Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Summer on a spoon

I love summer. Perhaps being born in June predisposed me to enjoy the warm weather and bask in the summer sunshine. Whatever the reason, I love it. One of my favorite things about summer is fresh produce, either grown in our garden or picked up at a farmstand. Even produce from the grocery store just seems better in the summer.


Over the weekend, Mom and I went grocery shopping and picked up a good sized watermelon. Is there a more classic summer experience than the crunch of a crisp yet juicy slice of watermelon as it dribbles down your chin? I decided to experiment, since it wouldn't all fit in the large Lock & Lock in which I was storing it.


The result, a somewhat difficult to serve, but easy to make, frozen treat, did not disappoint.

Raspberry Watermelon Shaved Ice

  • 4 c of watermelon, pureed
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 1-2T lime juice
  • 1/2t natural raspberry extract*
  • 3t Half & Half
  • 2T cornstarch

*you can omit/change this, I just had some and thought I'd try it

  1. In a saucepan, combine all but the watermelon
  2. Cook on low heat until you have a smooth liquid, do not boil
  3. Add watermelon and allow to cool
  4. Pour into an appropriate container and freeze
  5. SCRAPE, S C R A P E, S C R A P E this cool frozen treat into a dish and enjoy!

If you're going have time to check on it, you can probably catch the ice in a less than rock hard, frozen solid state which make for easier serving.


When I finally got to eat it, this was well worth the wait, and the scraping. When I eat watermelon, I can almost taste the warm rain and recall the smell of fresh cut grass. Raspberries evoke the feeling of sun warming my face and soft summer breezes blowing through my hair. Combining them, especially frozen, results in concentrated summer on a spoon.

No comments:

Post a Comment