Rock Melon Prawn Salad

Chilled rock melon salad--perfect for those sizzling days.

Those of you who knew me from way back would have eaten this salad many times. So yes, this is one of my signature dishes. This is a salad I like to serve at barbies and bring to potluck dinners because it can be made hours ahead, there's minimal cooking and a bit of this and that make a big bowl. And of course, because it is refreshing, creamy and yummy, especially with grilled or barbied meat.

This salad started out as an all-melon salad but slowly through the years as rock melon (cantaloupe in North America) from Australia went up to RM20/US$6/kg, I had to cut back on the melon and use mixed fruit cocktail from the can. You may say I'm cheap but strangely enough, the salad seems even better with fruit cocktail. Just make sure you don't get the tropical fruit cocktail because that's full of mushy papaya. And don't use any other mayo but Kraft's Miracle Whip; it was made for sweet salads like these. I find that the best pasta shape for this salad is the spirals. Didn't have any in my cupboard so it's macaroni salad pasta that I used today.



Rock Melon Prawn Salad (makes a ton)
1/2 large rock melon
1 x 850g can of mixed fruit cocktail (or use a whole melon)
1 kg medium-sized fresh prawns
200g pasta* (small shapes, preferably spirals)
2 stalks celery
1 to 1 1/2 cups Miracle Whip (or enough to coat ingredients)
3 T tomato ketchup or Thousand Island dressing

* for this salad to taste really good, there should be more fruits to pasta.

1. Boil the pasta in plenty of UNSALTED water until softer than usual (the pasta will firm up when chilled). Drain very well and let cool. Then put into fridge and chill.

2. Remove heads of prawns and lift the dirt veins out using a metal or wooden skewer. Put prawns in a small pot of boiling water and when water boils, stir, let it boil again and strain under running water. Drain well and remove the shells when cool. Cut into small pieces. Mix in the tomato ketchup or Thousand Island dressing and put into the fridge to chill.

3. Cut the celery into very small bits. Cut the melon into thumb-nail bits. If using fruit coctail, drain well and squeeze the fruits gently to remove some syrup. Mix with the celery and chill.

4. Half an hour before serving, mix the pasta, prawns, fruits and mayo thoroughly and arrange some whole cooked prawns (sliced half horizontally) on top if like.