August 19, 2013

Compressed Watermelon Sashimi

To accompany our oyster miso soup, we took inspiration from our recent meal at Kapnos, and tried our hand at compressed watermelon, with an Asian twist.  We don't have a vacuum sealer, so we searched the interwebs for technique ideas and suggestions.

Start by slicing up your watermelon.  You want rectangular slices so they'll mimic pieces of tuna sashimi.  The easiest way to do this is by slicing the watermelon in half.  Slice off the round end as well.  Then cut off your rind, like you're supreming an orange.  Just let your knife follow the curve of the melon.  Then cut off the rounded edges so you're left with a a more cubical piece.  Then you can slice it into pieces that mimic sashimi.
To cut some of the sweetness and add a bit of flavor, we brushed some fish sauce onto each slice, and then stacked the slices into towers.  Then we tightly wrapped the towers in plastic wrap.  The juice will start to seep out immediately.  Do your best to wrap them tightly, and secure the plastic wrap with rubber bands.  Since the juices will leach out, we placed our little packages in a bowl, and put them in the freezer to compress even more.
We made ours prior to making our oyster miso soup, so they had time to compress, but not completely freeze.  To finish off the watermelon, we sliced up some radishes and garnished them with chopped parsley and cilantro, and some sliced serrano peppers.  The sweetness of the watermelon was balanced out nicely by the subtle heat of the peppers and the saltiness of the fish sauce.
Our other watermelon stacks are still in the freezer, but when we're ready to eat them, we'll just be sure to let them defrost before eating them.  It was a fairly simple way to achieve compressed watermelon without having a vacuum sealer too.

2 comments:

  1. You can keep them long broken by using vacuum sealer, then put in the freezer

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  2. Very cool recipe.Look so yummy.

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