Five Pepper Melon-CRU/Melon-LYO with fresh herbs and green almonds

                                        
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'Melon-CRU/Melon-LYO a las cinco pimientas con 

                                                    hierbes frescas y almendras tiernas'        

Melons! The Spanish love 'em. Ham and melon is of course well known the world over, it features in this book in the form of a consommé made from Jamon Iberico with melon 'caviar'. This recipe however focuses on two types of melon served with five types of pepper and some green almonds, okiedoky then...


I have to say that my tastebuds and melon haven't agreed in the past. For me it just tastes not quite sweet and not quite bitter, just middle of the road. But one thing this book does is open your mind to combinations and flavours that most likely you will never have tried before, so I did the decent thing and went and bought a melon.

Above: The 30% syrup reducing, below: The Watermelon

The recipe calls for two types of melon, Cantaloupe and Piel de Sapo. Sadly neither of these were available to me but attracted by the colour I opted for Watermelon. Beginning by making a 30% sugar to water syrup, which was then left to chill in the fridge, I began slicing up wedges of the melon with the aim of making cubes which would then be vacuum packed with fresh herbs and the syrup.



Mixed melon pieces and vacuum sealed



One thing that annoys me about melon is the amount of wastage, once the seeds are out of the way you're left with very little to play with. What was left got diced up and combined with mint, basil and the syrup, vacuum packed leaving the bag chilling in the fridge until around an hour or two before serving when it gets placed in the freezer to get ice cold but not to the point of being frozen.




To serve, taking the melon out of the freezer and filling a large dish with ice (in this case, a paella dish, keeping it Spanish) and laying the melon slices on top, place a few sprigs of mint and basil around and finally grind five different types of pepper (I used cayenne, black pepper, Japanese Togorashi, Szechuan pepper and white pepper) along with a few roughly crumbled pistachios and dust over the melon pieces.



The final plate

The flavour hits you big time, these little cubes are deceptive in appearance, my mouth didn't know whether to feel hot or cold, in between bursts of freshness from the melon and the herbs. It's well worth taking all the elements together in one go, fresh herbs included, a little bit like eating the freshest fruit cocktail with a hit of spices sending your taste buds into the ascent. So simple yet so clever, a great start to the book.