Basil, Melon, and Prosciutto (or Bacon!) Salad with Cayenne

There are a zillion variations on this recipe on the Interwebs, and since I remembered the three main ingredients from when my mom made this several years ago, I don't feel obligated to cite any particular source. Plus, I might have added the cayenne pepper part myself - not sure.

As long as you have enough melon (and it can be canteloupe, honeydew, whatever - I happen to like honeydew better) to serve the number of people you want to serve, the amount of basil and prosciutto/bacon is totally flexible. If you need to use up a strip of bacon from breakfast, use that. You can use as little as one or two large leaves of basil for a few people, and it would still be fine. Or, if you love basil, you can use much, much more.

I tossed the ingredients in a little lime because I had a leftover wedge, but it's not necessary.

Half of a small honeydew melon, combined with the other ingredients (which don't add much volume) yielded us two 6-oz mugs full of salad. Scroll down to the very last picture to see what I consider a "serving."

Hooray honeydew! I was so excited that New Seasons had delicious-looking (and tasting), ripe honeydew halves on sale by the pound, and that I only had to buy half of a teeny one. I know myself, and I know that there is no way I would properly preserve and then use the other half before it went bad. Below is the honeydew shredded up with my new melonballer (I started out trying to make actual melon balls, then decided scraping was the way to go). In the picture, it looks kind of like celery, doesn't it? Weird...

Okay, so the recipe. Like I said, any way you make it, it will taste good. But as a guideline, you will need:

Ingredients

- 1/2 canteloupe or honeydew melon, cut into balls or ribbons with a melonballer, or chopped into 1/2 inch-ish pieces

-1/8 cup chopped prosciutto, or 1/8 cup cooked bacon (cooked/broiled with brown sugar for extra pizazz!)

- 4 or 5 medium fresh basil leaves, ripped into small pieces

-Squeeze of lime juice

-dash of cayenne pepper

-2 shakes of salt

-1/2 teaspoon sugar or 1/2 brown sugar (unless you used bacon with brown sugar already)

Instructions

1. Combine prosciutto or bacon with basil in a bowl or in the melon shell.

2. Combine lime juice, cayenne, salt, and sugar (omit sugar if using bacon cooked with brown sugar) in small bowl. Stir to combine. Toss prosciutto-basil mixture with lime mixture.

3. Add melon pieces and toss to combine.

4. Serve immediately or let sit for awhile if the rest of the meal isn't ready yet. If you're not serving the salad until much later, wait until closer to mealtime to rip up the basil and add it.

Here's the prosciutto. I bought two little slices from the deli counter - it was prosciutto di parma and cost $23.99 a pound, and I paid 57 cents, so... not very much. It looks like it came to about 1/8th of a cup, chopped up.

Note: When my mom made this, she used bacon, and she says that it was broiled with brown sugar on top. If you have bacon at home, you should TOTALLY do that instead. The deli prosciutto was tasty, but the kind in the bag at Safeway (which I used the second time around) can't hold a candle to good ol' bacon.

This next picture is completely irrelevant to the recipe, except that I ended up mixing the salad up in the hollowed-out honeydew, and the shell looked kind of cool in the sunlight. It reminds me of the Wicked Witch of the West's crystal ball!

Here's the salad. We had it with lentil soup. Disclaimer: Unlike his pad kee mao-obsessed wife, Mike is not a fan of the sweet-salty-sour flavor profile. And true to form, he wasn't crazy about this dish. Soooo... not everyone will like it. Only those with good taste. BURN!

Last note: I think the salt drew out a little more honeydew liquid from the honeydew shell - so if your melon is on the not-so-ripe side, you might want to consider lightly salting the melon shell, letting it sit for a while, and then harvesting any juice that gathers up.

Birthday Cupcakes For My Sister!

My sister Megan's birthday was last week, and we celebrated it yesterday (Valentine's Day). So, I made some cupcakes! Another recipe from Cooks Illustrated - I have to make sure I get my money's worth for my online membership fee, I guess! These were pretty fun to make - I don't usually enjoy baking, but these had very few of the annoying parts of baking, and all of the fun (melting chocolate over the stove! stirring white sour cream into dark, dark, chocolate! oooohhhh...)

Here's the recipe (originally published 3/1/05):

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes.
"This recipe does not double very well. Cupcakes made from a doubled batch and baked side by side in the oven yield a slightly compromised rise. It's best to make two separate batches and bake each separately. Store leftover cupcakes (frosted or unfrosted) in the refirgerator, but let them come to room temperature before serving."

-8 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 4 pieces
-2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped [Carrina's note: most chocolate bars seem to come in 3.5 ounces, which means that you will need to use 4/7 of the chocolate bar - a very unhappy fraction since most of the bars also come in eight pre-scored rectangles. I eyeballed it and it turned out fine. It's all chocolate!)
-1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa (1 1/2 ounces)
-3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (3 3/4 ounces)
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-3/4 teaspoon baking powder
-2 large eggs
-3/4 cup sugar (5 1/4 ounces)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/2 teaspoon table salt
-1/2 cup sour cream (4 ounces)

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-sized muffin pan (cups have 1/2-cup capacity) with baking-cup liners.

2. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.

3. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in small bowl to combine.

4. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is homogenous and thick.

5. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

6. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes. (To frost: Mound about 2 tablespoons icing on center of each cupcake. Using small icing spatula or butter knife, spread icing to edge of cupcake, leaving slight mound in center.)

Safeway was out of powdered sugar, so for the frosting, I turned to my friends Duncan and Betty.