Watermelon Shark – healthy kids party food with some bite!

My first little boy was three yesterday. Such a big boy already. Ooops something in my eye… He insists he can pick me up already which is no mean feat.

AND, this week his preschool celebrated no less than three birthdays. That means a whole lot of cupcakes, muffins,and sweet birthday treats. Not that I am a stickler for birthday treats, hey, I cooked an Oreo cake.  Toddler sugar HIIIIIGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

However, in the interests of introducing a little less sugar to school life and a bit more fruit, I opted to make a watermelon shark for the preschool party.  And, yes, I realise fruit contains natural sugar, but its also full of fiber, vitamins and nutrients, and its gotta be better than cake everyday right? In the least I enjoyed making it, and I think the kids had fun eating it to.

I originally saw a version of this on pinterest (I’m on there if you want to find me BTW) and I made my first watermelon shark for my youngest’s 1st birthday. It’s a bit like pumpkin carving, but unlike pumpkins, watermelons are plentiful in Singapore all year round, and a fraction of the cost.

So without further ado, here’s my step by step of how to make a watermelon shark.

Step 1. Slice the end off at an angle.

1. Take one large watermelon and a large long sharp knife. Slice the end of the watermelon off on a slight diagonal. You want your watermelon to stand on this flat end and look like a shark head jumping up out of the water.

Step 2. Scoop out the flesh and seeds from your melon.

2. Scoop out the flesh of the melon. I save the flesh for eating and blending for smoothies. Leave a little flesh along the edge of the melon where the mouth will go as it adds a little extra gore as pink flesh or blood on the teeth!

Step 3. Cut a vertical wedge out of the side of the melon.

3. Cut a vertical wedge up from the bottom (open) end of the melon. This is where your shark’s fin is going to slot in. So this will be the back of the ‘head’ of your shark.

Step 4. Cut your sharks fin (melon lid) diagonally

4. Take the lid of your melon and cut diagonally in to approximately 2/3 and 1/3. This is going to be the shark’s fin.

Step 5. carve out the jaws with teeth

5. Carve out your sharks jaw with teeth. You can use a permanent marker pen to mark out the teeth as a guide. If you cut at an angle you see a bit more of the white flesh of the melon which looks more like teeth.

JAWS!

Step 7. Carve out the eyes

6. Carve out the eyes. You’ll insert a blueberry here later so don’t worry too much about the shape. I do a triangle so it looks a bit like a cartoon scary sharks eye.

Step 7. Insert your shark’s fin and plate up

7. Slot your fin into the wedge at the back of the head and plate your shark up. I have a large round plastic blue tray which was perfect. Last time I used a regular large plate and cut some blue card out in wavy strips and sellotaped them to the plate around the shark to look like waves. This time I arranged my bananas to look like waves!

Shark head on my blue plate, photo of the other side

Step 8. Arrange fruit inside the jaws and on the plate

8. Arrange your pre-washed fruit around the head. Put your blueberries into the ocular cavities – which sounds so gross but reminds me of my favourite film ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’.  Peculiar humour moi? You can put grapes inside the head, strawberries, blueberries and bananas all around. The version I saw originally had watermelon balls in the head but I found this got very wet and messy!

I wonder if a punch bowl would fit inside for the grown-ups next time?… Rum fruit punch with a bite!

Shark attack!

My adventures in East West fusion cooking…. the Kaya Brioche Bun

Kaya Pandan Brioche Buns

It had the makings of a pioneering culinary discovery, east meets west fusion cooking. Ladies and gentlemen I present the Kaya Pandan Brioche Bun. Could life get any sweeter? Middle son and me don’t think so.

Take one recipe for brioche, use the extracted pandan juice (see my pandan cake recipe to see how to extract the juice) from fresh pandan leaves to make the dough, and inject with Kaya jam ahead of cooking.

Ready to go in the oven

Kaya, and the Kaya bun are local Singaporean delights. Kaya is a jam made from egg yolks, coconut milk, and sugar and it looks a bit like lemon curd (for my UK readers).  We are big fans and have it spread on thick slices of white toast with plenty of butter. The perfect accompaniment to a morning cup of coffee.

Here’s what Wiki had to say…

Kaya, Serikaya or Srikaya (Malay: kaya; Indonesian: seri kaya; Tagalog: matamís sa báo, matamís na báo, or kalamay-hatì;Hokkien: 咖吔 ka-ia) is a food spread, a fruit curd made from a base of coconut milk, eggs and sugar. It is wildly popular in Southeast Asia, mainly in Malaysia and Singapore. The word kaya means rich in the Malay language and hence represents the texture of this popular food.

Always one to have a go, me and two toddlers created the very first (as far as I know) Kaya Pandan Brioche Buns in our humble kitchen. It was fun, albeit messy.

The taste test…

To be honest, and I must be, they were a little dry. I did wonder where the jam had disapeared to in some of the buns, until my husband pointed out he had seen toddler#2 ‘express’ some of the buns straight to the cooking tray bypassing their jam injection.

Lesson learnt, more jam and in all the buns. I do also think I need a different dough mix, perhaps Brioche and Kaya are not destined for one another. But….

Kaya Donuts (Doughnuts for us Brits)…now your talking!!

Golden Beer Batter & Flowery Twats

Good Saturday Morning everyone. Hope everyone had a good week. This week’s meal plan is perfect for the sleep deprived parent who needs it easy.

I find a spot of humor always helps when its been a tough week and below is an oldie but a goodie from Fawlty Towers….or Flowery Twats for those seasoned FT watchers.

Day one – Ode to Manuel…Basil Ratatouille Pasta (pack this with veggies and blitz for fussy eaters)
Day two – Sausages (chorizo, plain pork), Sweet Potato, Caramalised Onion and Feta
Day three – Golden Beer Battered Fish, Chips and Peas
Day four – Chicken Curry with Green Beans and Rice
Day five – Meatballs Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce

I made fish and chips, which was a bit of a watershed for me as I have never deep-fried anything in my life! Well, I shallow fried in my wok. But it really was fish and chips. And I hasten to add for my dutch ‘air-fryer’ missionaries – this would not be possible in an air-fryer. Own your deep-fat-frying I say, stop pretending it’s healthy. At least if you do it the proper way, its’ such a pain in the arse to clean up, you won’t do it that often – which is probably healthier than finding a quick and easy way. That’s my logic any how.

Easy Cooking Week Day Meals
…it’s your choice this week, make the meals from scratch or grab a helping hand using pre-made sauces or take outs e.g. the tomato sauce for the meatballs, fish and chips, curry pastes…

This Week: Persian Saffron Chicken & Home-made Pizza Loaf

Am a big fan of long weekends… the chance for a lie in on at least one of the days, which is not a normal occurrence on any given weekend.

I’ve been trying out some Persian recipes from my new cookery book ‘Pomegranates and Roses‘ by Ariana Bundy, and doing some experimental bread baking this last week. So here is this weeks’ meal plan with a few success stories. I’ll add recipes for the Saffron Chicken (by Ariana Bundy) and my delicious Pizza Bread in the next few days.

Saffron Chicken cooked by Elaine. Recipe by Ariana Bundy ‘Pomegranates & Roses’.

 

 

Day one – Coriander, Coconut & Lime Sea Bass (the sauce can be used for chicken or fish)
Day two – Pizza Bread; Black Olive, sun-dried Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil
Day three – Saffron Chicken with French Beans and Basmati Rice
Day four – Jacket Potato with Bolognese
Day five – Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta Bake

Coriander, Coconut & Lime Bass