Cantaloupe Recipe:
Curried Melon, Crab, and
Arugula Appetizer

Recipe:

• Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Curried Melon, Crab and Arugula Appetizer

• 1 ripe cantaloupe
• 1 piece watermelon without rind
• 1 tablespoon madras curry powder
• 2 cups loosely packed baby arugula
• 1 red radish
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup crab meat
• 1 teaspoon cut chives
• salt

Steps:

1. Peel and seed the cantaloupe. Using only the solid ends cut out four 1 inch thick circles with a cookie cutter. Do the same with the watermelon.
2. Dust the watermelon on one side with the curry powder. Sear quickly in a nonstick pan. This toasts the curry powder and takes away some of the bitterness as well as quickly caramelizing the watermelon. While still warm stack the cantaloupe disc on top of the curried side of the watermelon. Chill for twenty minutes.
3. Next, make a quick vinaigrette with the vinegar, oil, and chives. Fine dice some of the cantaloupe scrap and mix with the crab and 2 tablespoons vinaigrette. Salt to taste.
4. Cut the radish into very thin circles and julienne finely.
5. Toss the arugula with the remaining vinaigrette and place on one side of an appetizer plate. Place the melon stack on the other side, top with crab and then with radish.

Submitted by: Chef Trap Landry at the Black Point Inn in Scarborough, Maine