Food, Home & Lifestyle
Melon: Enhanced
Lesson time 13:27 min
Chef Crenn shows you how to check a melon for ripeness. Then she walks you through how to cut it, marinate it, and make it into ribbons.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Melon Enhanced * How to Cut a Melon * Marinated Raw Melon
Teaches Modern Vegetarian Cooking
Turn vegetarian dishes into statement pieces with celebrated chef Dominique Crenn. Explore her techniques through a tasting menu of elevated recipes.
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- So when you do a recipe with melon, I think it's always very interesting to use a different type of melon. The way that you learn about a different type, the best way to do it is to go to the farmer's market, talk to farmers, and to educate yourself about the way they grow things, why they're growing things, why it's the season. They can educate you on maybe some are more firm than others, some are more sweeter. Some maybe less texture and taste chewy, but they like better maybe being grilled or doing other things with it. We have a farm outside of our restaurant, which is located in Sonoma. And we use a different type of melon. Make sure that when you do a recipe, you get different varieties of product around you. What I love about melon is you can use everything. So you can use the meat inside. You can ferment it. You can grill it. You can roast it. You can make vinegar out of it. And I'm going to show you a few ways of using melon in the next recipes. In this chapter, I will show you techniques for how to cut a melon and enhance it by transforming the food into delicate, seasoned melon ribbons that you can enjoy on its own. Our progress within the melon evolves in many chapters. [GENTLE MUSIC] OK, so now, are we going to work with the honeydew. This is a very important thing for you to learn and to be aware, that when you start the recipe, make sure that you have your mise en place. Mise en place means to put everything in its place, and have your ingredients prepared. I need maybe one bowl, maybe more than that. So when you use a bowl to put the seed, this is the bowl that we're going to slice and marinate the honeydew. And of course, there is another bowl that we're going to put the skin on. Because what I'm going to show you today-- and I think not just for this, but in general-- when you cook, make sure that there is not a lot of waste. Because we can use everything. So first, the way that you cut a melon, you want to cut the bottom of this kind of straight, because we're going to peel it, all right? So sometimes I just also cut this. So I'm going to put that here. You want to make sure that your knife is sharp. You want this to be probably 6 to 8 inches. If you have a shorter knife, it might be harder. But you can also work with a shorter knife. So you want to go on the top here. And then, you want to make sure that, slowly, so you just want to put your hand here to hold this. And then you just go around. And then you just turn. You take your time, OK? This is nothing-- doesn't have to be perfect. But you don't want to-- when you cut the skin, make sure you don't take too much of the meat inside. Then you just go around. Oh, I can smell it. It's nice. I mean, you can see how beautiful it is. When you look at the melon, it's beautiful and it's ripe. So how do you know that is ripe before you cut it? [CHEERFUL MUSIC] I'm going to tell you a little bit of ...
About the Instructor
With three James Beard awards and a three-Michelin-starred restaurant, Chef Dominique Crenn has transcended traditional vegetarian fare by treating cooking as a kind of poetic expression. Now the celebrated chef invites you to discover inspired vegetarian cooking. Following a full tasting menu of recipes, learn how to elevate your techniques, minimize waste, and turn vegetarian dishes into works of art.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Dominique Crenn
Turn vegetarian dishes into statement pieces with celebrated chef Dominique Crenn. Explore her techniques through a tasting menu of elevated recipes.
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