Being whisked straight from 20 odd hours of airplane food to a big family christmas lunch, my stomach's been suffering. So I decided, before my arteries turn into cumberland sausage, I need to get into some light fresh food. Conveniently enough I've landed back in Oz at summer's peak. Mangoes, cherries, plums and watermelons abound.
Watermelon's an excellent restorative - according to wartime stories my granddad once cured himself of typhus by eating nothing else for weeks. It might not fix your particular exotic disease but it'll probably do a bit to sort you out after festive overindulgence.
Ok, so the recipe to follow might seem a little weird, but have no fear, it's not just one of my pot luck bucket concoctions, it comes from the very wise pen of Stephanie Alexander. If there's any woman you'd trust in your kitchen it's her. If she told me to mix beetle skins with custard I'd probably do it and love it (but then again, I'm pretty easily led). Seriously, it's delicious.
Half a watermelon, cut into big cubes
200g soft fetta, cubed (goat, danish, bulgarian, good soft greek)
6 slices proscuitto, cut into broad slices
2 tbsp olives, pulled off the pips (I'd go for green olives or manzanillo in this recipe, kalamata's always good otherwise)
Juice of one lemon
Half an onion, sliced as thinly as you can humanly manage
Half a bunch of mint, de-stalked, chopped if you like
Half a bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional, it doesn't really need it, I'm just a parsley fiend)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt, pepper
Get yourself a hefty bowl and add the watermelon, fetta, onion, olives, lemon juice, olive oil, about 1tsp salt and the same of pepper. With clean hands, toss it all lightly so the watermelon doesn't bruise. Taste a bit of melon and add a little more salt if necessary.
Add the mint and proscuitto, mix gently until just combined, then serve and eat immediately. Preferably in a hammock.
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