Let us suppose that you are preparing fruit salad for three people. Use about four pieces of fruit, all different, and with due regard to their quality, and the variety of colour and contrast of flavour etc. An apple, an orange, a banana and a plum and/or pear, will give good results. Also consider kiwis, strawberries, peaches, grapes and melon balls.
Start ahead of time so that the fruit salad will be well chilled, which makes an appreciable difference.
Start by making the syrup; Take a common teacup or similar vessel and fill one third full with ordinary table sugar. Add a third of a cup of water. Place in microwave and heat together until the sugar melts, maybe half a minute or so. Remove and stir well. Squeeze into the cup the juice of half a lemon. Pour this sharp, sweet syrup into the fruit salad bowl (you may let it cool if you wish) and commence to cut up your fruit. Place the apple and banana pieces into the syrup as soon as they are cut, this stops them going brown. I don't peel apples and pears but most fruits are peeled. Cut into spoon-size pieces. When all are in, stir well to coat fruit and chill in fridge. Taste the syrup to be sure it is sweet and lemony-sharp.
Pour off surplus syrup before serving: each person should have plenty of syrup but it should not be a splashy experience: fruit salad swimming/floating in liquid is not the best kind.
Other notes. This doesn't need much accessorising: you can pour a little cream, unwhipped, into each serving for a smoother finish. You can try flavouring the syrup with, for example, spices, or gin, but I'm not sure it's an improvement. A bland lemon gives a bland result - try to use a fragrant lemon, or half a lime (which are very acid so go cautiously)
This is one of the earliest recipes for a beginner cook: even a very small child can hold a banana with one hand on a board while cutting it into slices with a blunt plastic knife - good training. (Forks come later). The syrup is a simple matter too, if supervised so that the hot liquid doesn't spill. And it's nice to eat, of course, and healthy too!
