Jiggly Jelly Family Fruit Salad, with some impostors

Recipe

Course: the Fruit in the Brown Bag, sort of
Servings: 6
Time: 15 minutes (+ cooling time)

Ingredients
1 large strawberry* (red) full fruit
1 small peach* (pink) juicy fruit
1 small cucumber** (green) imposter fruit?
1 small bunch of grapes** (red-ish) bunch fruit
1 curly lettuce leaf, rolled** (green) fizzy, crunchy leaf
1 cured ham, rolled** (pink) complement?
3 3 oz JELL-O boxes (1 cherry red, 1 lime green, 1 lemon yellow)
6 2.2 x 2.2 x 2.2” (rough dims) transparent cube cups (ideally with bulbous lids)
cooking spray
water

*needs to fit comfortably within a 2.2 x 2.2 x 2.2” cube.
**needs to fit partially in a 2.2 x 2.2 x 2.2” cube, having pieces sticking out of the cube

Instructions
Select the strawberry, peach, cucumber,*** grapes, lettuce and ham carefully for dimensions. Pick ripe super-saturated ingredients.
Go to a store’s baking section, ideally one that provides many options, and search for 6 identical transparent cups which take the closest shape to a cube of min. 2.2 x 2.2 x 2.2.” Ideally, they will also have bulbous lids.
Spray the transparent cube cups with cooking spray.
Place each of the first 6 ingredients (strawberry, peach, cucumber, grapes, lettuce and ham) in its own transparent cup. Some should stick out partially (bunch of grapes, cucumber, rolled lettuce, rolled ham), some will fit in snug (strawberry, peach) – both are alright.
Follow instructions from the JELL-O box – generally you need to add boiling water to gelatin mixes in medium bowl; do not mix the 3 JELL-O boxes together – you have to repeat this process for each flavor and color.
Stir 3 min. until completely dissolved. Pour into transparent cups over the ingredients according to a complementary color arrangement between JELL-O and ingredient:
The cherry red JELL-O mix is poured into the cubes with the cucumber and lettuce leaf.
The lime green JELL-O mix is poured into the cubes with the strawberry and grapes.
The lemon yellow JELL-O mix is poured into the cubes with peach and ham.
The strawberry and peach may want to float, so push with fingers to immerse fruit completely in jelly. The others may float, but are also allowed to stick out, so push gently to firmly anchor them into the jelly, but do not allow them to completely immerse.
Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm.
Remove from refrigerator just before serving and place one at random in each brown bag.
After the guests remove the jelly cup from the bag, they are asked to place them at the middle of the table to reveal the deconstructed fruit salad.
Consume your own in its entirety or share with others.
*** cucumber is a fake veggie as it is botanically a fruit.

 

Radu Remus Macovei (he/his) is a Registered Architect and researcher. He is the founder of StuffStudio.eu and is currently pursuing his PhD on the role of vernacular architecture in constructing modernity at ETH – Zürich. Remus was the 2022-2023 Architectural Activism Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and previously worked with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Herzog & de Meuron, Dogma Studio, among others. He pursued undergraduate studies at the AA in London (RIBA Part I) and completed a Master in Architecture with Distinction and a Master in Urban Planning with Distinction from Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he was awarded the Julia A. Appleton Fellowship in Architecture.