Watermelon Rind Pickles

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Watermelon rind pickles are apparently a Southern thing. But I first had them at Fatty Crab, a Zak Pelaccio restaurant here in New York City devoted to Southeast Asian cuisine. I’ve been wanting to recreate their dish served with crispy pork belly at home, and the opportunity finally came when Cameron and I started planning our first Supper with Strangers.

Supper with Strangers is an urban supper club devoted to bringing together New York City’s food-loving populace. We think it’s a chance to celebrate the season’s flavors, meet others with equally good taste, and have them enjoy a fantastic, home-cooked meal with great people. We both love to cook and entertain, so we figured, why not create our very own supper club and meet new people in the process?

While we planned the first menu in a span of almost three weeks—that’s why the updates on this blog have been intermittent—we wanted to feature cool and refreshing dishes using summer ingredients. One watermelon appetizer idea brought us to featuring watermelon as the main ingredient for all our dishes, a la Iron Chef. After several tastings, we came up with a winning menu and consulted with Pour Wines for wine and beer pairings.

Welcome cocktail: Watermelon-Shiso Mojito

Amuse-bouche: Kebab of Watermelon, Bresaola, and Caper Berry
Vegetarian alternate: sheep’s milk cheese instead of bresaola

Appetizer: Chilled Thai-Spiced Watermelon Soup with Crab
Vegetarian alternate: sans the crab
Paired with: Francois Pinon Vouvray Tendre Cuvee Tradition, 2006, Loire Valley

Main dish: Fried Pork Belly with Pickled Watermelon Rinds
Vegetarian alternate: Roasted Golden Beet with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pickled Watermelon Rinds
Paired with: Ommegang Hennepin Farmhouse Saison Ale, Cooperstown, NY

Salad: Watermelon and Green Papaya Salad with Tequila Vinaigrette
Paired with: Salneval Albariño, 2007, Galicia, Spain

Dessert: Watermelon Cream Sorbet with Pirouettes
Served with coffee or mint tea

Ingredients:
watermelon rind, 4 quarts of 1-inch chunks (see directions for preparation)
2 cups white vinegar
4 cups white sugar
1 tbsp whole cloves
5 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
1 tbsp juniper berries
a pinch of mustard seeds
2 cups of water

1. Slice open the watermelon your usual way. Separate the red flesh from the rind. (Eat the red flesh later!) Peel the green skin off the rinds. Chop rinds in smaller chunks.
2. Make the brine. In a large pot, combine all the ingredients except rind and cook over medium fire until sugar dissolves. Remove pot from heat and let completely cool.
3. Transfer watermelon rind chunks in a pickling jar. Pour in brine until all of the rinds are submerged. I put a small and heavy tea cup to weigh the rinds down inside the pickling jar. Store in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks.

Related post/s:
Join us at Supper with Strangers once a month
Inaugural Supper with Strangers photos on Flickr
Crispy pork belly recipe

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Pickled Ramps

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In a week’s time, New York City has gone from spring to summer. Temperature was up 76 last week and I wore shorts to work. Good thing the produce at the farmers’ market was still in spring mode because I couldn’t have celebrated the warm weather without having my first ramps of the season. I got my early batch from Whole Foods for $19.99 a pound. F that! A bigger bunch in Union Square was $2.50 each when I stopped by the next morning. Because I was able to afford a few bunches, I decided to pickle them.

Make sure you wash and clean the ramps thoroughly. From the farmers’ market, the roots were intact. I cut them off and washed them with the water running; the onion skin from the stalks easily came off. I cut off and only left about an inch of the greens. I set the leaves aside for another recipe. Shichimi togarashi is a Japanese spice mix used to flavor soups and noodle dishes. You can buy a small bottle from Sunrise Mart if you’re in Manhattan, or else make your own.

Ingredients:
4 bunches of ramps
2 cups rice-wine vinegar
1 cup white sugar
salt

For the shichimi togarashi:
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp sesame seeds
3 curls of orange peel
a very small knob of ginger, peeled, crushed
1 sheet of nori

1. Bring all the ingredients, except the ramps, to a full boil in 3 cups of water until sugar dissolves.
2. In a pickling jar, place cleaned ramps and pour in the pickling juice. Using a small tea cup as weight, make sure that the ramps are completely submerged. Let cool to room temperature.
3. Seal jar and store in the refrigerator for about 5 days.

Related post/s:
Ramps with pancetta or bacon is the way to go if you’re not into pickling

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