Fruit in Season in January

Apricots, Bananas, Berries, Cherries, Currants, Lychees, Mangoes, Mangosteens, Melons, Nectarines,

Passionfruit, Peaches, Pineapples, Plums, Rambutans, Tamarillos, Watermelons

Watermelon Sorbet

The other evening I was out walking and in the local park was a large family group sitting around on picnic rugs enjoying the twilight and sharing some watermelon before packing up and heading home.

It was lovely to see and it reminded me of many family picnics where watermelon was the obligatory option for dessert. Simple, sweet and cheap!

I subsequently bought a watermelon and pretended I was a child again - you know what I mean … outside in the gardin, leaning over a big triangular slice, with legs wide apart and the cicadas providing background music.

There was still lots of watermelon left over so what to do? Well, courtesy of Greg Malouf - the wonderful chef at MoMo’s in Melbourne and author of beautiful cook books like Arabesque - I made his Watermelon Sorbet … again.

The flavour is delicate. The colour is blush pink. The sensation is totally refreshing.

Ingredients

• 800g watermelon - weigh after peeling and seeding
• 200g castor sugar
• 100g liquid glucose - found in some supermarkets and most health food stores
• 200ml water
• Juice of 2 lemons
• Splash of rosewater - speciality food stores, Middle Eastern food stores

Method

1. Chop the watermelon flesh into chunks and remove any other seeds
2. Whiz in a food processor and pour through a sieve and set aside
3. Make the sugar syrup by bringing the water, sugar and glucose to the boil over a medium heat. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes
4. Then mix the watermelon puree into the syrup and allow to cool
5. Stir in the lemon juice and rosewater
6. Pour into an ice-cream machine and churn as per instructions  (or see my tip below)

Serves up to 6

My Tips

• This sorbet is so beautiful I serve it all on its own but it does work well with berries as you can imagine, especially raspberries
• Serve in a clear glass bowl so as to enjoy the colour right to the end
• If you don’t have an ice-cream machine then just pour the mixture into a freezer tray, cover with plastic and freeze to a slush (firm on the sides and bottom of the container and thickish in the middle). Blend in a food processor or blender and return to the freezer till it becomes firm. The blending incorporates air and emulsifies the mixture breaking up ice crystals and making it smooth. For this watermelon sorbet, don’t blend for too long as it can destroy the subtle flavour
• I take sorbet out of the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to allow it time to soften

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