All summer season long, a melon will take a seat on the give up of the kitchen desk next to the fruit bowl, ripening.
When the sweet, heady smell fills the kitchen, I reduce it open. Sometimes the wait is days – even weeks. I am ever the optimist as I slice it open, however now and again, I find out the scent is better than the flavor turns out to be, and my heart drops a touch. I am usually chasing a melon as flawless candy as those I bear in mind from markets on French and Spanish vacations.
But when a melon is a bit much less than perfect, I even have methods to soften the blow.
This salad with roast feta and new potatoes makes a meal of melon; the lemon, honey, and herbs bring out the flavor of even a lackluster fruit. And the sorbet has grown to be our summer time dessert and a way of appeasing my ice-cream-obsessed son. It couldn’t be less difficult to make – you don’t need an ice-cream device, and it’s commonly fruit. For one youngster’s birthday celebration, I served the sorbet inside the hollowed-out melon halves with a few frozen berries on top, which takes me back to dessert menus circa 1989. The fortunes of a less-than-candy melon are properly and actually stored.
Melon, herb and roast feta salad
You can use any melon you like for this salad, or a combination; I love the comparison of brilliant purple watermelon, the peach of a cantaloupe and the off-white of a sweet pie de sapo. I purchase right Greek or Italian oregano, which is an awful lot more fragrant, so search out a few if you can. Vegans can roast a drained tin of chickpeas or butterbeans with the potatoes in preference to the feta, and miss the honey.
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/ gasoline 6. Chop any huge potatoes in half of and hold the smaller ones whole, then switch to a large baking tray. Use a pace peeler to peel the zest from the lemon in long strips, then add to the tray.
Bash the top of garlic until the cloves are slightly split, then add to the tray with the olive oil and oregano. Season nicely, then roast for 20 mins.
Peel and slice the melons into skinny 1/2-moons, removing the seeds as you pass.
After the potatoes have had 20 minutes, take them out of the oven, then squash them down with a potato masher till damaged apart and flattened. Break over the feta, then go back the tray to the oven for a further 20 mins, or till golden and crisp all over.
Remove from the oven, toss with the juice of half of the lemon, then add the melon, basil, and mint. Finish with touch honey, if you want, and a drizzle of olive oil.
Quick melon sorbet
You will want to freeze your melon as a minimum the night earlier than you’re making this sorbet. If you are fortunate and your melon is particularly sweet, you might be capable of use less maple syrup, so start via adding a bit, then flavor.
Cut the melon in half of and spoon out the seeds. Scoop out the flesh, preserving the scooped-out melon skins if you suppose you may use them to serve the sorbet in later.
Roughly chop the melon into 2-3cm pieces, pop in a box and placed within the freezer for eight hours, or ideally overnight – it may be left right here for up to a month until needed.
Remove the melon pieces from the freezer and put in an excessive-powered blender, at the side of half of the maple syrup and the juice and zest of the lemon. Blend for two to a few mins, until clean, then upload extra maple syrup, if wanted.
Scoop into bowls or the hollowed out melon halves, scatter over some frozen berries, if you like, and devour immediately. You can keep any leftovers in the freezer and mix once earlier than serving.
