This Independence Day, like most American consumers, we had a meal of hot dogs, sauerkraut, baked beans (home made of course), "Quickles" (quickly pickled cucumbers, aka cucumber dill salad), and corn on the cob. Of course the watermelon could not be left out and served to complete the meal seeing as huge whole seedless watermelons were on sale ($2.99).
When I put the watermelon on the kitchen counter after washing it, I only then realized the enormity of it. Feeling creative, I decided to make something with half of it so that we would not waste any of it. Sadly, I threw out the rinds before I realized I could have made some delicious watermelon rind pickles. In the spirit of the dog days of summer, I ended up making sorbet. I never made sorbet before, but this turned out to be a great recipe. Next time, I will try an alternative to corn syrup and sugar, though I'm not sure there really is one that will achieve a similar smooth not-too-ice-crystally sorbet texture. The corn syrup is a different sugar structure and basically intercalates between the sugar so that upon re-crystalization of the sugar and water, the crystals that form are smaller and less icy. I believe that honey might do the trick.
Surprisingly, I basically followed a recipe, more surprisingly it came from Rachel Ray Magazine because it was the top recipe returned for my Internet search of "watermelon sorbet", and even more surprisingly it was really simple:
WATERMELON SORBET
June/July 2007
8 servings; Prep: 30 minutes (plus freezing)
INGREDIENTS:
5 pounds seedless watermelon, cut into small chunks (6 cups)1/4 cup sugarGrated peel of 1 limePinch salt1/2 cup light corn syrup
DIRECTIONS:
Using a blender, puree the watermelon; you will need 4 cups watermelon puree.
In a large saucepan, bring 1 cup watermelon puree, the sugar and lime peel to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves; season with the salt. Pour in the remaining 3 cups watermelon puree, then whisk in the corn syrup until incorporated. Pour the watermelon mixture into a 9-inch metal cake pan and freeze until firm, about 4 hours or overnight.
Let the frozen watermelon soften at room temperature for 5 minutes. Using a butter knife, break up the frozen puree into 2-inch pieces. Transfer the pieces to a food processor in batches and pulse until smooth. Store the sorbet in a freezer-safe container for up to 1 week. Let stand for 5 minutes before scooping.
TIP: For a change - Replace the corn syrup with sweetened condensed milk to make ice cream.
The basil was my addition because I recently had a homemade ice pop made of kiwi and basil. The ice pop has a bit too much basil, but the combination was surprisingly refreshing and herbs in dessert applications are trending towards being more popular of late. I basically blended about 1/4-1/3 C packed basil leaves with some of the watermelon chunks and put all of that through the strainer. I also used my food processor and not a blender for all of this paying attention to mind the "max liquid fill line" on the bowl so I pureed everything in batches.
I highly recommend trying this and being creative yourself. I can't wait to try different summer fruits, and maybe I'll even try the ice cream version as suggested.
Yum, April! David Lebovitz addresses the corn syrup substitution topic extensively on his blog, if you want to Google it. However, I think you covered well and with fewer words.
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