Summer watermelon starter

Okay, summer is pretty much here and throwing us its heat and cheer. What is summer without its own melon? I mean, the delicious watermelon! I used to have a book with beautiful pictures of watermelon and a little boy who eats it all through the story. I bought that book at a book exhibition in our city when I was about 10 years old. It was a book published in Russia and translated. It had the most beautiful watercolor illustrations that motivated me to start painting. I don’t remember the story or what happened to that book later but those pictures are still fresh in my mind. The little boy in that story munches a half-moon piece of water melon and to this day, I love to eat it like him.

Our markets are flooded with watermelons. This week we had to deal with two watermelons. My husband cut them and cubed them precisely, to help me.  We finished the first one with great enthusiasm. But the second one was received with a meh! I had a big plastic container with chilled pink cubes almost forgotten in the fridge for a while and I force fed everyone. There was the remaining half of it covered with cling wrap and waiting. The only way to finish it is to make it exciting. I decided to give this melon another chance and take it on a ramp walk.

It is gone now, as I used it to make this easy starter and pushed it during every meal.  I was inspired by canapés… but they are normally, savory or spicy to be served with cocktails. I imagined a preparation based on it, using watermelon. These decorative small bites cannot be savoury because watermelon is sweet, so I added a hint of honey. I mixed lime and ginger flavours to enhance it. It turned out to be a fancy, finger food!

Ingredients

• half a watermelon
• few slices of bread (multi-grain, whole wheat or rye bread)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/4 tsp lime zest
• a pinch of salt
• 3 cubes crystallized/candied ginger
• few mint leaves to garnish

1. Take 6 bread slices and using a round cookie cutter cut circles out of bread. (I used brown, rye bread.)
2. Cut watermelon into a thin triangles.
3. Using the same cookie cutter cut out a disk from each piece.
4. Take a smaller round cutter and cut a hole in the middle of each watermelon disk.
5. Mix cream cheese, yogurt and salt to get a smooth mixture.
6. Add honey and blend well.
7. Sprinkle chopped crystallized ginger and lime zest and mix with it.
8. Take bread circles and spread butter and then yogurt mix on it.
9. Place a watermelon disk on it and spoon some yogurt mixture in the center.
10. Stick mint leaves in the center to garnish.
11. Serve it cold.

You can use cream cheese or Greek yogurt alone if you like it. Greek yogurt is thick yogurt without any whey water. Hung curd that is made thick, by using a cheese cloth to drain excess water, is an alternative.

It is better to use a delicate touch while cutting the circles to prevent squishing them.

This is a good starter for any meal or a juicy snack in between meals. It is refreshing with a burst of flavors in your mouth. Keep it chilled until ready to serve.

Assembling it is a good activity to do with kids. They get to nibble on the bits and pieces left behind as the cutting is in progress. I was amazed how fast our watermelon half disappeared!

This starter got a standing ovation at home! So try it for some pure fun!

I am bringing this starter over for all our Fiesta Friday friends to enjoy!

Fiesta Friday#74