My mother used to make watermelon pickles when I was a child.
I thought it was kind of silly to rescue what seemed to be garbage to me at that time (although I did like to eat the pickles!).
I forgot about it for a long time.
But last weekend I had a chance to buy a watermelon because I was supposed to bring it to our family picnic to celebrate father’s day.
After cutting it into cubes, while looking at the pile of rind, I remembered the pickles and decided to make some myself.
I like to keep a little red flesh, which gives nice sweetness as well as the beautiful pink color.
I made three different versions.
This one is the basic one: watermelon rind and salt.
This is how my mother used to make.
This one is a bit sweeter version: watermelon rind, salt, sugar, white vinegar, black peppercorns, fresh dill, bay leaves.
This one is soy-sauce based and a bit spicy: watermelon rind, salt, sugar, soy sauce, white vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, crushed red pepper. Served with sesame seeds.
They all turned out great, but my husband and I agreed that we loved the second and the third ones.
Our neighbor, Mr. K picked the third one as his favorite.
