Melon Soup with Melon and Mint Sorbet

Melon Soup with Melon and Mint Sorbet

This is a recipe that was on the old twimii site. It’s from a recipe book called Appetizers, Finger Food, Buffets and Parties by Bridget Jones.

melon soup thumbnail So last week I reposted Jocasta Innes’ Baked Buttered Apricots and then reading through the list of old twimii recipes I realised this recipe is also from a recipe book and so guaranteed to be correct. Did I change it at all? I’m not sure. Let’s find out…

This recipe is not mine. It’s from a recipe book called Appetizers, Finger Food, Buffets and Parties by Bridget Jones. Yes, there is a real Bridget Jones and she has some surprisingly nice recipes. (I think that might be a name publishers use when they don’t want to give the real name – not sure.) I got this recipe book at work some years ago from you know the book people (this may be the company’s actual name) who go around with a set of books you can buy. Well I leafed through this book and on the basis of the pictures I bought it. One of the photos that really appealed to me was the one for Iced Melon Soup with Melon and Mint Sorbet.

melon soup with melon and mint sorbet

It’s one of these books that I had no real intention of using as a real recipe book because I felt the recipes were probably a little too complicated or fussy for me. I got it because I liked the look of the food in the book. After making this though I’m going to try a lot more recipes in the book. I love this. I love melon and this is like a celebration of melon. It’s sweet enough that you could serve it as a dessert but really it’s a gorgeously sweet and refreshing starter. Also, while the title sounds quite complicated it’s really just blending some melon with a couple of other things, freezing some of it and chilling the other bit.

To date this is the only recipe from the book I’ve made, but if I do make something else from it I’ll post it on twimii. – Actually I think I got the idea for the Beetroot Relish from this book.

I feel the need to admit that going forward on twimii I’m going to be making other people’s recipes. I myself have found it annoying to discover – damnit! – I haven’t noted down the incorrect quantities (or sometimes even ingredients) in some of my recipes. So easy way out, I’m using other people’s recipes for a while. Hope this okay. I will of course state the original source of the recipe.

I’m so glad I started abitmoreveg to get me making my own stuff again – it’s fun trying to come up with something. Also, my vegetarian lasagne is really really good – go on try it.

I was making this for four so I used slightly different quantities to the original recipe. First I’ll give the original ingredients and then mine. In the original Bridget Jones suggests using a combination of Charentais and Ogen melon or Cantaloupe and Piel de Sapo. I used Canary melon for the sorbet and a combination of honeydew and cantaloupe for the soup. Here’s a page which lists 25 varieties of melon – though it might be handy.

So no, didn’t follow the recipe exactly – no surprises there. Guess I’m equally glad I attempted doing that last year – and did do that really – apart from that one Gordon Ramsay one

melon soup
I couldn’t get it to look velvety smooth like in the pictures in the book – but the taste was gorgeous.

The Way I make Iced Melon Soup with Melon and Mint Sorbet is…

Serves 4

  • 1 very ripe honeydew melon
  • 1 very ripe cantalouple melon
  • 1 squeeze of fresh orange juice
  • 1 small squeeze of fresh lemon juice

For the melon and mint sorbet

  • 1 heaped tbsp caster sugar
  • 60ml water
  • 1 very ripe canary melon
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

With these quantities you will have enough “soup” to add 2 soup ladles into 4 bowls and enough of the sorbet to add 4 scoops of sorbets into each bowl.

And the instructions are the same as below:

Melon Soup with Melon and Mint Sorbet

Serves 6-8

Melon Soup with Melon and Mint Sorbet

Ingredients

  • 2.25kg/5lb very ripe melon (_the book suggests using a combination of Charentais & Ogen melon or Cantaloupe & Piel de Sapo_)
  • 45ml/3 tbsp orange juice
  • 30ml/2 tbsp lemon juice
  • fresh mint leaves, to garnish
  • For the melon and mint sorbet
  • 25gr/2 tbsp sugar
  • 120ml/4fl oz/½ cup water
  • 2.25kg/5lb very ripe melon
  • juice of 2 limes
  • 30ml/2 tbsp chopped frest mint

Instructions

  1. Add the water and sugar to a small saucepan, stir the sugar into the water until it has dissolved, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for a couple of minutes until it has thickened into a syrup. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
  2. Halve the canary melon, remove the seeds and scoop out the flesh into a blender. Add in the cooled syrup, lime juice and mint and blend it altogether.
  3. If you have an ice-cream maker you can use this to make the sorbet. Otherwise place in a plastic tub in the freezer, freeze until icy at the edges - about 1 hour to begin with, thereafter every 30 minutes or so, reprocess the mixture in the blender and repeat this until you have a sorbet.
  4. 45 minutes before serving halve the honeydew and cantaloupe melons, remove their seeds, scoop out the flesh and put it into your blender. Add a good squeeze of orange juice and a small squeeze of lemon juice. Blend until smooth. In the pictures in the book the soup looks very velvety I was unable to get the soup this smooth. In fact to get it as smooth as I got it I first blended it. It looked quite lumpy so I tried pushing it through a metal sieve, into a bowl, I was left with quite a lot of liquid in the bowl and a sieve full of thick melon. I then processed this flesh until it was as smooth as I could get it, added back in the liquid and blended it once again. And as you can see from the photo above it still was not exactly velvety. However it did taste fine and the texture was actually smooth enough.
  5. Chill the mixture for 30 minutes in the fridge.
http://twimii.com/recipes/melon-soup-melon-mint-sorbet/

melon soup with melon and mint sorbet
I really liked this – haven’t made it since though. Don’t know why, it’s healthy, sweet and delicious. Think I’ll be making it this summer – if we get one…