Woke up this morning to find a present from Pablo on the coffee table on the terrace. A small, very ripe, very sweet-smelling melon. The first this year from our melon patch. Pablo is in the habit of wandering down to our veg patch early in the morning, before the sun hits the soil, to turn the irrigation goma onto the various veggie beds while the soil is cool. The skin is a beautiful yellow and scored with dots.It’s hot and humid today so we decide to try making sorbet. This recipe is adapted from one using limes [which we don’t have] from a great little book called Ice ‘n’ Easy. Makes about 4-6 servings
1 large melon
150g sugar [we used half azúcar morena and half fructosa, as that’s all we had]
Juice of a large lemon [or 2 small limes if you have them] Two to three hours in advance, put the bowl of your ice cream machine into the freezer.
Cut the melon in half and scoop out and discard the seeds. Scoop out the flesh and weigh – you will need about 450g. Tip the melon flesh into a food processor, add the sugar. Blend until smooth.
Add the lemon juice to the melon mixture, blend briefly again in the processor. Transfer to the ice cream machine and churn, according to the instructions of your machine.
Transfer to a plastic box, seal, and freeze until required. It didn’t last long in the freezer. All the adjectives that mean ‘wonderful’ can be applied: wonderful, refreshing, cooling, chilling, exhilarating, etcetera. We ate the whole lot in one day, and are waiting for the next melon to ripen.
5 to remember
el helado – ice-cream
el sorbete – sorbet
la fructosa – frustose
la azúcar morena – brown sugar
las semillas – the seeds

‘Ice ‘n’ Easy’ by Annette Yates