Watermelon Whale Watching

Since there are currently a plethora of watermelons available at farmer's markets and grocery stores, i thought it appropriate to demonstrate how to make a very popular item in my house growing up, a watermelon whale. People think it is incredibley creative, and in all truth, it's a very easy way to add a little punch and humor to a piece of fruit most people adore. I fill my whale with fruit salad and have included a simple recipe for a delicious one. A note to selecting a good watermelon: Go knock on your door. Hear that sound? Tap tap tap, hollow wood. The more hollow a watermelon sounds when you knock on it, the sweeter it will be. Check the bottom for color, a pale yellow, you are good to go. This means it has been sitting in the sun for a while, incubating.



The general idea behind creation of the whale is to take the whole watermelon, carve off a top in the shape of a whale's back and tail, scoop out the flesh and fill with something fantastic. Step 1 is to slice a very small piece off the bottom of the watermelon to prevent the thing from tipping. This provides a flat and stable base. Stabbing yourself with a sharp knife because the watermelon rolled; very bad. Step two is to wrangle up a sharpie and draw the outline of the whale tail and the body. You need not be blessed with art skills to do this, it's a whale shaped watermelon! It will look great no matter how straight your lines are. Step three is to cut off the top using the sharpie marks as guidelines. I find a small paring knife is best for this, as a long blade has less control on the corners. Step 4 is to remove the top. If you have cut all the way through, it should come off easily. Any troubles simply run a long knife through the flesh all the way across and free the top. Ta Da, you have a whale! I use a standard ice cream scoop to remove all the yummy flesh, or a spoon will do the trick as well. Lastly, and this is the most important part of the process, give your whale a face! It is a happy whale, it's about to have fruit salad in it, yummy



I Shall Call her Eloisa!



Fruit Salad

1 bunch of green or red grapes
3 apples, cut into 1 inch chunks
2 bananas, peeled and cut into 1/2 in slices
2 pears, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 pint of strawberries, hulled and sliced1 cup of watermelon, cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 cup of heavy cream, whipped with 2 tbls of sugar to form stiff peaks
1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Mix all fruit in a large bowl. Add yogurt and vanilla to whipped cream and stir to combine. Mix into fruit and pour into watermelon whale.

9/26/09
by Kendra
Delete
1 – 3 of 3