Monday, August 8th, 2011

Maine Chronicles: watermelon and cucumber salad

So I just returned from our annual trip to beautiful Vacationland, and as I was walking to work this morning between Penn Station and Times Square, it hit me, in the most shocking way, how completely opposite midtown Manhattan is from the midcoast of Maine.

In one place we have light, rocks, air, sky, lobstermen, seaside cottages, wild berry patches.

In the other we have exhaust, pigeons, pavement, tourists with fanny packs, a Foot Locker, homicidal bus drivers, and hot dog carts. Clearly my reentry is going to take awhile.

But one good thing is that I get to relive my trip with you by posting about all the wonderful food we ate and made while on vacation. So this week will be all about the Maine Chronicles. First up: a simple summer salad that I made several times on vacation: watermelon, cucumber, and shallots in a sherry vinaigrette. Magical.

I have to admit that I actually stole the idea…A week before the trip I had lunch at Mario Batali’s restaurant OTTO and a salad like this one was a special of the day. We have all heard of the combination of tomato/watermelon/feta, but this one had cucumbers/watermelon/ricotta salata dressed with a thick balasamic vinegar. It seemed so basic but the flavors still tasted amazingly fresh and new: bright, salty, and sweet. Pure summer.

In Maine I just substituted the red onion for shallots and sherry vinegar for the balsamic because I wasn’t finding any aged imported vinegar where I was. I also did not have any ricotta salata so I substituted feta one day, shaved pecorino on another–but honestly you don’t even need the cheese, it’s so flavorful and delicious without it. One idea I didn’t get to try was to grill the watermelon first, I think that would put this over the top.

I am looking forward to making this salad again soon, now that we’re back and before summer is out–it’s perfect with some grilled thighs chicken or salmon, or maybe lamb burgers. It’s also good all by itself.

Recipe for Cucumber and Watermelon Salad

(you can adjust these proportions depending on how many people you’re serving; I’d use an whole watermelon and 8 cucumbers if you are feeding a large bbq party).

Peel 2 cucumbers, slice them in half longways, scoop out seeds with a spoon and then chop them into medium size pieces. Place cucumber in a large bowl. Quarter a large watermelon and cut the red part onto chunks about the same size as the cucumber (if it is not seedless do your best to remove all of the seeds). Add watermelon to cucumbers. Take one shallot and slice into thin slivers. Add to bowl. If you are adding cheese then crumble about 1 cup of feta or pecorino or ricotta salata on top of the salad. Make vinaigrette: combine about 1/4 cup of sherry vinegar with 1 tsp of honey, 1 tsp of dijon, salt and pepper. Whisk in about 3/4 cup of grapeseed oil. Drizzle vinaigrette over salad, (you will probably not need it all, just enough so everything is coated lightly and save any extra dressing for later). Let sit a bit and then toss one more time before serving. Enjoy!