>> Hilah: Hey there!
I am Hilah, and welcome to Hilah Cooking.
Today I am going to share with you a quick and easy little refreshing recipe that I like
to call “two melon salad” because you know honestly watermelon goes great with barbeques,
Fourth of July, whatever, you know, stuff like that, but when somebody says like, “Hey!
Would you mind bringing something to the potluck for Fourth of July?” and you just show up
like, “Hey where’s the watermelon guys!
Where’s the beer!”
That’s kind of lazy, honestly, c’mon think about it, so what I like to do is, you know,
get two melons, put a little dressing on there because you know what?
Two melons are better than one, and any red-blooded American will tell you that.
[MUSIC]
[Watermelon Salad Recipe]
>> Hilah: Alright, first of all let’s pick out good, tasty, juicy melons, ok, right,
so for a watermelon you want to look for one that kind of has a little blonde spot on the
bottom, and this is where it’s been sitting on the ground, sitting in the sun, probably
somewhere in Mexico, just like, hanging out, getting sweet and juicy, and that means that
it was picked when it was nice and ripe and it had time to develop this little flat, pale
spot on the bottom, and then also you want it to sound kind of hollow, if that makes
any sense, like a drum [sound].
That’s how you pick out a watermelon.
Cantaloupe, however, take a good look at this stem in and see how this one is kind of like
dipped in a little bit, that’s a good sign, a cantaloupe with kind of like a little inny
belly button, not an outy, and you definitely don’t want one that has a little like, any
little bit of stem still attached to it, like little dried up umbilical cord kind of looking
stuff.
Ixnay on the antelope-A if that’s your only option, and then just kind of a nice, thick,
webbing if you will, and mmmmmmm!
It smells fresh like cantaloupe.
Ok, so that’s how you pick out your melons.
Now, we’re going to cut it.
I learned from the pumpkin seed and jack-o-lantern carving episode, the worst thing you can possibly
do when cutting open a big, hard shell melon like this is to use a giant knife.
You have a lot more control if you use a little paring knife like so, so I am going to show
you how to do like kind of a watermelon boat, like serving dish or whatever.
You don’t have to do this part, but here we go.
I am just going to turn it, and I’ve got my watermelon on a, a dish towel here and
that’s just kind to help it stabilize it a little bit.
Ok, so there we have our, our watermelon that’s cut open.
I’m just going to, you can use the melon baller, um, and just kind of like scoop out
balls and set them aside.
If you don’t have melon baller, you can just use, you know, a spoon, or you could
even just kind of crassly cut out chunks, kind of hack away at it like a Texas chainsaw
kind of guy, although I wouldn’t recommend using a chainsaw until you get all the guts
out, so I’ll just do that, and catch you back here when I’m done.
It’s going to take like, a really long time, but I don’t care because I love my country
and my friends and they’re worth it.
Ok, I’ve got just about all my melon balled out here, and there’s a bunch of juice down
at the bottom.
I’m going to try to neatly dump that out into this cup because guess what goes really
good with watermelon juice, gin.
So, we can save that and make cocktails.
Alright, there’s an emptied-out watermelon hole that I’m going to fill up with other
stuff, and we’ll just do our melon the same way with the melon baller.
For my dressing, I’ve got just a little bit of honey here.
I am going to add some lime juice.
My melons are really sweet, so I am just using about a teaspoon of honey, but if your melon
is a little bit of a dud maybe then you can add honey to taste.
That was a juicy one, and then I’m using some fresh mint.
I am going to chiffonade that, but that just means kind of pile op the leaves and roll
them into a little tube, and then just slice little shreds, confetti if you will as thinly
as you can, and add that to our lime and honey, and just give a little stir to dissolve the
honey.
Alright, and then I’m going to mix up some fruits together.
I am not going to be able to fit all of this watermelon and the cantaloupe back into the
watermelon shell, but it’s pretty obvious I guess, but I am just going to use maybe
half and half, and the rest of the watermelon you can use to make agua fresca or cocktails
and stuff, so I will post some recipe ideas for leftover watermelon chunks on my website.
Alright, now I am just going to pour my dressing over it.
Ok, beautiful, and now I am just going to gently pile it all back into my watermelon
shell.
There we go!
Well, two melon salad, or a double melon salad.
Ok, I am going to take a little bite.
Now, obviously you’d want to like refrigerate this and make it really nice and cold and
icy, but I’m just going to eat it now.
Mmmmmmmmm!
Mmmmm mmmm mmmmm!
Man!
Nothing like a little gussied up melon for your holiday picnics.
The mint is great, like I said.
I think basil or thyme would also be really nice.
You can mix it up with different vegetables, whatever, but like the lime and honey, and
some fresh herb, just like, really brightens up the whole thing, brings out all the sweetness
and everything, makes it really nice, so I hope you try this recipe.
Have a great Fourth of July if you are celebrating that, and have great weekend otherwise, and
I’ll see you guys later and thanks so much for watching.
If you have any questions or anything, leave them below, and I will get to them as soon
as I can.
Thank you!
See ya.
[MUSIC]
>> Hilah: [Laughs] Watermelon juice is slippery you guys!