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Mexico: tropical fruit with chilli and lime in a watermelon bowl

July 14, 2013 5 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

 tropical fruit with chilli and lime in a watermelon bowl

 We have a rare patch of hot weather here in the UK, it feels like another country. Let’s take a tip from hotter climates on how to eat. No cook recipes are what you want, begone slaving over a hot stove.
The Mexicans have it right, with their light and refreshing beach snacks. Every day on the beach at Sayulita, near Puerta Vallarte, a series of vendors would stomp up and down the hot sands, big pot on their heads, cool box banging against their knees, calling out what they were selling, a repetitive loop that merged into a song. What was particularly brilliant, if you were staying a few days, is that you could put in orders. Like, meet me here on this patch of sand tomorrow at 5pm with a vegetarian tamale, no make that two, type thing. And if you weren’t on that patch of sand, they’d find you, wherever you were. Because they all chat to each other, the vendors, and they say, oh no, that gringa with the red hair is a bit further up.
My fruit guy would bring me a large plastic beer glass studded with spears of pineapple, mango and watermelon. Over the fruit, he’d squeeze of bottle of chilli sauce, add lime and salt. Try it, it’s both savoury and sweet, cooling and heating.
In India they use sulphuric black salt and lime over fruit which is also very good. The salt, obtainable in most Indian shops as Kala Nemak, smells a bit farty but tastes wonderful and gives that authentic Indian sour taste.
This is also a great recipe to add to a barbeque spread.

Tropical fruit with chilli and lime in a watermelon bowl recipe

For two

1 small watermelon
1 papaya
1 mango
1 lime
Your favourite chilli sauce
or grind together some dried chillis
Salt

You could also add a small pineapple. If you want to make this dish for more people, buy a large watermelon. Make sure the fruit is ripe then chill in the fridge. Cold fruit is even more refreshing.

Cut the watermelon in half then on one half, cut a thin slice from the bottom so that it will stand up like a bowl. Carefully, with a knife, cut around the inside edge, and then, without cutting through the skin, cut each half into pie type slices. Use a spoon to pull out the wedges and set them aside.
Cut the papaya in half, scoop out the black seeds, then like an avocado, use a thin knife to cut inside the  skin, then cut slices lengthways. Peel off the skin.
Mangos are always a bugger to cut because of the stone in the middle. Here is a great link which will explain perfectly how to do it. Rather than cutting the hedgehog pattern at the end however (although that’s great for salsa or a fruit salad), I cut the mango into spears, lengthwise.
Put all your fruit into the watermelon bowl.
Squeeze the lime juice onto the fruit, scatter some good sea salt on it, then add the chilli sauce.

 tropical fruit with chilli and lime in a watermelon bowl with tajin seasoning

In Mexico they sell Tajin, ready-made small packs of a chilli lime and salt mixture, for school lunch boxes and picnics!
If you haven’t got a chilli sauce you like you could also grind up a dried chilli with some salt and sprinkle that.

 tropical fruit with chilli and lime in a watermelon bowl

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Comments

  1. Adele

    July 14, 2013 at 7:25 pm

    looks lovely, so refreshing I always have a jar of chilli salt to hand, usually for the rims of cocktail glasses but works a treat with this sort of thing too
    Adele x

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      July 17, 2013 at 7:00 am

      Wish they sold tajin in the UK!

      Reply
    • Eyeliner + Sparaypaint

      July 21, 2013 at 3:23 pm

      This looks so tasty! they sell tajin here: http://www.souschef.co.uk/tajin-classic-seasoning.html

      Reply
  2. Anonymous

    July 16, 2013 at 6:43 am

    Lovely post. X

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      July 17, 2013 at 7:00 am

      You are welcome x

      Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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