Grapefruit Supreme

Every once in a while, if I am lucky, my grocery store will have put a five-pound bag of Texas Reds on sale. That was the case a few weeks ago so I was quick to grab one, even though it meant a heavier load than I had anticipated on the way home from work.

I have mentioned before how much I love my Texas grapefruit, but I can never say it often enough. These beauties are just sweet enough to counterbalance the natural sourness so you get the perfect blend of both. Like Homesick Texan, I too used to only be able to eat grapefruit with a generous sprinkling of sugar. And even that didn't help much. Grapefruit was never a big staple in my kitchen.

Until I discovered ruby reds. There are many things I miss about Texas, but the two that stand out are Ruby Red Grapefruit and Pecos cantaloupes. Shiner Bock used to be on the list, but that has finally made its way up here, I'm happy to say.

I have yet to see a Pecos cantaloupe (and I look every year), but every once in a while I will see the five-pound bags of Texas grapefruit, and will always take one home.

A trick I have learned since I first started supreming my fruit is to supreme all of the grapefruit at once and put the segments into a large container. Then I can portion out servings whenever I am in the mood, rather than having to decide whether or not it's worth the effort to supreme them individually when I want one. This method also provides a few glasses' worth of freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice. Yum!

Here is the yield from those six beauties up above. I feasted on this for days. It easily lasts a week, and leaving them in the juice leaves them plump and fresh. They're good in salads, with chicken or pork, or all by themselves.

Preparing them ahead of time like this gives me the same benefits as buying those jars of peeled and segmented grapefruit, without the extra stuff:

INGREDIENTS: Grapefruit, Reconstituted Grapefruit Juice, Corn Syrup, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate (Preservatives), Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid.

I don't know about you, but I can taste all of those extra little goodies. The beauty of these sweet gems is that they taste super delicious all by themselves.

It's cheaper this way, too. What's not to love?