What's in season at the farmers market this week:
- Figs
- Basil
- Melons
- Tomatoes
Quarter Sheets was recently recognized by the Michelin Guide with a Bib Gourmand designation. The Echo Park pizza parlor is helmed by co-owners Aaron Lindell and Hannah Ziskin. Lindell has some unexpected ideas for using summer melons. History tells us that a chilled melon draped with prosciutto is delicious but Lindell likes to get more playful while keeping dishes vegetarian or vegan.
While still aiming for punchy, salty, umami flavors, he uses a vegan fish sauce made with fermented pineapple and melon scraps left over from prepping the melons in a sauce. He uses two varieties — the Brilliant melon, which offers texture, sweetness, and crunch, and the softer, juicier Bonny melon. Combined, they have a tartness that Lindell compares to sour apples. The melons are dressed with vegan fish sauce, lime juice, and nectar from the melons. It's topped with toasted coriander, a bold olive oil, toasted sesame seeds, cilantro, and paired with half sour cucumbers, made with Persian cucumber marinated in shio koji and lime. The OG Quarter Sheets crowd might remember the dish as the "melon refresher" from the restaurant's early days.
Aaron Lindell uses two types of melon dressed in a vegan fish sauce, lime juice, nectar, and toasted coriander for this “refresher” dish. Photo courtesy of Quarter Sheets.
Weiser Family Farms provides Lindell with the melons for his dish, which are a signature crop for Alex Weiser. While refreshing, the Bonny melon is both sweet and sour. With different varieties of melons throughout the world, Weiser procured the seeds for the Bonny from Taiwan.
The Brilliant variety (also known as a Canary melon) is a yellow melon that people often say is too sweet, according to Weiser. Originally from the Canary Islands, they're also known as winter melons because they keep so well, with a texture similar to a pear. Coming up in the season is the Mirza variety, a melon from Uzbekistan that tastes like vanilla ice cream.