After almost 6 month on divergent paths, Marty and I were going to be home at the same time. Two whole weeks before the traveling started again and we weren't going to waste a minute. We now had time to get caught up with each other, work on our to-do list and prepare those healthy meals we missed on the road. Off to the grocery store we went to restock the refrigerator and our pantry. Yup, you may have already guessed, the next day the call came for Marty; can you come to China...immediately? The whirlwind ensued and in a blink of an eye he was on Air China and gone.
I was left standing in front of a refrigerator full of fresh fruit, vegetable and meat. I am a product of the Puritan work ethic and the thought of throwing away food was painful but I most certainly couldn't eat it all. So what to do? I froze the meat, made vegetable soup and froze that but the fruit was a more difficult challenge particularly the watermelon. That's when it struck me...sorbet. I will make watermelon sorbet and freeze it.
Sorbet is not complicated to make but capturing the fresh taste of watermelon takes restraint. I really like Giada De Laurentiis's approach to food so tried her recipe Tropical Watermelon Sorbet. I found the other ingredients such as the pineapple juice overwhelmed the taste of the watermelon. So next I tried the Watermelon Sorbet Recipe at About.com French Food. The recipe calls for lime zest in addition to 2 tablespoons of lime juice. The lime zest caused a slight bitterness that I did not think worked with the watermelon.
So after two batches of watermelon sorbet hardening in my freezer and my taste buds finely tuned, I "made up" my own recipe. I will share it with you with the encouragement that you make it your own by increasing and decreasing ingredients to suit your own pallet.
The Mayor's Watermelon Sorbet
Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups of seeded and pureed watermelon
1/2 cup of sugar
Juice from one line
Directions:
1. In blender, puree 4 1/2 cups of watermelon.
2. In a small saucepan, simmer 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup watermelon puree.
3. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.
4. Add lime juice.
5. Add remaining watermelon puree.
6. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instruction.
**You can increase or decrease the amount of sugar based on the sweetness of your watermelon
***While you can eat this immediately upon removing from the ice cream freezer, it looks prettier and last a little long in the bowl if you put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.