A purée is a thick, soft dish that's made by pressing cooked foods through a sieve, or mixing them in a blender or food processor.
Vegetable purées are either used as a base for soup -- thinned with water or stock -- or eaten as a side dish. Tomato purée, used for sauces and soups, is made by removing seeds from lightly cooked tomatoes and straining the pulp. Fruit purées are used to make sauces, mousses, soufflés and other preparations. Purées can also be made from anchovies, chicken livers, shrimp or salmon, and used as a filling for canapés.
Recipe: Butternut Squash And Banana Puree With Whiskey And Pecans (Cookthink)
Recipe: Parsnip And Orange Puree (Cookthink)
Reference: Tomato paste vs. tomato puree vs. tomato sauce (Cookthink)
Sorbet is a fruity frozen dessert that was invented before ice cream but tastes like it (minus the dairy). It has a soft texture and is made from fruit juice or purée that is mixed with a sugar syrup and sometimes alchohol. Italian meringue may be added to sorbet to enhance its volume.
American sherbet is a close cousin of sorbet, though it contains a small amount of milk. Sorbet is actually a Frenchified word for sorbetto, its Italian name. The Italians learned about sorbetto from the Arabs, who'd learned about it from the Persians, who'd learned about it from the Chinese. The first sorbets were made from honey, aromatics, fruit and snow.
Sorbet is as sweet as ice cream but lighter. It's eaten as a snack or dessert and is sometimes still served at elaborate French meals as a palate cleanser between courses (with a bit of alcohol, replacing the shot that was once served between plates).
What's the difference between sorbet and sherbet?
What's the difference between sorbet and sherbet?
Sorbet and sherbet are both sweet, fruity frozen desserts with a soft texture. But if sorbet is made from fruit juice or purée that is mixed with a sugar syrup and sometimes alchohol (Italian meringue may be added to sorbet to enhance its volume), its American cousin sherbet contains a small amount of milk or cream (for a total of 1 to 2 percent milk fat).
To make matters more complicated, in Turkish, sherbet is a chilled drink made with rose hips, cornelian cherries, rose or licorice and spices that's believed to have medicinal powers. In the UK, sherbet is a sweetened effervescent powder that's added to drinks like lemonade.
And if someone asks you if you'd like some sherbert, they're just making a common mistake of mispronouncing the name.
Watermelons are at their best from mid-June to late August. If you're buying a whole watermelon, look for a fruit that's symmetrical, with a dull, firm and unblemished rind. A watermelon with one flat, yellowish-brown side is a good thing. That's a sign that the melon has sat on the ground and ripened for a long time.
Another supposedly reliable method for selecting a ripe melon: Slap it. If you hear a thump that sounds as if the fruit is hollow, it should be ready to eat.
When buying cut watermelon, make sure the flesh is bright and moist, since dry, grainy watermelon doesn't taste good. If you see a bunch of little white seeds, the watermelon has been cut too early and will lack the sweetness you are after.
Recipe: Watermelon Pizza (Washington Post)
Recipe: Watermelon Salad With Arugula, Ricotta Salata And Walnuts (Sweet Myrtle & Bitter Honey)
What exactly is a baby watermelon?
What exactly is a baby watermelon?
A Sugar Baby watermelon is a variety of so-called "ice-box melon" that's smaller than your average watermelon.
Round, super-sweet and only about 8 inches in diameter, the Sugar Baby has a dark rind and red, yellow or orange flesh. It grows fast and is just the right size for picnics.
Related: Root Source: Watermelon
Pickled watermelon rind is made by peeling most of the green skin off the white rind that usually gets left behind once the red flesh has been devoured.
First, the white rind is cut into small chunks or wedges, then soaked in salt or lime water for as long as overnight. Next, it's drained and added to a pot of fresh water, where it is simmered gently until tender. (Boil your watermelon rind too hard and it will end up rubbery.)
At this point, the rind is drained and may be soaked again in vinegared water or added to a syrup that's been made by boiling together vinegar, water, sugar and spices like cinnamon, cloves and allspice. After allowing the rind to steep, this mixture is cooked for a few hours until the syrup is thick, at which point the watermelon pickles can be cooled and transfered to sterile jars.
what you should know
Brundidge, Alabama. 1950. When the watermelon trucks stopped at the traffic light in town, Chip's dad would climb up into the back and drop a melon down to friends.
They would run the fruit out of sight, strike it on the hot pavement, and then -- as the poet Charles Simic described the act of eating watermelon -- "eat the smile and spit out the teeth."
toothless The popularity of seedless watermelon took some of the teeth out. Though it has a long association with the American South, watermelon is loved all over the world for its quenching, sweet flesh. In Japan, they've even developed square watermelon to satisfy demand and fit a small fridge.
look for scuffs When buying a whole watermelon (or stealing one off a truck), look for one with a flat, yellowish-brown side. That's a sign that the melon has sat for a long time on the ground while ripening. Another way to check for ripeness? Slap the melon.
waterlalala If you're ever stuck in a sing-a-long but don't know the words, just mouth the word "watermelon" over and over again. Works every time.
what you need
Instead of a melon baller, we use a larger OXO cookie scoop to carve out rounds of ripe watermelon.
For the modern lowdown on the food of the South, turn to John T. Edge. He's the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, a contributor to Gourmet and a guest food editor at the Oxford American. His most recent book is the Southern Belly.
We love to drink watermelon margaritas, martinis and agua frescas out of these acrylic goblets.
what you do
"What grows together goes together" is the rule behind this watemelon salad with arugula, walnuts and ricotta salata. It's from Efisio Farris' Sweet Myrtle & Bitter Honey.
Have you made watermelon pizza? If not, try it this weekend.
Watermelon basil agua fresca, from Coconut & Lime, is made for stifling days and food off the grill.
Speaking of the grill, while it's burning, throw some wedges on to make this grilled watermelon salad.
Featured recipe: Combine cool watermelon and hot peppers, and you end up with refreshing watermelon gazpacho. The recipe comes from FoodieTots, and is the featured recipe for this week's Root Source Challenge.
