Obviously, the name of this recipe is 15-17: Summery Cantaloupe, and if you’ve seen any of the pictures of the recipe (like above, as a header image), you’ve put it together that the melon pictured is in fact, not a cantaloupe.
The CSA box that week provided a very nice watermelon, and so that’s what I went with for part of my Mother’s Day 2019 brunch (MD2019). Yes, I’m also behind on writing these up.
I’ve made Simply Delicious fruit salads for Mother’s Day before–if you’re looking for similar ideas, check out 15-19: Layered Fruit Salad and 15-30: Champagne Sundaes from 2017‘s brunch. If you’re up for the challenge of carving a cantaloupe (or in my case, watermelon), continue on.
The ingredients here suggest that alternative melons can be used, so I stand by my watermelon choice. Pictures are provided of the melon carving–it’s similar to taking the top off of a pumpkin to carve at Halloween. 🎃
My ingredients: Aforementioned watermelon pictured. I chose port wine instead of sherry, because I’m tired of this wine bottle taking up space in my fridge, so I’m trying to use it as often as possible.
My attempt at watermelon carving. Not terrible–I’ve had some practice on pumpkins.
If you look closely, I drew my lines out ahead of time using a green permanent marker, and used the natural markings of the watermelon as a guide as to spacing out the peak/valley pattern.
After drawing out the lines, just use a long, sharp knife (CAREFULLY) and poke it all the way in and pull it out (one line at a time) following the pattern all the way around. If your knife was long enough and your pattern was somewhat even enough, the lid should just lift off like mine.
After scooping out the watermelon–the “melon meat” will get cut up and combined with the berries.
Prepping the berries (with the help of coffee).
Tossing the berries with the melon pieces.
Straining the rest of the melon pieces to get the juice.
Mixed in the honey and wine (hence the darker color) along with the other marinade ingredients, and tossed it with the fruit.
After mixing all the ingredients, I put everything back into the melon.
Melon, with lid–which still fit! It made a fun dish for the brunch (which also included 15-10: Frozen Raspberry Desserts and 15-23: Kiwi Mousse in Chocolate Cups), and we turned the leftover fruit salad into a smoothie. 🍉
Grade: A-
