Watermelon Wonder Smoothie

Another recipe from the recipe cards handed out at the healthy eating stand at the health fair at uni last week, this time for a Watermelon Wonder smoothie.

Ingredients

chopped watermelon
fat-free plant-based milk of your choice
ice

Instructions

1. Gradually add each ingredient to blender.
2. Pulse until the mixture reaches a smooth consistency.
3. Enjoy!

Watermelon Sorbetto

Rumour has it that after a record dry September, it's supposed to start to get a lot colder (and wetter) as October settles in.  In fact, when going for a walk on Wednesday (1st October), the first thing I noticed was a light shower of rain on my skin.  Talk about being prompt and getting down to business!  I, however, wish to feel like it's still summer for as long as possible.  I spent my weekend in short overalls, and have been carrying my inter-seasonal coat over my arm while I've been outside.  I'm also still managing to find my favourite summertime fruits, strawberries and blueberries.  This week's recipe contains a new fruity favourite of mine, which I've used in a recipe or two already this summer - WATERMELONS!  This time, the watermelon is being brought to you in the form of a light pink, ice-cool sorbetto, once again from Matt O'Connor's The IceCreamists.  Who said that you have to let go of summer?

Ingredients

125ml (4 fl oz) water

125g (4 oz) caster sugar

750g (1 ½ lb) seedless watermelon flesh, chopped

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon lime zest plus extra to decorate

Instructions

1. Pour the water into a saucepan and add the sugar.  Place over a low heat and bring to the boil, whisking often, until the sugar dissolves.  Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes, continuing to whisk until the liquid turns into a syrup.
2. Pour the syrup into a heatproof bowl and set aside for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooled to room temperature.  For more rapid chilling, half-fill a sink with cold water and ice and place the bowl of mixture in it for 20 minutes.  Cover and refrigerate, ideally overnight, until thoroughly chilled (at least 4 degrees Celsius).
3. Add the watermelon, lime juice and zest into the syrup and mix with a stick blender.  Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions, or churn by hand.
4. When the churning is completed, use a spoon or spatula to scrape the sorbetto into a freezer-proof container with a lid.  Freeze until it reaches the correct scooping texture (at least 2-3 hours).
5. Decorate each portion with lime zest before serving.

What Katie Wants to Eat - week ending 19/09/14

For me, this week has been Freshers Week at uni, and for Freshers Fayre, I was going in circles around the student union building for the majority of Wednesday and Thursday, trying to recruit people to join the uni's musical theatre society, BUSOM, until we realised that a couple of people were stopping at our stall to sing along to songs from Frozen with us, so then we sang through the whole Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack (which we did for our main show earlier this year) together until Freshers Fayre finished.  I've also eaten a lot of sweets from the stalls at Freshers Fayre because they were free, so there was a lot of sugar involved.  On Thursday evening, I caught up with a couple of old school friends to go bowling (I was 2nd with 96 points, only one point behind the leader) and for dinner at Frankie & Benny's.  Anyway, although there are a lot fewer photo links this week, here's what food goodness has been tickling my tastebuds or made me hungry this week:

1. Chocolate brownies with mint ice cream - this is what I had for dessert at Frankie & Benny's on Thursday evening.  The brownie was soft and gooey, while the ice cream was cool and smooth in comparison to the whipped cream that the dish was also served with.  I might post a recipe I found for gluten-free chocolate brownies and mint ice cream in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that.
2. Candyfloss - unfortunately, my society's Freshers Fayre stall was around the corner from a free popcorn and candyfloss stall that had been set up by an external business, so every few minutes, we would see people coming past with either bags of popcorn or sticks holding a giant cloud of pink candyfloss.  Having not really had candyfloss myself for a few years, I took the opportunity to get myself a stick of free candyfloss on both days after lunch.  Although it was slightly inconvenient as I was having to keep the sticky candyfloss in one hand away from the society info cards in the other hand as I walked around to recruit people, I'd like more of this pink, fluffy cloud of sweet awesomeness!
3. Raw soft-serve ice cream at The Rawtarian - this recipe is super-easy and only needs frozen bananas, a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract and a blender.  I think I'll use it to create a vegan-friendly version of the affogato recipe I posted a few weeks ago.
4. Ally's watermelon fruit-bowl is making me jealous.  Like strawberries and blueberries, I don't think watermelon will be sticking around here much longer this year in the UK, and will be flying south (to Australia, in fact) to wish Ally a very happy summer indeed.  Also, do we have Finn Cold Press juices here?  They look tasty.

So that's all for this week.  I'll be back next week with more food and possible post-Freshers Fayre news!

Watermelon and Raspberry Cooler

It's summertime in the UK, and from what I can tell, it is either reasonably warm or raining heavily (at the time of writing this, it's not raining, but from where I am inside, I can't feel the sun on my arms or anything).  In any case, one of the things that you do when it's hot in summer is to keep cool and hydrated.  According to a few DIY blogs that I've read, watermelons are supposed to be the new "it" (i.e. fashionable) fruit to be seen in design, and I've actually come across watermelon necklace pendants and how to make a watermelon serving tray during my glancing through blogs for things that I might want to make (not food), and of course, I've recently posted a watermelon ice lolly recipe that I found in a book (which can be found here).  I found this recipe for making watermelon and raspberry coolers in the Tesco Food and Living magazine for July/August 2014, which would be perfect for a summertime picnic or dinner.

Ingredients (to make 12 glasses)
1 kg (2lb) watermelon (about half a large watermelon), flesh sliced into triangles
300g (10oz) raspberries
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons mint leaves, plus extra to serve
ice cubes
sparkling water, to taste

Instructions

1. Put three-quarters of the sliced watermelon into a blender and add 200g (7oz) raspberries, the sugar and mint.  Blend to a purée, then pass the mixture through a sieve.  Chill until needed.
2. Add enough watermelon purée to fill half of each glass, add a couple of ice cubes, a few of the remaining raspberries and a reserved watermelon slice.  Top up with sparkling water and decorate with extra mint leaves to serve. 

Watermelon Ice Lollies

For the UK, summer is almost here, and the bottom draw of my family's freezer is full of lemonade and orange ice lollies which I eat on most days.  Years ago, we had some ice lolly moulds and I think it would be a good idea to use them to make some delicious fruit lollies.  I found the following recipe for watermelon ice lollies in The Icecreamists by Matt O'Connor.  Due to the possible use of bone char in the process of making the caster sugar in the recipe, I'm not sure how suitable it would be for vegans.  Have a great week!

Ingredients (to make 6-8 ice lollies)
100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) water
100g (3 1/2 oz) caster sugar
flesh from 1 watermelon, seeds discarded
juice of 1 lime

Method
1. Pour the water into a pan and add the sugar.  Place over a low heat and bring to the boil, whisking constantly, until the sugar dissolves.  Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes, continuing to whisk until the liquid turns has the consistency of a syrup.  Set aside and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
2. Put the watermelon flesh in a blender, pulse until crushed, then sieve into a measuring jug.  You should have around 500ml (17fl oz) of juice.
3. Add the watermelon juice and lime juice to the syrup and whisk together.  Pour into lolly moulds, filling them about two-thirds full so that the mixture is able to expand as it freezes.  Place in the freezer for about 30 minutes, until almost solid, then insert a stick in each one.  Freeze for another 30 minutes.