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.
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.
The melons in the picture here don’t look like any modern honeydew melons I’ve ever seen. Aren’t honeydew melons typically green?
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.
It’s hard to tell, but that’s a chopped pepper fillet. I think it’s more sauce than pepper at this point.
Combining dressing ingredients.
After mixing. Mine looks a lot redder than theirs.
Slicing up the melon. It’s easiest to break it down into more stable (not round) pieces before attempting the thinner slices.
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.
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.
Layering the smoked “turkey” and melon slices on top of my awful garnish.
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
