Stir Fried Watermelon Rind

Whenever we buy a watermelon and it has rind to speak of (a lot of the little personal sized ones don't), I carefully trim away the green skin, then the rind, and cut it up before storing for later use. Interestingly, the rind of the watermelon is the most nutritious part, despite the awesome of the flesh.

Today, I managed to get the Pig to take a nap, as she'd had a pretty long few days and even longer month following the death of our beloved cat Aleister. But I was starving. She'd already requested butter-poached fish, sauteed broccoli, and rice for dinner, so I didn't want to go flesh for my lunch and did want to bump up my veggies for the day. After poking about through the fridge, I discovered half of a small onion and a quart of rind, so this formed the basis of the meal. Poking about the kitchen further, I found a sad tomato that the Pig and I bought from a farmer on our way back from our last trip to Austin, as well as a bottle of ají picante that I'd rediscovered over the weekend. With all of that forming the basis of my meal, it seemed ideal if I added some bitter (and not so bitter) greens to the mix, to round the flavor out. So I moved out to my container garden to find those. I have a huge pot of chard that doesn't get trimmed often enough, so a few of those went in, in addition to some other greens I'd foraged whole plants of and repotted at home or acquired in plant swaps.

My sole regret about this dish is that I only made one serving. It was a fantastic lunch, and did not last nearly so long as the 15 minutes it took for me to cook it. Hope you enjoy!

2 cups largely diced watermelon rind
1/2 small onion
salt, lemon pepper
1-2 tablespoon sesame oil

handful or two of raw greens (I used: 1 mature hosta leaf, 2 mature bloody dock leaves, 4 of Swiss chard, 2 of broadleaf plantain, 1 of Jewel of Opar, 1 sprig of henbit, 1 longevity spinach leaf, and one of common mallow - you should use whatever greens you feel like using, whether from your fridge, garden, or backyard)
salt and white pepper

1 roma tomato
1/4 cup-ish of ají picante (this stuff is addictive - be forewarned!)
salt if desired

Warm a pan and add sesame oil to it. Then add remainder of first group of ingredients. Stir fry, but let the veg sit periodically to get a good sear, as such:





(you can kind of see a bit of searing, though this isn't a great pic to demonstrate it).

Add your greens and wilt them (make sure to wash first, and especially if you foraged or grew your greens!), as such:






(now you can really see the sear!)

Add the last group and cook it until the ají picante has basically disappeared and the pan is fairly dry, as such:





And then nom!!

This will scale directly if you need to make a larger amount, but this was cooked as a meal rather than a side. So if you want it as a side for 4 people, simply double. If you want a meal for 4, quadruple.