Melon Sorbet or Something Like It

If you’re anything like me, then whenever you buy a delicious, ripe melon, you have the problem of leftovers. I wrap the excess melon and stick it in the fridge for the next day.  I then usually forget that it's there and discover sad, dried up melon some days later. So that's why I came up with this solution to the problem of excess melon. Actually, it turns out that this sorbet is so refreshing and so ridiculously simple to put together that I'm quite happy to buy yet more melon just to make it.

Unless my memory is playing tricks on me (yet again!), this sorbet is based on a recipe by the great Frédy Girardet. I'm sure that the original would have been more refined and would not have contained Malibu. But Frédy Girardet is a great chef and I'm most definitely not.

The sorbet will certainly be smoother if made in an ice-cream machine, but it will still be very pleasing if you simply freeze it in a shallow container and rough it up a bit with a fork once it’s frozen. I used a galia melon but any ripe melon with sweet, reasonably dense flesh will be fine. Watermelons, not surprisingly, are too watery for this technique and won’t produce a smooth texture.

This is all you need to do:

Scoop out the melon flesh, discarding any seeds, and weigh it.

For every 200 g of melon flesh, add:

     65 g icing sugar  - I used unrefined icing sugar to add a little more flavour, but it’s not critical

     1 tablespoon lemon juice - you may want to increase this a little if the melon is very sweet

     1 teaspoon Malibu (or another coconut liqueur) - add more if you like but don’t overdo it, since too much alcohol will prevent freezing

Put everything in a blender or food processor and whiz until smooth. Pour into an ice-cream maker and freeze in the usual way.

Told you it was simple.