbsp thyme leaves
1 x 320g pack ready-rolled puff pastry
5 figs
25g toasted hazelnuts, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil, for brushing
Pre-heat the oven to 210C.
Crumble the feta into a herb chopper along with the yogurt and thyme leaves, then whizz to a smooth, whipped paste.
Spread the roll of pastry out onto a lined baking tray and use the blunt side of a knife to score a border 1cm in from the edges, like a picture frame. This is your crust. Prick the rectangle of pastry inside the border all over with a fork.
Spread the feta mixture over the fork-pricked pastry, making sure not to encroach into the crust. Slice the figs thinly and arrange on top of the feta. Scatter the hazelnuts on top, brush the crusts with a little olive oil, then bake for 25 minutes or until the crust is golden and the base cooked through.
Best served warm.
Charred chicken & nectarine salad
More of a combination that a recipe this. So long as charred, salty chicken meets sweet, juicy nectarines in one delicious mouthful, the rest is up to you, so adapt the other ingredients to suit your fridge/harvests. It’s a great prep ahead lunch too since you can assemble the salad un-mixed and un-dressed, then dress and toss just before serving. Perhaps with the fig and feta flan alongside.
Serves 4-5
4 chicken breasts
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp dried oregano
Any veg from the patch, for example:
400g green beans, blanched and cooled
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
3 mini cucumbers, sliced
Handful baby spinach
6 radishes, sliced
3 spiring onions, sliced
4 nectarines, cut into wedges
6 slices Parma ham
50g pumpkin seeds, toasted
For the dressing:
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp apple balsamic vinegar (I like Odysea, but apple cider vinegar will do fine)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp runny honey
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp hot water
Start with the chicken. Set a griddle pan over a high heat so it can get smoking hot. Sandwich the chicken between two sheets of baking paper and whack it with a rolling pin. Really give it some welly until the chicken is 1cm thick. Drizzle the meat with the olive oil and rub with the garlic granules, oregano and a generous amount of salt and pepper. Working in batches if necessary, fry the chicken in the griddle pan until cooked through and temptingly branded with char lines. Set aside to rest.
Slice the chicken into strips and bundle it into a salad bowl along with your choice of salad vegetables, the nectarines, Parma ham and pumpkin seeds.
Combine all the dressing ingredients in a jar with a pinch of salt and give it a good shake. Then, when you’re ready to serve, pour the dressing into the bowl, toss and serve.
Mouth watering! I particularly love dried apricots or preserved lemons in tagines. Will give that fig tart a go!
are those hazelnuts in there too?!