Believe it or not, 1-3: Melon with Smoked Turkey is one of my last few remaining Group 01: Hot and Cold Appetizers recipes left to cover. I’ve put this one off for a while because I’m not a big fan of melon (other than watermelons)–but when the weekly CSA box keeps bringing them to you, you have to do something with them.
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Theirs looks super fancy–mine looks like a sloppy mess. I suppose if I were actually serving this for a party I would have tried harder. Melon + meat = appetizer isn’t a new equation–even Pillsbury has their own version. Most versions include prosciutto instead of turkey, which is the variant I’m more familiar with.
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The melons in the picture here don’t look like any modern honeydew melons I’ve ever seen. Aren’t honeydew melons typically green?
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Ingredients. I don’t even have a honeydew melon, I have a Galia melon (which actually looks closer to the picture). I don’t have regular red peppers, so red pepper fillet in adjika sauce will have to do.
Regular tomato for cherry ones (but it’s heirloom!), and finally, plant-based turkey slices instead of real ones. At least they’re smoked!
No wonder mine ended up such a mess.
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It’s hard to tell, but that’s a chopped pepper fillet. I think it’s more sauce than pepper at this point.
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Combining dressing ingredients.
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After mixing. Mine looks a lot redder than theirs.
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Slicing up the melon. It’s easiest to break it down into more stable (not round) pieces before attempting the thinner slices.
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The instructions were to take the peel off the melon–but not all the way. I suppose this is to give you something to grab onto, but to make it easy to eat without having to gnaw it off the peel. Because that would be rude.
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My awful attempt at garnish with what I had available. It’s less frilly than had I used cherry tomatoes and a more refined lettuce choice.
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Layering the smoked “turkey” and melon slices on top of my awful garnish.
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Well, if these were supposed to be finger food, they’re not now. I wasn’t thrilled with my version of the dish, and I don’t think theirs would have been much better. Consider this one done just to get it off the list.
Grade: C