Sticking with the “it’s high summer and hot as hellfire most days” theme of late, here’s a sorta new spin on a perfect side for your grilled thick-cut, bone-in pork chops (the ones you carefully brined before slapping on the grill) or your masterpiece grilled chicken recipe – a Summer Asian Cantaloupe Slaw.
I’ll be quick to admit that using cantaloupe to make a slaw / salad is a killer idea that in no way originated in our kitchen; we first tasted something close to this at one of our favorite upscale Q joints in the neighborhood (Smoke) on a fish taco special plate some months back.
We’d tucked the idea away on the “have to try and cook this one someday list”, then a friend in SLC emailed a recipe danged close to this one a few weeks back. She’d dug up the idea of grating part of the cantaloupe somewhere, and sparked a tasty round of experiments over the past several weeks in our kitchen. To be honest, unless the cantaloupe was really firm (just barely ripe), we weren’t all that crazy about the grated fruit, but you should give it a spin.
For a quick 10 to 15 minutes of prep time, the flavor rewards here are “yuuuuge”, and it’s quite likely you’ll be serving friends or family something surprisingly delicious they’ve not tasted before. After dialing in how we prefer to put this together last weekend, we’ve made one every other night this past week.
Take the time to dig up some really ripe and sweet cherry tomatoes, they add a lot and meld very well with the cantaloupe and rest of the asian-inspired cast of players here.
This one is best served pretty darned close to the time you put it all together, though 30 minutes chilling in the fridge allows the flavors to meld a bit. And you might want to double this one – it’s damned good.
1 large cantaloupe, quartered, seeded, prep as below
Handful of the best cherry tomatoes you can find
4-6 green onions, trimmed, then thinly sliced on the diagonal
2 fresh red fresno chiles, stemmed, seeded,, and sliced
1-2 fresh jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced
1/4 cup (or more) fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish if desired
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1-2 tbsp good fish sauce (start with one)
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp (or more) fresh lime zest (optional)
1/3 cup (give or take) of roasted, salted peanuts, crushed
Slice 3/4’s of the cantaloupe into thin slices; grate the remainder on a the large holes of a box grater. Toss both into a medium bowl. (See note above)
Halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the onions and chiles, and prep the cilantro; add all to the cantaloupe.
Now add the lime juice, fish sauce and EVOO; mix well and chill for a few minutes if you’re not ready right now, though you don’t want to hold this one too long.
Top with the crushed roasted peanuts, lime zest, and cilantro for garnish and go to it.
Enjoy.
