This cold weather we are having has me wishing for summer. My recent post on our judging night had me craving watermelon.

Watermelon is one of my favourite summer fruits. Having done the compressed watermelon salad for the Chefs Table competition and our Taste Tasmania dinner at work, I now see it as more versatile than just a fruit to eat by itself.

I like a cocktail of watermelon chunks, vodka, cointreau and melon liqueur blended up with ice to form a slushy. Perfect summer drink.

The watermelon salad that we did at work, is very simple. Chunks of melon, mint leaves cut to julienne, Persian fetta(nice and creamy), pistachio nuts, extra virgin olive oil, squeeze of lemon, finley diced olives. If you have some rosewater lying around a couple of drops adds an exotic touch of the middle east. If you have a dehydrator, remove the seeds from the olives and then dry the flesh. Grind it up in a mortar and pestle, you will see it is still moist due to the oils, return to dehydrator on paper towel for a little bit until quite dry. Sprinkle a little of the olive dust over the salad in place of the diced olives.


Growing up in the Hunter Valley, when we wanted watermelon we would drive off to the watermelon man. This was a local farmer who would drive his tractor to the edge of town with his freshly picked melons. Rush home so Mum could cut it in to wedges for us and then we would sit out on the back step eating our melon. Seeds of course had to be dealt with, so we simply spat them out on to the grass. Eating melon is not the same if you can’t spit the seeds out.

Of course for special occassions we had to have a melon basket( how 1970’s is that). Mum or Nan would shape the watermelon in to a basket and then we would help ball the watermelon, rockmelon and honeydew melon, and put it all back in to the basket. Of course there were plenty of off cut bits for us to eat while we worked.

Thanks for dropping by to see my latest post! Roll on spring and summer!!!