A dessert classic gets dressed up for dinner
Sliced into halves or triangles at picnics, barbecues, or on any sultry day, watermelon is a perfect thirst-quenching snack. It's such a staple on the summer table that chefs have decided to dress it up and send it into the dining room when customers least expect it -- far from dessert.
"Summer and watermelon go hand in hand," says Craig Decker of Alchemy restaurant in Edgartown. The Martha's Vineyard chef makes watermelon granita for a scallop and jalapeno ceviche. When the shellfish goes to the table, it's accompanied by a spoonful of icy red crystals. "I think it's refreshing when the sweet watery texture of the watermelon is paired up with the spiciness of the jalapeno," he says. And so the stunning pink flesh that once went exclusively with fried chicken and potato salad is now paired with expensive ingredients. One chef takes slabs of watermelon and roasts them with sherry.
"When it's hot out and the watermelon is ripe -- a nice vibrant pink," says Michael LaScola of Nantucket's American Seasons restaurant, "it's a summer-love kind of thing." On his menu, Island Creek oysters from Duxbury are topped with watermelon gelee and a cucumber radish salad. Thomas Ciszak of Flat Iron Tapas Bar & Lounge in Boston sprinkles Hawaiian sea salt on a dish of watermelon and feta cheese. "When you bite into the watermelon, the salt brings out the flavor and the sweetness," he says.
Salt and watermelon are old friends in many kitchens. Other chefs agree that something salty, or even spicy, provides a flavorsome balance to the fruit. At Bambara in Cambridge, Nathan Powers serves a salad of arugula with watermelon and Serrano ham, because he likes "the interaction between the sweetness of the melon and the saltiness of the ham."
Sweet and salty come together in seared watermelon at 51 Lincoln in Newton Highlands. Chef and owner Jeffrey Fournier adds a confit of tomatoes, eggplant chicharrones, and French feta to the dish. "We sell out of it most nights," says the chef. His general manager Eric Cross adds, "It's a great conversation piece."
Often regarded as an all-American fruit, the watermelon was first cultivated in Egypt, where testaments were recorded in hieroglyphics on building walls. It quenched the thirst of Greeks, Lebanese, Turks, Iranians, and others.
Usually round, oblong, or spherical, watermelon ranges in size from a few pounds up to 90 (the largest on record is actually a whopping 262 pounds). There are more than 50 varieties of watermelons, some without seeds, others with various bright colors inside the rind, including yellow, orange, and, of course, red. The most popular varieties are All Sweet, which has a dark green rind and red flesh; Yellow Flesh, whose light green rind has mottled stripes and flesh that ranges from yellow to orange; and Ice-Box and Seedless, both of which come in either red or yellow flesh with a light green rind.
The main lure of this summertime treat is its refreshing quality.
Says Ciszak, the Flat Iron chef, "It's almost like eating a drink." 