The past week has been an extremely happy week for me; my mom visited for five days (I hadn’t seen her since Christmas) and I am now engaged! He surprised me at the airport when I was picking up her up with an absolutely beautiful bouquet of flowers and the prettiest ring I’ve ever seen. I am so touched that I was able to tell my mom in person minutes after it happened; I feel so incredibly blessed right now. In the meantime, I have developed a persistent lust for watermelon, I eat it every day – usually twice. Even if the flavour is slightly lacklustre in some of the out-of-season melons I’m buying there is always the option to transform it into a spectuacular salad that combines the unlikely flavours of tomatoes, watermelons, red onions, and basil in a perfect juxtaposition of fuchsia, red, and green. This salad was inspired by one of Mark Bittman’s recipes in the article 101 Simple Salads for the Season and the basil vinaigrette is based on a basil vinaigrette recipe from Simply Recipes. I used small seedless watermelons because they have a truer watermelon flavour in comparison to the large melons in stores at the moment. I eat this as a meal in itself but it’s also good paired with chicken that has been left to marinate in lemon juice, olive oil, and crushed garlic.
watermelon and tomato salad with a basil vinaigrette:
1 small watermelon, cut into eighths and then roughly cubed
About 1 1/2 cups of chopped tomatoes, I used 8 small Campari tomatoes
About 1/4 of a red onion, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I like really tangy dressing, use less if you like yours to be milder)
1 clove of garlic
1 big bunch of basil, leave some aside for topping the salad
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of light olive oil
1. Combine the watermelon, tomato, and red onion in a large salad bowl.
2. Blitz all of the salad dressing ingredients together in a blender except the oil. With the blender running slowly pour in the oil so that a brilliant green emulsion forms. Drizzle on top of the salad and scatter the remaining basil over top. Any remaining dressing can be kept for a week.
The album “Tim” by The Replacements always makes me feel sentimental, not for any concrete reason but the music itself sounds nostalgic to me. There is something about the songs on this album that really capture something youthful, like everyone involved should never have gotten old. I like playing this album when it starts to get warm out and I like playing this song in particular when I’m really happy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDH6W-bU8wo]
The Replacements – Kiss Me on the Bus