8/3/08

Don't Waste Summer





You were in the store and the watermelon looked tasty and it was on sale. You wrestled it in to the car taking care not to let it roll around the trunk.
You cut it into triangles and the juice ran down the kid’s faces, it was delicious but now you have half an aging melon taking up most of your refrigerator. What to do now? I know tossing it seems like a waste so don't make it into a sweet, refreshing snow-cone-ish dessert. You don't need a fancy ice cream maker, just a fork and container and a bit of time.

Make this to taste, depending on the sweetness of your watermelon, it does not have to be overly sweet, really it should just taste like fresh fruit.

I really like to use simple syrup, sugar and water melted together but you can make this with regular sugar, substitute in 1/2 cup granulated for the simple sugar. If you have an oversized fork use it to rake the mixture. But don't leave the fork in the freezer and then lick it when it is frozen, my mistake...ouch.

Watermelon Granita


4 cups seedless watermelon chunks
1 C. simple syrup (recipe below)
Juice of 1 lemon

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Puree until smooth. Pour into a 9 x 13 inch plastic or glass container and freeze for 1 hour. Rake mixture with fork and freeze for another hour. Check it a few times to make sure it is not turning in to a solid block. Rake and freeze for one more hour. Rake and serve in cups. It should stay granular indefinitely.



Simple Syrup

1 C. sugar
1 C. water

Bring the water to a boil.
Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water.
Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat.
Allow to cool completely.

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5 comments:

Andreea said...

thanks for dropping by my blog - glad to discover yours :)
this is such a great idea. i am guessing for a grown up version we could add some sweet alcohol? i can totally see this granita at the next bbq

Jamie said...

Looks Great! Thanks for posting!!!

Unknown said...

that's interesting. i should try this sometime. yes, the watermelon always takes up so much space in the fridge!

Jessica604 said...

Just the thing I needed! ...I had half of said aging watermelon in the fridge. That melon is getting mixed with some vanilla vodka (and perhaps some equally aging blueberries - what do you know, 4 lbs really IS too much for two people) and becoming a refreshing granita this weekend. Yum!

Robb Stout said...

Very cool. We did the same thing over the weekend with a vodka-infused melon trying to make sorbet. Needless to say, it was not the right consistency but was still pretty tasty. We didn't know our happy accident had a name until finding this recipe!