Melons are big in Japan. Not really size-wise, more in popularity. And price. And sometimes weirdness. Take, for example, this:
It's not just on The Simpsons....
While (sadly) not usually square, melons in Japan are reliably delicious, sweet and juicy and full of flavor, which is more than can be said for 90% of the melons sold in the U.S. So even though I wasn't sure I wanted to adulterate my beautiful, perfect, expensive melon, I decided to go for it and came up with this sorbet, using this recipe and this overview of sorbet-making. It's sweet, cool, melon-y and takes up less room in my teeny tiny refrigerator than a real melon would. It's the taste of summer, frozen!
Melon Sorbet
Makes 8 servings
about 1 pound (500 grams) diced melon
3 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs sake
1 cup sugar, or to taste
Process the melon in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and process for 30 seconds. Taste for sweetness. The mixture should be hovering on the edge of too sweet; frozen desserts seem less sweet than they actually are. Process in more sugar as needed, then pour the mixture into a lidded container. Chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
Put mixture into your ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. (If you don't have an ice cream maker, there are instructions for freeze-and-stir sorbet-making in the sorbet overview I linked to above.) Transfer to a lidded container and freeze for at least 3 hours before serving.
mm...that looks great! we haven't been making sorbet, but have been freezing watermelon and other fruits then blending them into frozen juice. it was the only thing that helped us survive when our ac was broken.