How on earth am I going to eat all this melon? Sorbet!

I should never buy an entire watermelon unless I am taking it to someone else's house. They just always look so good. And, cold watermelon is so refreshing. And, it’s been so hot. I've got to learn to walk away, but I just couldn’t.

No matter how much watermelon I think I can eat, I never finish one. I’ll have watermelon with breakfast and another serving as a snack later in the day thinking that I’ll keep that up all week, but I never make it past a day or two.

Two watermelons ago, I gave half to my neighbors. This time, I not only bought a watermelon, I also bought a canary melon. Clearly, I have lost my mind.

After staring at the melons for a few days, putting off cutting them open so I didn’t have to make a decision about what to do with them, I found a solution – sorbet. It would keep for a long period of time and, unlike most desserts, I like sorbet.

Never having made sorbet, I started doing some research and immediately ran into a road block. I don’t have an ice cream freezer. Hmmm… I knew someone in Twitterland would know what to do, and sure enough, I had an answer in 3 minutes. Thanks @Eilenbug.

You can make sorbet without a freezer using the scrape and process method. You freeze the sorbet in long trays, scrape it out, put it back in the food processor to give it volume and refreeze it. You repeat this process a couple of times until you get the texture you want. It’s not a speedy process, but it does work well.

A few notes - the watermelon sorbet is pretty sweet, which the folks at the Slow Food Austin potluck seemed to enjoy, but it was a little sweet for me. Next time, I will use a little less simple syrup and a little more lemon juice to give it a tarter flavor. The other recipe was originally for honeydew melon, but I substituted canary melon. I think it would also work well with cantaloupe.

The experiment ended with several delicious tubs of watermelon and canary melon sorbet. I think I found my new standard for what to do with the other half of that melon I just can’t resist.

Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar1 cup water

Place the sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Cool syrup to room temperature. Use immediately or refrigerate indefinitely in a covered container until needed.
Watermelon Sorbet
from Bon Appetit

8 cups cubed (1 inch) watermelon, seeds and rind discarded
1 cup simple syrup
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Puree the watermelon cubes in a food processor. Measure 4 cups of the puree and place in a bowl. Add the Simple Sugar Syrup and lemon juice and stir well. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can place the sorbet in a long pan to harden, remove and reprocess in the food processor and then refreeze. Repeat the process until you get the texture you desire.

Canary Melon & Mint Sorbet
Adapted from a recipe in Gourmet magazine

1 canary melon, seeded and rind removed
1 cup simple syrup
1/4 cup packed fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Cut melon into 1/2-inch cubes to measure 2 1/2 cups. In a blender puree all ingredients until smooth. Chill puree, covered, until cold, at least 1 hour, and up to 6. Freeze puree in an ice-cream maker. Transfer sorbet to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can place the sorbet in a long pan to harden, remove and reprocess in the food processor and then refreeze. Repeat the process until you get the texture you desire.