Wintermelon Soup

Ingredients:

2 cups of parboiled wintermelon cubes
5 cups veggie stock or chicken stock
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. mirin or sherry
1 Tbs.  balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. fresh ginger juice (grate some fresh ginger and squeeze out the juice)
200 g / about 7 oz. fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined
Salt
Green garnish

Here's How:

If you haven’t already, peel, de-seed and cut up the wintermelon into cubes about 1 inch / 2 cm big. Put them in a pot of water, bring up to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain.

Put the wintermelon in a pot with the stock, soy sauce and mirin. Bring up to a boil, then simmer slowly for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, peel and devein the shrimp, and cup up into chunks (or use small shrimp). Add the shrimp to the soup. Simmer a couple of minutes, and add the ginger juice and vinegar. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Take the pot off the heat, and transfer the contents to a bowl or other refrigerator-appropriate container. Let cool down to room temperature cover tightly with plastic film or a lid and chill until ice cold. (You can put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes before serving to make sure it’s really cold.)

Serve garnished with some green onions, etc. on top.

The soup keeps in the refrigerator for a couple of days. To make it a complete one-bowl meal, add some cooked and well rinsed noodles, a bit more soy sauce, and a lot of green onions on top.

Vegan version
Use a vegetable stock, and blanched (boiling water poured over and drained) tofu cubes instead of the shrimp. You may need to add a bit more soy sauce to compensate for the blandness of the tofu.

Other variations
Try cut up chicken breast instead of the shrimp
Add some cut up tomatoes and a bit more vinegar
Scoop out the wintermelon and shrimp, thicken about 1 cup of the soup with 1-2 Tbs. cornstarch, and pour over as a sauce.
Gelify the soup with gelatin  for an interesting savory jelly