Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Compressed Melon and a Gorgeous Summer Salad

When I was ordering groceries last week, sale prices dictated that I had no choice but to order a watermelon. While this fruit is delicious and refreshing on its own, it also presented a fun opportunity to play with compressing fruit using my new favorite toy...The watermelon on the left is freshly cut, while that on the right has been compressed. Nothing added but pressure. Pretty cool, yeah? Which would you rather put on your fresh, beautiful summer salad?My new favorite toy is, of course, a chamber vacuum. The top of my dryer in my laundry closet has now become Sous Vide Central.Here's my watermelon...
The packet in the back is darker because the watermelon was brushed with a bit of balsamic vinegar... (The salad was dressed with balsamic and olive oil, so this seemed like a good call.)The resulting watermelon is bright, fresh, and concentrated, without any of that pesky air getting in the way. Below is a video of the end of the vacuum-sealing process, where you can see the color change as the air leaves the chamber. (Pardon the noise... I had a load of laundry in the dryer...)

2 comments:

dmg said...

hi Emily,

I am curious. In the left side of the photo the color is more of cantaloupe than watermelon (which I expect to be red, as in the right hand side). Was it really watermelon?


thanks again,


--dmg

emmo said...

Hi dmg,

It is actually the same watermelon. When it was initially diced it looked very pale because of all the air in it. The only difference between the left and the right side of the photo is that the watermelon on the right side has been compressed. Pretty amazing, yeah? =)

--Emily