Recipe: A pop of heat combines with cool watermelon
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| Watermelon, peppers and lime make a great summer salad. (Photos: Kathy Morrison) |
Watermelon is an under-appreciated savory ingredient. Standard green salads are great, but you can hardly call them refreshing. Toss in some cold watermelon chunks, and wow. (It is a relative of cucumber, after all.)
This salad takes things a step further by putting the watermelon front and center, and then adding ingredients that complement it. Looking at the ingredients list, you might be reminded of salsa, but there’s not nearly the chopping involved.
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I adapted this from an Epicurious recipe that includes jicama. I’m not a big fan of jicama, which strikes me as chalky even when it's fresh. I substituted the crispest pieces from a head of romaine lettuce. Lots of crunch without the flavorless chunks of jicama getting in the way.
This is ideal to serve at the 4th of July cookout as a contrast to the potato salad. Any leftovers hold up well in the refrigerator, too.
Spiced watermelon salad
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
One 3- to 4-pound seedless watermelon, preferably chilled if serving immediately
4 or 5 romaine lettuce leaves, washed and dried — the crispest ones in the head or in the package
1 large or 2 small jalapeño peppers, thinly sliced (remove the seeds if you like it less spicy)
1 or 2 scallions, sliced on diagonal, white and light green parts only
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Coarse sea salt, to taste
Instructions:
This watermelon is a few ounces under 4 pounds. For reference, the scale's
diameter is 7.5 inches
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Cut watermelon in half, then in quarters. Slice off and discard the rind on one of the quarters. (Rind is great compost material — just saying.) Cut off shards (thin, not chunks) of watermelon, arranging them on a large plate or serving dish. You may not need all the watermelon, depending on its size and the size of your serving dish, so work with just one quarter at a time.
Break up the romaine leaves and scatter them over the watermelon. Toss the other ingredients together in a small bowl and drizzle the mixture over the watermelon and romaine pieces. Serve immediately or cover and chill until serving time.
Note: Want to know how to choose a good little watermelon? The ones at the farmers markets usually are ready to go, but the watermelons at the supermarket are a mixed bag. Look for:
1. A melon heavy for its size with a dull, not shiny, skin. It should have a regular shape, whether round or somewhat oval.
2. A "field patch" of creamy white to yellow on one side, with yellow being best. This means the melon ripened on the ground. Avoid any without a patch.
3. Look for light scarring or dots on the melon. This is from bees, who know sweet.
4. Tiny dried sugar deposits on the stem end also indicate sweetness.
(Thumping a small watermelon is almost impossible, so leave that for the big melons.)
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Garden Checklist for week of May 12
Get your gardening chores and irrigation done early in the day before temperatures rise.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions. This heat will cause leafy greens and onions to flower; pick them before they bolt.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Got fruit trees? If you haven't already done so, thin orchard fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, pluots and plums before they grow too heavy, breaking branches or even splitting the tree. Leave the largest fruit on the branch, culling the smaller ones, and allow for 5 to 6 inches (or a hand's worth) between each fruit.
* Thin grape bunches, again leaving about 6 inches between them. For the remaining bunches, prune off the "tail" end, about the bottom third of the bunch, so that the plant's energy is concentrated in the fruit closest to the branch.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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