Dinner & a Movie: Wedding Crashers –Look at Them Melons… Sorbet

Dinner and a Movie is co-hosted by Marc of No Recipes and Susan of Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy, where a new movie is picked each month to watch and inspire you to create a dish based on said movie.  I’m excited as this is my first month participating, and this month’s movie, Wedding Crashers, proved to be quite a challenge!

I wanted to stay away from anything “wedding-y”, as I figured that would be too easy, but food isn’t a large feature of the film…unless you count Owen Wilson’s character sickening his love interest’s fiancé with Visine! (my Visine is staying safely in the medicine cabinet, thanks!).

One of the actresses in the movie is Jane Seymour, playing the part of Kathleen (“Kitty Kat”), the mother of the Crashers love interests.  She is not so much the cooking-baking, knitting, book circle type of mom though.  She likes the drink, and although married, takes a heated interest in Owen Wilson’s character, John. 

In the scene that inspired my dish, Kathleen walks into the room where John is putting on his shoes and announces to John she’s had certain “aesthetic” work done.  She refuses to let him leave amid his protests until he inspects the work for himself.  Of course, with him being amazed how “realistic” the aesthetic work is,  he doesn’t give the response she had hoped for, and with disgust calls him a pervert and storms out!  Given that Jane Seymour was 54 when this scene was shot, where in Hollywood anyone past 25 seems to be deemed “over the hill”,  I say kudos for her!  So without further ado, and without need for further explanation, my recipe:

Honeydew Melon Sorbet

Ingredients

• 1 pound, 5 ounces diced honeydew melon, seeded and peeled (about 3/4 of a large melon)
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup white granulated sugar

Directions

Place the seeded and peeled melon in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Add the lemon juice and sugar and process for another 30 seconds. Place the mixture into the refrigerator until the mixture reaches 40 degrees F; if you don’t have a thermometer, this will most likely take a couple of hours, you want the mixture thoroughly cold.

Pour the chilled mixture into the bowl of an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's directions.  It can be served immediately if thick enough or transferred to an airtight container and placed in the freezer.

(Adapted from Alton Brown, Good Eats, episode: Melondrama)

This sorbet has a gorgeous bright flavour, and a creamy texture that would have you believing it contained dairy of some kind.  The sugar can be adjusted based on the sweetness of the melon you choose and your personal preferences.  When choosing a honeydew, you want to get one that feels heavy for it’s size and is a creamy yellow colour…green most likely means it is not mature yet.  You also want to avoid any with overly soft or brown parts.  California honeydews are not in season right now (our melon was from Costa Rica) so I would care to bet this would taste even more delicious when they are.

This went perfect with the gorgeous warm weekend we just enjoyed, inspiring the coming days (and not soon enough!) of summer.

You can check out the April Dinner and a Movie Round up for all submissions over at Marc’s blog.  Hope to see you at next month’s Dinner and a Movie!   Happy Eating!