Xigua, Oil on canvas, 102 x 81cm
X is for Xigua, Watermelon in Chinese. Next time I might use Xylocarp or coconut, which is loosely known as a nut, seed and fruit! Actually it’s categorized as a fibrous one seeded drupe.
In the ‘80’s I thought I was the height of sophistication when I served watermelon, mint and Champagne frozen cocktails at summer parties in the garden. As a young married, the party themes were fun, elaborate, big hair, shoulder pads, lots of shiny material and the food preparation would often take days. It was so different from my family’s style of cooking which revolved around a simple mantra. “How can you feed as many people as possible, as economically as you can, with the minimum of preparation, using the food growing in the garden or currently in season?”
That’s why I love the idea of using the whole watermelon, including the rind. Visitors to the Alphabet Fruit at the Central Market told me of Chinese watermelon rind soup and pickles and I was reminded of these a few nights ago, watching reruns of Poh’s Kitchen where she shared her soup recipe. For Poh’s soup go to https://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/stories/s3054058.htm and for pickles go to https://migrainereliefrecipes.com/watermelon-rind-pickles/
If you want to try the watermelon cocktail there are two ways to go about it. One is to mix your ingedients together and then freeze it, scraping it with a fork as you would a granita before you serve it. The other is to pop cubes of watermelon in the freezer for about 4 hours, then blitz them, spoon into a glass, pour over champagne and decorate with mint sprigs. I like it without adding extra sugar, but you could rim your glasses with it, before you start, if you like. For children, substitute lemonade or mineral water instead of champagne and I’d probable add the mint to the processore with the fruit, blitzing it all together. Very refreshing!