A warm melon salad prawns and paraguyo peaches

It was open the door of the aircraft WHOOOOOOSSHHHHH hot air syndrome here yesterday,33º and I was gasping for a dish that would revive rather than refuel.Neither of us have ever been ones for combining fruit with savoury, but the thought of a refreshing salad with ripe melon,prawns and paraguyo peaches is exactly I wanted.I saw British chef James Martin cook something similar on the TV recently.Ham and melon in a savoury context is an age old classic,Feta cheese and pecorino, too but prawns and melon? This is going a little off piste but it works.Mr Martin called it "a spur of the moment creation "a riff on a summertime theme".The most interesting thing for me here was that he sautéed the melon  to create a warm salad (with no leaves).I did not have any tarragon or rasberry vinegar to hand, which was how he dressed his salad, but I came up with the idea of another classic combo.Ginger pairs beautifully with melon, so I set about creating a zingy ginger based dressing and made one more innovation which was to spice up the prawns a tad.I marinaded them in a wet chimichirri mix.
A warm melon salad with chimichirri prawns
2 small different coloured ripe melons,galia and canteloup or charentais
400g peeled cooked prawns
2 ripe paraguyo peaches,peeled stoned and diced 

FOR THE DRESSING 
1 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon chili oil
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
 
Combine soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, chili oil, lime juice, vinegar and onion powder in a blender. Process until evenly combined. Chill before serving.

Start by making the salad.Cut the melon in half and scoop out the seeds.With a sharp knife cut the fruit away from its outer skin.Cut the melon into bite sized dice.
Place a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil.Cook the prawns and their marinade until nicely coloured. Add the melon dice.Fry quickly for 1 minute,shaking the pan.Remove to a bowl and add the peaches.Gently toss everything together in the dressing.
Arrange the salad on a platter and serve immediately.Bom apetite

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