Glasgow has been experiencing perfect weather. Bright, sunny and very long days that warm up enough to warrant throwing off our jackets and strolling around in sundresses. Those of us who are so inclined, anyway. In my experience, this is a standard routine for Glasgow. It teases us with a few amazing weeks at the end of spring and then delivers a dreary and chilled summer. But I'm not thinking about that now; I'm still clinging delusionally to idea that this will last until November.
And until it gets miserable, I'm going to eat melon. There are crates of them sunning themselves outside my local shops right now. So perfectly ripe that I can almost smell them around the corner. The best ones at the moment are the compact, pale green Galias. Each bite is a fragrant deluge in your mouth. Yup. A fragrant deluge. I'm sticking to that description.
Now of course, the best thing to do with melon is just to eat it the way it is, coating yourself and anything around you in sticky juice. But if you want to justify eating more melon, here are other ways of getting it into your food (in order of complexity):
Melon and Cucumber Water
This is very, very basic, but very, very lovely. All you have to do is take a long slice of cucumber and a slice or two of melon and put them in a pitcher of water. Put it in the fridge to cool. Drink it a couple of hours later. You'll be surprised with how melon-y it is and you'll want to drink it forever and ever. A couple of slices of lemon is nice in there as well.
When I organised enough to do this, I end up drinking litres of this magic water. When the levels get low, you can just continue to top up the jug with water for a day or two. After that the melon and the cucumber get a little sad and should be replaced.
Melon with Coconut, Ginger and Pepper
This is an easy solution if you want your melons a little saucier. And, really, who doesn't?
You take:
- one can of coconut milk
- four tablespoons of ginger marmalage
- 20 peppercorns
Put everything in a small saucepan and simmer until the liquid is reduced and slightly caramelized (it will turn pale gold). At this point you can strain it through a fine sieve to get the peppercorns out, but you'll lose the chunks of ginger. I just left it and warned people to avoid the peppercorns. Let it cool and thicken. Cut some melon into bowls and spoon the syrup over top.
Melon and Mint Tabbouleh with Feta
This recipe was adapted from one I found on epicurious. The original one is here. I've added more bulgur and reduced the amount of oil. I also put in some feta because I thought it might need a bit of a salt kick to balance all that sweet melon. It's good. I could eat this anytime of day.
- 1.5 cups of bulgur
- 2 cups of fresh mint leaves
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- salt
- Finely chopped red onion
- some lime juice
- half a small melon, chopped into small pieces
- as much feta as you want, crumbled
Prepare the bulgur according to your favourite method. I poured about 2.5 cups of boiling water over mine, covered the bowl and let it sit for 40 minutes.
While you are doing that, take 1 3/4 cup of the mint and blend it with the oil and salt. Roughly chop the rest of the mint and stir it into the mixture*. Throw in the onion and melon and lime juice.
When your bulgur is ready, drain off any remaining water and combine it with your melon and mint mixture. Crumble some feta in or on top. Toasted pumpkin seeds would be nice, too.
Eat this with a big spoon so you can really shove the lovely stuff into your mouth. No one will see.
Now that I've shared this arsenal of melon techniques with you, I need to go. I have a new sundress on, so I should clearly be outside and away from this computer and making the most of the remaining afternoon. Take a bite out of a firm and succulent melon for me.
xk
*The original recipe didn't call for any chopped mint, but I actually found the mint taste too weak when I blended the leaves with oil, so I added chopped leaves to perk it up. You can ignore this step.
nice melons!
Posted by: jules | May 27, 2008 at 12:14 AM