My three children along with a spouse or so and some of the grandkids will be here tomorrow for a belated Father's Day supper.
I'm fixing Smoke Cooked Spatchcock Chicken on the Traeger along with a marinated coleslaw and I thought some Crenshaw Melon on the side. The kids are bringing other sides and dessert.
I've got the coleslaw made and in the frig but it needs turning every once in a while to make sure it's marinated evenly. I've got the spine out of the two birds and in a simple salt and sugar brine.
I wish I could have found a nicer crenshaw melon but it's ok. (I like them when they are more yellow as when they are you can smell them even if they are straight out of the cooler and you can use the flesh right up to about 1/8 of an inch to the skin.
Note: The lighting made the skin look much greener than it actually was, it was yellow with a slight greenish tint.
Other's may already know this trick that we used in the produce trade but I thought I'd show it anyway.
The melon was rinsed under running water, then I put it in a sanitizing solution (1 tsp of regular non scented bleach to 1 gallon of cold water) and let it sit for a few minutes then placed it on a clean towel and allowed to air dry.
Then the stem was cut off, and the melon sliced in half lengthwise and the seeds removed.
Then the halves were cut in two and sliced into about 1" wide slices.
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Using a paring knife, the slices were sliced as wide as I wanted the chunks to be down through the flesh into the outside rind.
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Then I used the paring knife at an angle to separate the chunks from the rind.
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So in less than 5 minutes once the melon was initially sliced in half lengthwise I had 4 pounds of melon chunks ready for the frig and my guests tomorrow :tu
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This works on all melons for making chunks quickly.
If you've never tried a Crenshaw (sometimes spelled Cranshaw) they are very good. They have a very mild cantaloupe type flavor but are much sweeter than cants. In fact I don't like cants but I do like the crenshaws.