Watermelon Lantern, Watermelon Flower Vase & Melony Drinks!

“A watermelon was once thrown at Roman Governor Demosthenes during a political debate. Placing the watermelon upon his head, he thanked the thrower for providing him with a helmet to wear as he fought Philip of Macedonia” (Source)

For many of us from India, the thought of watermelon may perhaps bring back the memory of a familiar sight…….during the summer season, truck-loads of watermelon floods the nook and corner of every streets…..Watermelons mounded on pavements and highway road-sides, and the seller sitting there under a black umbrella, tied to his wooden chair to escape the blistering sun…..and sometimes talking to the nearby fruit stall guy or enjoying a light moment with the tender-coconut vendor :) Sometimes the vendor’s creativity can be seen when he tries to carve flower petals on the edges of the halved melon or when they display halved watermelons, showing its red succulent fruity part, pulling those waiting at the bus-stop and the passers-by to grab one of those summer fruits! Watermelon juice is another temptation to the pedestrians in that scorching heat.

As kids we used to eat the melon as it is, sucking the crescent slice and its juice dripping all over our clothes….and I don’t know , probably that is one of the reasons why I was never a great fan of watermelons and sometimes I feel its too bland and watery! But this Melony Mocktail did capture my attention and it was my friend, SM who shared the recipe with me, almost two years back…Whether to make a Mocktail or Cocktail, that is purely your choice :)

Melony Mocktail: Make puree from de-seeded watermelon chunks and freeze the puree in ice trays. In a glass, pour some freshly squeezed orange juice and some Sprite or Mountain Dew or any similar soda and throw in some frozen watermelon cubes too and you are ready with your mocktail. If the orange juice is too sour, then add some sugar to the orange juice. There is no hard and fast rule to make this drink. The taste of the drink really starts evolving when the pureed-melon cubes starts to dilute. Add less orange juice and more of soda.

Melony Cocktail: Follow the same method above and add Vodka. Please make sure that orange juice is not too sour.

Just when I was about to finish my photo session, another idea struck me. How do you keep the pureed-melon cubes frozen, when served to a group at a dinner or party? Citric/herbal/floral ice bowl comes to your rescue! Click here to learn to make your own ice bowls.

Well, now since you have hollowed out your melon, the next item in the agenda is probably to throw them into the trash can. Hold on! Create a beautiful and unique flower vase and use it as a centerpiece for your table.

To make the Flower Vase: Instead of using perfectly halved melons, it’s better to use melons that are cut off only ¼th from the top, to make the flower vase. Slice off a very thin piece, around ½ inches from the bottom so as to provide a flat base to the vase. Scoop out watery fruit fully and pat dry the interiors with a kitchen towel. Make your fresh flower arrangement in a glass jar or vase and place them inside the melon vase and you are all set to receive compliments from your guests :)

Here’s another fun-centerpiece idea which will be a great addition to your night-time, open air parties, Watermelon Lanterns! It’s Halloween in Summer!! :)

To make the Watermelon Lantern: Use melons that are cut off only ¼th from the top. Slice off around ½ inches from the bottom to provide a flat base. Using a pencil, draw the outlines of a smiley and darken the outlines using a marker. With a pairing knife, cut out eyes and mouth. Also clean up the interiors by scooping out the watery flesh of the fruit thoroughly and pat dry with a kitchen towel. Keep a small candle inside the melon and close it with the top portion, cut off earlier, which looks like a lid to your lantern. For more carving and fun ideas, click here.

Janelle of Talk of Tomatoes is the host and creator of the blog event, Centerpiece of the Month, an excellent idea to encourage the fellow bloggers to come up with novel and unique centerpieces every month and Watermelon Vase and Watermelon Lanterns are my contributions this month!

The entire post goes to the fruity blog event, AFAM, hosted at Jugalbandi for the month of July.

Luv
Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.

Orange Delight in Orange Cups, Orange Ice Bowl as Centerpiece and a Meme!

I have been carrying my emotional virtual-knapsack for quite some time, forcing you to read and making you traverse down my memory lane.….thought today I will leave the knapsack behind for sometime…..or is it a better way of saying, I am going through some sort of ‘blogger’s block’ and really don’t know what to write?? !! :)

Well, Susan of The Well-Seasoned cook and Cynthia of Tastes Like Home have tagged me to write my first Meme, The “IT” girl- 7 Random Facts About Me. It sounds easy but not for me!! Anyway, I will write some ME facts paired with some foodie facts as well:

1. Gluttony.com – Yes, probably it’s the best name that suits me and I have been blessed with this name by one of our professors! In college, we used to have seminar and assignment discussions with our guide in the evening, after the college hours which used to extent till late evening; one day he offered us some cakes and there was one last piece left….everyone was reluctant to grab that piece except me and that moment he blessed me with the name “Aakrantham.com” aka gluttony.com :) In my defense, I was damn hungry that evening!
2. Phobia.com – Maths phobia!!!! I still don’t know how I passed my Mathematics and Statistics exams. I was sitting in the first class of entrance coaching for the Masters program and unfortunately it was a mathematics class…..towards the end of the class, the coach came and asked softly, "do you have some maths phobia?" !!! Wonder how he figured out that in less than an hour……must be because of the strange look on my face!!! :P
3. Best friend of chocolate lovers – because I don’t like chocolates : D
4. An average cook and I do not own a single cookbook - the recipes I have blogged so far are collected from my family and friends….I am not very innovative when it comes to cooking….an average cook……if given a chance I will take a deviation en route to kitchen ….if Mummy is at home, one can never spot me anywhere near the cooking area…..I started taking cooking with some genuine interest only because of CJJ who loves to eat :)
   
5. Cannot resist pizza ads –…for that matter, I cannot resist any food temptation…..!
6. Scared of snakes - close my eyes even when I see a picture of ‘em….it’s almost a reflex action for me :(
   
7. Do not like those red signals when behind the wheels :)

Let me tag Kitchenfairy, Pravs, Sandeepa, Sia, Susan and Trupti. Friends, take it up if you have time :)

Well, let’s come to our business….I mean, let’s talk about food. Every month when I get my monthly subscription of Martha Stewart Living, I smell the book first….then gently flip those glossy pages……enjoying the brilliant photos and admiring the work of food stylists…….and then slowly settle at my favourite section on the magazine, Good Things, where they give some simple but cool, fabulous ideas and it was on one of those pages I came across this refreshing idea of serving desserts in halved and hollowed-out citric/fruit cups. Another one that caught my attention was decorative ice bowls made with herbs, citric slices and edible flowers. And I always wanted to try this at home and hence I was quite excited when I found out that Orange was the chosen fruit for this month’s A Fruit A Month blog event and exactly around the same time, my friend SM who always shares crowd-pleasing recipes like, Mango Sorbet with Mango Sauce and Deviled Eggs-Indian style, recommended this particular recipe for Orange Delight. So that was one more reason to try out the citric/fruit cups idea :)


Orange Delight is a creamy dessert with a light tangy taste which may not make a very good ‘first impression’ at the first spoonful but from the second one, you will get hooked on to it. We couldn’t stop with just one cup :) Recipe follows:

Ingredients for Orange Delight: (Serves 6-8)

• 1 1/2 cups of orange juice (I used Tropicana-no pulp)
• 1 1/2 tbsp unflavored gelatin
• 1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup of whipped cream
• ¼ tsp orange rinds
• Orange cups for serving (Optional)

Directions:
Soak the gelatin in orange juice and then stir continuously until it dissolves thoroughly. Whip the cream until it doubles in quantity and reaches a creamy consistency. Add sweetened condensed milk to the cream, and then pour the orange juice and orange rinds and mix well very gently. Chill for 8-10 hours and serve in orange cups or small dessert bowls.

Preparing the Orange cups:
After squeezing out the juice from halved oranges, instead of throwing it in the trash, collect and keep them. Remove all the pulp left and clean the inside neatly and sprinkle some sugar on the insides and refrigerate them and fill these cups with Orange Delight and chill before serving to your guests.

Note: One of our friends has tried replacing the canned/bottled orange juice with fresh orange juice and the taste was not very impressive and hence bottled orange juice is recommended for better results.

Orange Ice Bowls

You need:
2 stainless steel bowls (One should fit inside the other with ½ inch to 1 inch between them)
Orange slices
Some green herbs (optional)
Ice cubes and water
Tape

How to: Put some ice cubes on the bottom of the bigger bowl and place the smaller bowl on top of that. Slide in some orange slices on the sides and green herbs, if any. You may use a skewer to arrange the citric slices and herbs, if it is difficult to manage with hands. Fill in water between bowls to ½ inch from top. Tape the rims, so the bowls stay together and the ice bowl, when frozen, has a smooth surface. Freeze overnight and then let it stand in the room temperature, on a dish towel, for around 15-20 minutes or until the bowls separate easily. Take the top bowl and then invert the bottom bowl to remove the ice bowl. Freeze until the guests arrive and then place it on your table, with a dish towel underneath to catch drips.

This decorative bowls can be used to serve your must–be-chilled foods like Champagne, salads, cocktail shrimps etc. If you are serving any other condiments that should stay dry, place a glass bowl inside the ice bowl and serve the condiments. A simple but great idea to delights your friends and guests :)

These are my entries for this month’s AFAM, hosted by a passionate cook and a fellow blogger, Sharmi of Neivedyam

There is another very interesting blog event, Centerpiece of the Month, hosted by Janelle of Talk of Tomatoes. Orange Ice Bowl is my contribution to this excellent idea of hers, encouraging the fellow bloggers to come up with novel and unique centerpieces every month.

* The idea of using Citric/fruit cups and Ice bowl is adapted from Martha Stewart Living

Luv
Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.