Watermelon Mojitos

Summer is officially over.  On Labor Day we made these Watermelon Mojitos, a fairly successful experiment.

Melon Granita

While cutting a watermelon, I realized that there was no way it would all fit in my fridge.  I did a quick Google search to see if there was ANY way I could somehow store it in the freezer instead - not necessarily in fresh-watermelon form, but any way to preserve it a little rather than have to eat it all at once.  I came across a recipe for watermelon granita - quick and easy.  I made it before I even finished cutting up the watermelon.

Later, I did a twist on it with half watermelon, half cantaloupe.  In both cases I modified the recipe as follows.

Melon Granita

4 cups melon cubes (all watermelon, 1/2 watermelon 1/2 cantaloupe, get creative)
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup agave nectar (adjust based on your melon's natural sweetness and your sweet tooth. sub sugar if you want.)

Remove seeds from melon if applicable.  Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.  Pour into a shallow dish, cover and freeze.  Every hour, take the dish out and scrape the frozen parts with a fork - you're aiming for a shaved ice texture.  Work quickly so it doesn't melt.  When you take it out and it's all still flaked from the last time and there's nothing left to scrape, you can transfer it to another container and return to the freezer.

This is a great make-ahead dessert item you can serve for guests.  I imagine it would be nice served in a martini glass and garnished with mint leaves.

One twist I am tempted to try is a mojito version - adding mint and rum, though you still want it to freeze so the amount of rum would have to be small.  Worst case scenario, though, you have a very cold mojito!

The basic recipe would be good with other fruits as well, though I would adjust the other ingredients to be appropriate to the type of fruit you're using.  This is a good way to freeze fruits that would otherwise not freeze well.

Chilled Watermelon Soup

Haley came over to cook with me today. We had planned this a while ago and she had picked out some recipes from my bookmarks that she wanted to make. For our appetizer/first course, she chose Chilled Watermelon Soup.

The recipe called for 6 pounds of watermelon, or 9 cups diced. I obviously have no idea how much anything weighs, because I ended up at the register with a 20 lb watermelon. Now I have a ton of watermelon. It was pretty difficult to cut up, and then it barely fit in the blender - it was kind of oozing out of the top. I also had to strain the soup, which was then a big squishy mess. It was a pretty color, though.

The soup was okay, but tasted more like a drink than a soup. I couldn't really drink too much of it. Then again, I am not a fan of soup. The general consensus seemed to be that the spoonful of added watermelon chunks, mint and feta was not enough and that these things should be prevalent in the soup. They also floated in the picture, but not in real life. Although I probably will not make it ever again, if I did I would reserve more of the watermelon chunks - maybe three cups instead of one, and mix the feta in with them instead of adding a bit by itself.