A melancia amuse bouche

Humidity levels soared again this weekend and something refreshing on the palate has been more than welcome.There is an overabundance of lovely melons,particularly water melon in the market at the moment. As a result I have been serving up watermelon, canteloupe and galia melons to add some bright and unusual accents to the breakfast platter that we serve our guests.Melons do not lend themselves to being portioned into interesting shapes, cubes triangles and spheres etc. So inevitably there is a lot of waste, and as you know I am a stickler for being resourceful when it comes to food.I owe it to my mother.Cubing water melon is always a tricky one, particularly if you are not working with the seedless variety.For some reason I have always been wary of these hybrids so usually end up making more work for myself by selecting the seeded ones. After prepping up to six of these platters I always end up with a tupperware full of eccentrically shaped offcuts in different sizes.My usual solution is to blitz the whole lot with some citrus, ginger and yoghurt to make a cooling smoothie.This time I decided differently.I would keep the fruit until later in the day and make a starter or amuse bouche for the nights dinner in the garden.It certainly had the S-factor.....Sweet (water melon,fig, vanilla) sour (sumac) salty (pistachios) and sassy (the finished thing)

Watermelon cube,melted goats cheese and more

2cm cube watermelon
soft goats cheese
slithers of wafer thin red onion
cracked pistachios 
sumac for dusting
fig balsamic
Cut your water melon into 2cm cubes.
Spread a thick layer of soft goats cheese (I used chevre)
Shell the pistachios, roughly chop them, then sprinkle them on top of the cheese and around the plate.Dust everything with sumac.

FOR THE FIG BALSAMIC 
1/2 cup ripe fig pulp
1/4 cup balsamic
1/4 tsp vanilla
Scoop out the pulp from the figs and discard the skin.
Put the pulp,balsamic and vanilla in a small pan and heat on low for 20-25minutes,stirring every 5 minutes until thick.Allow to cool completely before serving.
You only need a very small coffee spoonful per serving as it is very rich.