Watermelon preserve is very common in South Africa. The fruit itself is very readily available and is enjoyed by everyone. The cultivar used for this preserve normally is a fruit with an extra thick rind as it is the rind that gets used to create this preserve. It is widely believed that the rind of the watermelon is more nutritious than the fruit itself.
I grew up with WATERMELON PRESERVE always sold at church fetes as big rectangular, translucent chunks of glazed fruit. As children we used to enjoy eating this treat. Apart from that watermelon jam has always been around too. The jam combines the fruit and has fresh ginger added to create a lovely flavour. Because it is so difficult to find watermelons with thick rind nowadays I have made use of the fruit available to me and have come up with a product that combines both elements of the glazed fruit and jam. The results have been surprisingly good producing something much more diverse.
The rind is normally cut into small pieces. Added to this are pieces of fresh ginger and everything is soaked overnight in water with bicarbonate of soda. The fruit is then rinsed and boiled to soften it up but just enough to keep its form. It is drained and weighed. Equal amounts of fruit, sugar and water are combined and cooked with a few pieces of stick cinnamon until the fruit is dark and fairly translucent. Normally the syrup would be thickened until the fruit is glazed completely. I have left this out as I wanted to create a preserve that has a syrup. One can then enjoy the product as a chunk of fruit or even as a nice and delicate jam.
One of the best ways to enjoy this delectable preserve is to cut the small blocks of fruit into thin slices and serve it in its syrup as an accompaniment to various cheeses on a cheeseboard. It works extremely well and enhances the flavours of many a cheese, yet ensuring that the cheese never overpowers!
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