Daniel Pfyl, hospitality management lecturer at the Otago Polytechnic, shares some professional techniques to make your cooking easier.
To ball a melon
If a melon is fragrant, it is ripe.
Use a rock melon (orange flesh) as demonstrated here, or honeydew (green flesh).
Water melons are more difficult to ball because they have pips all through.
Cut the melon in half. Scoop out the seeds.
Use a melon-baller (aka Parisienne scoop), a utensil with a hemispherical bowl and a sharp edge to scoop out balls.
Don't worry if they are not completely spherical but take care not to scoop too much rind.
Melon balls can be used in fruit salad - they are good with orange segments, apple cubes, fresh pineapple, strawberries and other berries.
Melon and Parma ham or prosciutto (a salt-cured, dried ham) is a traditional combination.
Use melon with thinly sliced, salted and cured meat on an antipasto platter, skewer them together on toothpicks or combine on a crouton or crostini.
Smoked chicken, or prawns, or crab and fresh or salty cheese can also go well with melon.
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