This warm medley of luscious fruit is elegantly spiced with a marinade of saffron and vanilla. It is delicious on its own for a virtually no-fat dessert, or can be topped with a fruity sorbet, vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream.
Make a tropical version of this dish by replacing the grapes with 2 thick slices of fresh pineapple, cut into chunks, and 3–4 fresh ripe apricots, halved and stoned. To make the marinade, omit the toasted saffron and hot water mixture and simply stir 1 tsp ground cinnamon with the vanilla extract and honey; use rum instead of Marsala or sherry, and the juice of 2 limes instead of orange juice. * Stone fruit, such as peaches, apricots and cherries, can be added to this warm fruit salad.
Long cooking will destroy a lot of the vitamin C in fruit, but most will survive the short cooking time in this recipe. Fibre and minerals are not affected by heat. The bananas, kiwi fruit and citrus fruit here provide potassium, which keeps body fluids in balance and blood pressure down. * Papaya is a useful source of vitamin A (from the beta-carotene it contains), which is needed for good vision. This tropical fruit plays a vital role in preventing blindness in many parts of the world where those foods that provide most vitamin A in the UK (full-fat milk, cheese, butter and egg yolks) are not part of the average diet.
Excellent source of vitamin C. Useful source of folate, potassium.