Citrus salad with ginger-anise syrup

Isn't this salad pretty?? I was so excited to find both blood oranges and Cara Cara oranges at the grocery store today! Adding those to the grapefruit and navel oranges I bought at the farmers' market, I had such a gorgeous selection of citrus at home. I knew I wanted to make a simple citrus salad that would show off the colors of the fruits, and I found the perfect recipe on Epicurious. The segments of fruit are tossed with a simple syrup, which blends in with the citrus juices to form a sauce. The original recipe only uses anise in the syrup, but I added ginger, because I love ginger and thought the flavors would blend well. I also used a different selection of citrus fruits than the original recipe, to take advantage of what I had. The salad was delicious and really refreshing. I did feel that the anise and ginger flavors were not strong enough, probably because they were diluted too much by the citrus juice. Next time I'll use less of the juice - the recipe below is written accordingly.

Citrus salad with ginger-anise syrup
Adapted from this recipe
Serves 3-4

2 1/2 tbs water
2 1/2 tbs sugar
2 whole star anise
2 slices peeled fresh ginger, about 1/4 inch thick
1 large ruby red or pink grapefruit
1 large navel orange
1 Cara Cara orange
1 blood orange
(You can use any combination of the above citrus fruits)

In a small heavy saucepan, dissolve sugar in water over medium heat. Add anise and ginger and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove syrup from heat and let sit for 30 minutes (do not remove anise and ginger).

Using a sharp parking knife, peel fruits and remove all the pith. Cut out the citrus segments from the membranes into a large bowl. Squeeze out juice from membranes into a separate bowl.

Remove anise and ginger from syrup. Add syrup and 1/4 cup of citrus juice to the fruit, and toss gently. Add more juice to taste. Salad can be chilled for 1 day.