French Friday with Dorie: Cold Melon-Berry Soup

COLD FRESH FRUIT "SOUP" ON A HOT ARIZONA DAY

I don’t know how we ever survived without Son-In-Law married to daughter #4.  He is a plumber and working hard to start his own business...and he is becoming quite successful.  I’ve told him over and over that if everyone has as many plumbing problems as we do, he’ll be rich someday.  He will never hurt for work.

Today, a main water pipe running from the house to the street was overcome and broken up by tree roots and it has to be dug up and replaced.  It is 9 feet down so we are hiring 2 men who will dig for 8 hours in our 110^ AZ sun. 

(Note to myself from the next morning: Since AZ has become tougher on illegal immigrant workers, there is a lack of Mexican men who are great at doing these kinds of digging jobs out in the heat.  I wondered who might be available to dig.  Even with unemployment being extremely high I don’t personally know any men who would come last minute and dig a 9 foot deep hole that is wide enough to fit a man and tools and working room to throw out the dirt.  Son-In-Law phoned “Labor Ready,” a business that hires out day laborers–finds work by the day or week for anyone willing to work.  Most of the men are recently released from jail or prison, homeless, or they have lost their jobs and can’t find work.   Instead of getting in my truck and driving downtown and finding men  hanging out on street corners as we all previously did...like an AZ tradition, this company makes sure workers are legal, they provide insurance, proper clothing, shovels, water, etc.  The workers are given a map and transportation.  They showed up at five till six this morning...right on time, speak English, and are grateful for the work.  When I checked on them after 3 hours of digging, they had made great progress and the only complaint was that the shoes “Labor Ready” had provided one of the workers were just a little to small so he took them off once in a while to let his feet stretch...even their sturdy work shoes are provided.  This is such a much better system for hiring day laborers over finding cheep illegal help who work for cash payment, who do not contribute taxes, and which has been the norm in our construction industry, landscaping, cooks, etc forever here in AZ.  I must say I am really impressed.  For 8 hours of work out in the heat for two men, it will cost me about $200.  Since I had previously tipped the Mexican labor, which has a going rate of $10 per hour, and sent things home for their families like bags of groceries, gently used clothing, etc...these men are quite a bargain and under much better circumstances...and they are legal.)

SON-IN-LAW FIXING OUR PIPES

Son-In-Law worked hard today to get the problem under control...nothing was working including toilets, showers, sinks...all a big bad stinky problem. 

To help him cool off and relax just a little, I decided to make Dorie’s Cold Melon-Berry Soup.  It seemed like what was needed and was also our assignment for this week’s cooking project.

First I went shopping for a very ripe cantaloupe and some fresh strawberries.  Other items were in the house.  Also, my little kiddies were coming to visit and they always love to use the special dishes and pretty things, so I decided to put the “soup” into goblets and to garnish the top with a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream.

I added a couple of bananas and extra juice...I used white grape juice instead of wine... to the recipe which stretched it out to make enough.   After pureeing the fruits, lime juice, and other ingredients creating the soup-juice, and after dividing it among the goblets, I added melon balls and strawberries to each serving.  The treat was topped with a small scoop of ice cream and garnished with a dab of freshly made strawberry jam.

The bananas tasted great in this mixture, but caused a separation in the juice.  The color of the cantaloupe, juice, and bananas was blah causing me to wish I had also added some of my extra berries to the fruit being juiced.  (I did blend all the left-overs for Honey’s bottle, and it was a very pretty pink.)  Looking down onto the goblet tops, my “soup” was quite pretty, but in my photos, the color and texture does not look very appetizing.

This soup reminds me of a runny smoothie that needs more ice cream or yogurt or something. Without the ice cream and bananas, this recipe would have been very watery.

But it did cool down my hard working Son-In-Law who loves fresh fruits.  Next time I’ll stick to my more yummy smoothie recipes and leave this type of chunky yet liquidy soup to the French.  (The kiddies liked it, but they like anything with ice cream.)

I looked at other fruit soup recipes on the internet, and nothing really excited me.  Fruit salads and fresh fruit smoothies seem to be a better choice.  I’ll be interested to see what my fellow Doristas have done with this recipe.

LIKE AN UNBLENDED SMOOTHIE