The city is hot, stuffy and scorching. It’s literally like spending your afternoon in front of the “back of an air conditioner”. Such is the vapor in the air. Hot and enveloping. I’m just lying in hopes that the sky will open up and bless us with some respite from this cat and dog weather. It’s grueling and agonizing. The temperature is scorching and smoldering. My faculties fail me as soon as I step out of the air conditioning, and even the idea of eating a heavy, greasy Indian meal, or a fiery Asian meal, or even a hearty Chinese meal feels just as punishing as wearing it. from a black lycra full-sleeved shirt and walking on the beach under the midday sun. It is under these harsh and unforgiving circumstances that my mind has drifted closer to a chilled, sweet, crunchy and salty salad. A salad of watermelon and feta.
Nothing cools you down like a melon of any kind, and the watermelon is one of the few fruits I like. A large juicy fruit with intensely sweet flesh, which consists of almost 92% water. It’s widely available and there isn’t a fruit stand on the street that doesn’t sell one. The watermelon has been hailed as the Tree of Summer, or the fruit of the tree of thirst. It is easy to eat and all you need to do is cut through the dark green skin with a large sharp knife to get to the juicy, luscious, watery red mass. You can cut the fruit into large chunks or wedges, or you can simply crush the fruit into a liquid in a juicer, leaving just about enough mush. Once you’re done, I recommend leaving the juice or sliced fruit itself in the fridge for a while and only consume it after the cold penetrates the red nerves of the thick fiber. I even like to freeze large chunks of watermelon and consume them one at a time, or add them to my Gin and Tonic.
But coming back to the salad; I think a few years ago I tasted a Watermelon and Feta Salad for the first time in the Tasting Room in Parel. Overall, not one for any kind of salad, this salad just blew my mind. Especially since it is not filled with all kinds of leaves. It is a salad that enchants me, and it is formidable to reduce that witchcraft to words. I am fascinated by the extreme individuality of this salad.
The salad is just big, hearty wedges of deliciously sweet, lavishly juicy, scarlet watermelon flesh, secured by something substantial. Something that would withstand the extreme fluidity and sweetness of the watermelon. Something dense and salty, yet creamy. Like feta cheese. So you have large chunks of watermelon, with crumbled and salty feta, and a handful of coarsely shredded spicy and peppery arugula or arugula leaves and a dressing of balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Topped off with luxurious, toasted, buttery and slightly sweet, but terribly expensive pine nuts. Now cut into the crunchy and chilled watermelon, mop up some balsamic dressing, scoop up a few nuts, poke some arugula in it and scoop it right into your mouth. You really feel your temperature drop.
Speaking of melons, I’m sure you’ve eaten a Cantaloupe or a Musk Melon or Kharbooja before. One and the same. The Kharbooja or Musk Melon is known by many names in India. In Tamil it is called ‘Mulam Pazham’, in Bengali it is known as ‘Kharmuj’ and the Gujaratis call it ‘Shakartetti’. As the summer arrives in Gujarat but before the mangoes appear, Gujarati cuisine starts making food from this melon including juice, panna and shrikhand. It is also eaten alone as fresh fruit, or as kachumber or simply raw with salt and chili powder as part of the thali in Gujarat. I like the melon as a tangy, tangy salsa with chopped tomatoes, red onion, fresh cilantro, garlic, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Or as a smoothie with banana or cucumber. Moreover, the melon is not a boaster of taste, it can mix and melt in any shape and any recipe, including a rich Melon Kheer made with the pulp of the Kharbooja with almonds, rice and condensed milk.
Another type of melon is the Honeydew Melon, or the Meetha Tarbooj. The honeydew is a juicy, slightly sweet and earthy favorite fruit that adapts to both sweet and savory dishes. In its simplest form, you can juice the fruit and add a little honey and a squeeze of lime and grated ginger if it seems like you need a little more flavor. It’s healthy and low in calories and high in fiber like most melons, so it’s ideal for this weather. The honeydew also works great as a cold green gazpacho soup. We all know that a gazpacho is a cold soup made from raw, mixed vegetables. With the honeydew you make a nice crispy but meaty green gazpacho with green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs, vinegar and olive oil.
Even a honeydew melon with avocado, honey, cucumber, green grape and green apples is a delicious summer gazpacho. They would both taste fantastic, and both spread the goodness of melons in this warm weather. I would say that the melon, be it the Watermelon, Musk Melon, Honeydew Melon and any other melon you like, is your weapon against the heat. A healthy, cooling, refreshing and moisturizing weapon. May the power of the melon be with you.
Kunal Vijayakar is a food writer from Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. His YouTube channel is called Khaane Mein Kya Hai. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of this publication.
Read all the latest news, breaking news and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.