Melon Salads

July is upon us, which means for myself and my American readership that the month of the out-door picnic and fireworks.  To kick off this month of awesome food and good times, I'm going to introduce two recipes.  They're both very similar, but they have some key differences that definitely have an effect on the flavour.

First is a favourite of my family, and it makes an appearance at many cookouts throughout the summer.  It's referred to as Cucumber Melon salad, and while one can use just about any kind of melon, I like it with Watermelon best.

Cucumber Melon Salad

Equipment:
1x large bowl
1x small bowl
A Chef's Knife
A cutting board
A spatula or spoon
Measuring implements
Melon baller (optional)

Ingredients:
Salad:
3 cucumbers, quartered and sliced
8 cups watermelon balls (or cubed watermelon works fine)
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup crumbled Feta cheese
1/2 cup pine nuts
1T chopped kalamata olives

Dressing:
2 tsp olive oil (extra virgin is nice)
2T lemon juice
2T white wine vinegar
1T onion
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients for the salad in a large bowl
2. In a separate bowl, place the dressing ingredients and stir.
3. Pour the dressing into the salad bowl, and mix together.

It can be served immediately, but if dried mint is used the salad should set for a while for all the flavours to come out.

Now a lot of these ingredients can be a bit of an investment, especially if you don't have a place like Trader Joe's nearby to pick up pine nuts and olives at a good price.  There is, however, a much simpler watermelon salad out there.

Jeff Potter, author of "Cooking for Geeks", mentions this salad in the previously mentioned book when discussing tastes.  It does show how dissimilar flavours can come together to make some seriously tasty food.  His recipe is also much simpler than the Cucumber Melon salad, so it may be better for those of us looking to save time and money (which is probably most of us)

Watermelon Feta Salad

Equipment:
1 Large bowl
1 spatula/spoon
Measuring implements

Ingredients:
2 cups watermelon, cubed or scooped
1/2 cup feta cheese, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup red onion, sliced, soaked and drained
1 T olive oil (extra virgin is preferred)
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Directions:
1. Combine the ingredients in a large bowl.  Toss to coat.

Bring it to parties, serve it around the table, just enjoy it.  It should be noted that this does not make nearly as much as the Cucumber melon salad, but the recipe should scale well.

Possible Alterations:
The Cucumber Melon salad can, of course, be done with lots of different varieties of melon, or even mixtures of melons such as watermelon and honeydew.  Jeff recommends adding black olives, mint leaves, or red pepper flakes to his Watermelon Feta salad.  It's probably best to not add them all at the same time, although you should notice that the cucumber melon salad has both olives and mint, so it's probably worth experimenting with.

Jeff also mentions that anytime onions are going to be served raw, they should be soaked in water.  There are some very scientific reason behind it, but the TL;DR version is this: chemicals that are released when an onion is cut will stabilize as a gas.  It reacts with water to create sulfuric acid.  By soaking the onion, the chemicals that would end up reacting with the water in our eyes becomes dissolved into the water.  Drain off the water, and all the nasty stuff goes with it.  Problem solved!

Cooking for Geeks is a great book.  If it seems like something that interests you, definitely pick up a copy. I'd recommend a hard copy.  E-readers are cool, but I don't think they're up to the rigors of the kitchen.

Happy gaming!