Ingredients

Serves 4

1 honey dew melon

Sangria:
50gm castor sugar
50ml water
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
2 cinnamon quills
225ml orange juice
225ml Shiraz


Mint Ice:
75gm castor sugar
200ml water
1 gold leaf gelatine sheet, bloomed in ice water
1 bunch mint, picked


Lemon Yoghurt:
100gm thick yoghurt
30gm icing sugar, sieved
1 lemon, zested
1 bunch mint, picked


Sangria Foama:
3 gold leaf gelatine sheets, bloomed in ice water
2 each iSi Cream bulbs
Leftover Sangria


To serve:
60gm pomegranate seeds
1 punnet basil cress, picked
1 punnet lemon balm cress, picked
80gm mandarin sorbet

 

Method

Commence by making the sangria.
In a small saucepan combine 50gm sugar, 50ml water, vanilla and cinnamon and bring to the boil. Pass through a fine sieve. Reserve.
In a jug, mix the orange juice, shiraz, and sugar syrup. Refrigerate until required.
Note: The syrup can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator for future use.

Cut melon on the top and bottom to attain stability. Cut away skin, cut into quarters, deseed and trim edges to attain a rectangle shape. Using a small cryovac bag, add 60ml sangria and a piece of melon. Vac seal for 50 secs and refrigerate for 12 hours.  Repeat this process for each piece of melon. Reserve remaining sangria for sangria foam
Note: Alternatively, you can place the same contents in a zip lock bag and refrigerate for 24 hours, whilst occasionally turning, so colour can remain consistent.

To make mint ice: Using a small pan, combine 75gm sugar and 200ml water and bring to the boil. Add 1 gelatine sheet. Allow to cool. Using a medium sized pot, blanch mint for approximately 8 seconds. Refresh in ice water. Wring out and place in a blender. Blend with the syrup on a maximum speed or until smooth. Pass through a fine chinois and pour into a tray/container and freeze. Using a fork scrape the surface. Serve immediately.

To make lemon yoghurt:: In a small bowl combine yoghurt, icing sugar, lemon zest and stir. Refrigerate until required.

For the sangria foam, heat a little bit of the remaining sangria to dissolve the gelatine sheets. Add to the rest of the sangria and pour into a foam gun. Charge with cream bulbs. Shake vigorously and refrigerate until required.

To plate up, take melon out of bag and cut into bite size pieces but keeping it whole, like it wasn’t touched.
Place a quenelle of lemon yoghurt on top, a scoop of mandarin sorbet (opposite), sprinkle of pomegranate seeds, scatter the herbs and finish with a mound of mint ice and shot of foam. Serve immediately.