Watermelon Rind, who would think?

You would just throw these away, right? But we paid for it, $5.99 that I paid included the rind too. Here is a good way to use up your watermelon rind. Just cut up the white part only and use it in Gang Som, Thai stock based sour curry.

Gang Som is a favorite in our family. I remember making it almost every weekend for my dad. I would sit on the floor and make the paste. This one is pretty easy to make. You don't need to make it into that fine paste so I think a blender might do a trick. But I love my pestle and mortar, it brings back memories. You can also buy the paste in a can, sour curry paste.

3 cups water
a pinch of palm sugar
2 tbsp tamarind water
5 oz of bite size catfish or red snapper or shrimp, shell on and heads on if possible
2 cups bite size watermelon rind
fish sauce to taste

Paste
7-9 (or a few less if you don't want it to be too spicy) dried Thai big red chillies (if you can't find the big chillies, you can use small red chillies but deseed them so that they won't be too spicy. If using the big ones, you don't have to deseed them. Before deseeding, wash the chillies and cut in half lengthwise, deseed using small spoon. You can also use fresh red chillies. You can also use Serrano)
1/2 tsp salt
2 red shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp shrimp paste

If using shrimp, peel shrimp and save the shell (and heads) and make stock by bringing water to a boil, put the shell(and heads) in the water, after a few minutes when the shell and heads are all cooked, discard the shell and heads. Making shrimp stock will make your stock sweeter and more flavorful. It might sound like it's a lot of work but it is not at all.Try it and you will definitely be able to tell the difference. All the flavor is in the shell and the heads.

Make the paste in pestle and mortar. Once the paste is done, if using shrimp, add shrimp to the paste and lightly bruise it up in the chili paste with the mortar. Bring water or shrimp stock to a boil, add the paste (with shrimp if using), if using fish,add fish into the water, wait a few minutes until the fish is cooked and take the fish out. My mom likes to do that so fish won't get too tough and flaky when you need to stir the curry.Then add watermelon rind. When the rinds are cooked, add tamarind water, fish sauce and palm sugar. Adjust the taste.

If you like the curry to be thicker, you can add a few pieces of fish into the paste and pound it together before adding to the boiling water.

Now you don't have to throw away your watermelon rind anymore.

Serve it over rice and enjoy.