Today is a cool, rainy day, AND my day off, which means I’m off the hook for any outdoors work.  It’s a perfect day for cooking and puttering around the house.  By lunch time, I had already put a pork roast in the slow cooker for tonight’s dinner (which will also provide another meal for the weekend), restarted some kombucha which had gone too long and become vinegar (now I have more than half a gallon of very useful raw kombucha vinegar – I’m thinking it’s time to make more fire cider), caught up laundry, did a few website updates for the business, and started a new batch of buttermilk from a gallon of raw milk that was just beginning to sour.

Which reminds me …. I’d like to plug the co-op of which I’m a member, Fry Farms Co-Op.  If you happen to be a reader in the Ft. Wayne/Columbia City/South Whitley area, this co-op is a great source of organic pastured chicken and pork, grass-fed beef, eggs, produce, and a raw organic milk/products herdshare program. An added bonus is the prices are some of the best to be found in the area for food of this type and quality.  I’ve been very pleased with my membership.  I place my orders on their website, and pick up my orders every other Wednesday evening at their Columbia City, Raber Road drop point. They also have a couple of pickup locations in Ft. Wayne.

Getting back to the purpose of this post … my pork roast.  This is on the menu because the girls at my local Mexican grocery keep telling me how much they love a traditional Mexican soup called Posole.  They made it sound so good that I’ve decided I really must try it. I’ve done a bunch of research online, and gotten a few tips from the Mexican girls (who tell me things like, “Well, my grandmother always throws a couple of chicken feet in with the broth). I think  the soup will probably fit very well with the way I cook one meal leading to another. Tonight I’m going to use some of the shredded roast pork along with homemade tortillas for tacos, which will be dressed up with cilantro, avocado, lime, and whatever else strikes my fancy.

Traditionally, recipes like this use some sort of shoulder cut roast (picnic, boston butt, pork shoulder), but I had a 3.5 pound fresh, uncured bone-in ham roast, so that’s what I used.

Mexican Style Pork Roast
Pork Roast
Large Onion, roughly chopped
Head of Garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon ground cumin (freshly toasted and ground is best)
2 Teaspoons Mexican Oregano
2 Teaspoons Salt

Sear roast on medium high heat (I know, this doesn’t seal in moisture, I do it because it helps contribute to a rich broth, thanks to the Maillard reaction), and I’m going to need a nice both for the Posole I make later.

Place roast in a slow cooker, de-glaze searing pan with water, and add water to the slow cooker.  Add chopped onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, and salt.  Add hot water to cover roast (the picture above shows how much water I added).  Slow cook roast for several hours until the pork is tender and falls apart easily.  Cooking time is going to depend on your slow cooker.

For the tacos, I’ll shred some of the meat, and maybe even fry it so it’s officially carnitas –  maybe not – depends on how I’m feeling by the time I’m done making the tortillas.  The rest of the meat and broth will be saved for making the Posole this weekend.  If all goes well, I’ll post the results later.

Completely unrelated – here’s a bonus update on the goslings.  We were doing selfies in the pasture yesterday evening.  Yes, I know, I’m a goof.

This is one of those recipes that was born standing in front of my open freezer on a Saturday morning, clueless as to what we were going to have for dinner. My eyes landed on the Italian sausage that I get through a co-op of which I’m a member. On the shelf above were containers of frozen broth made from leftover roast chicken bones.  OK, soup – Italian … tomatoes … garlic … you see how my mind works?  So, I started grabbing staples from my stores, and ended up with the picture below.  Remember, I do everything the long hard way, so I’ve included suggestions for the sake of time and simplicity.  I dry tomatoes in my dehydrator in the summer, so I’ve always got them on hand.  I usually have kale in the winter garden, but thanks to a run-in with the geese, my kale is no more. This was some organic red kale I’d grabbed at a local store. Will someone  tell my why the geese turned up their bills at kale when I offered it to them out in their pen, but when they took a wander around the property they suddenly decided they couldn’t get enough of it?

Winter Italian Sausage Soup
1 pound Sweet Italian Sausage
1 cup dry beans, soaked (or 1-2 cans of some sort of white bean)
6 cups chicken broth
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed and diced (or half the head like I did)
1 cup dried tomatoes (or you can use canned tomatoes)
Small bunch of kale, stems removed and roughly chopped
Salt
Red pepper flakes (optional)

Brown sausage in soup pot.  Add garlic and cook for a minutes.  Add chicken broth and beans, simmer for about an hour until beans are tender (you can skip this cooking time if you use canned  beans). Add dried tomatoes and simmer for another 15 or 20 minutes (skip the cooking time if you use canned tomatoes).  Add kale and simmer for another few minutes.  I like to be able to chew my kale a little bit, so I don’t cook it much longer than 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and red pepper flakes.

OK, I feel better now. I recently noticed I hadn’t blogged a recipe in a very long time, and had been boring the heck out of people with the geese and chickens.

I wanted to keep my first experience with pea shoots simple, and went with a recipe that comes from the book, Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening.  As usual, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, and left out the vinegar.  The recipe given serves 4.  I just threw a bunch of pea shoots on a plate, drizzled them with a little of the dressing, and shaved the parmesan with a veggie peeler right on top of the whole thing.  One word of caution — use the dressing very sparingly.  The flavor of the pea shoots is delicate, and easily overpowered by the lemon and garlic.  I found as little as 1/2 teaspoon to be plenty.  Any more than that, and you won’t be able to taste the greens.  I also found myself shaving additional parmesan into the salad, but I’m a pig when it comes to any kind of cheese.

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon white balsamic or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt
4 to 6 cups lightly packed pea shoots
2-ounce piece parmesan
Freshly ground pepper

It’s official, I like pea shoots.  Because they are so simple to grow, and don’t take up a lot of space, I plan to make them a winter mainstay on my grow light setup.  I think I’m going to try this gorgeous Tofu Soup with Pea Shoots and Radishes next.

When I was growing up, my mom made zucchini relish every year, so now I make zucchini relish every year.   One batch is enough to get me through a whole year of tartar sauce, chicken and tuna salad, and hot dogs.  Yes, I know hot dogs are not one of the best things I could be eating, but I love hot dogs and have to have them every once in a while.  I’m a relish, mustard, and onions kind of a gal. Anyway, I made a batch of zucchini relish this weekend, but it barely put a dent in my zucchini supply.

This is a forgiving recipe, and measurements don’t have to be exact. I use honey, but you could use sugar if you want. I tend to like more of vinegary tang than sweetness in my relish, so my recipe uses quite a bit less sweetener than most recipes. Also, most recipes call for celery seed, but we all know how I feel about celery (it’s an evil, vile vegetable and my husband is allergic).  My standard substitution for all things celery is fennel.  If you like a little spice you could add some jalapeno to the recipe.  My husband is a big baby when it comes to spicy foods, so I’m close friends with the many bottles of hot sauce that inhabit my kitchen.  One of these days I’ll get around to giving you my recipe for homemade tequila hot sauce.

Zucchini Relish
1 monster zucchini (about 3 pounds, or 8 cups)
4 large onions (about 1 pound)
2 large red and/or green peppers
4 tablespoons kosher salt
2 1/4 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups honey
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 heaping teaspoon ground fennel seed
1 heaping teaspoon ground coriander seed
1 heaping teaspoon salt

Shred or finely chop zucchini, onion, and peppers.  A food processor makes quick work of it.  Sprinkle the 4 tablespoons of salt over the chopped veggies, mix it in well, and set it aside for a couple of hours.  I’ve seen some recipes that call for letting it sit overnight, but I’ve found a couple of hours does an adequate job of drawing out the excess water in the vegetables.

 I went outside and planted a row of snow peas for the fall garden while I was waiting. Then I got my canning gear out, and got my jars washed and ready to receive the relish.

Next, rinse the vegetables well in a fine mesh colander with cold water.  Squeeze excess water from the veggies and place them in a non-reactive pot.

Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer.  Continue to simmer for about half an hour, until the relish begins to look a little translucent.   Ladle the relish into jars, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  Yields about 9 half pints.

I love homemade soups in general. They tend to be quick, versatile, and nutritious.  Soups help me economize both time and leftovers. Some can be thrown together quickly when crunched for time, others can be simmered in a slow cooker to be ready and waiting at the end of a long hard day. I do have a few soup recipes requiring quite a bit of prep, and not for the faint of heart cook…. like my Hot & Sour Soup. I like to freeze leftover soups, which provide a quick solution on those days when things don’t go as planned, or I suddenly find myself with a house full of unexpected guests (usually hungry teenage boys).  Today I was in the mood for soup, but we’re having unseasonable, record-setting 85 degree weather. I’m still in winter food mode, and having a difficult time switching culinary gears.  It’s simply too warm for something like my Fire Roasted Tomato and Wild Rice Soup, and Chilled Avocado Soup is just all wrong for March.

My BLT Soup recipe, with its light potato soup base and fresh raw veggies,  is perfect for transitioning seasons. This recipe was inspired by a similar soup I had in a restaurant years ago.  I did find a few BLT soup recipes online, but not like the one I ate all those years ago.  After some tinkering this is what I ended up with.

BLT Soup
4 or 5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 heaping tablespoon corn starch
Salt & Pepper

BLT Toppings
Crumbled bacon
Shredded lettuce, or other greens
Chopped Tomatoes
Croutons (Zesty Tomato Garlic Croutons recommended)

If you make your croutons and bacon ahead of time, this soup can be relatively quick to put together.  Here’s my bacon technique (I get some really great bacon made from organic pastured pork, and no added nitrates). I cut the bacon into pieces using my kitchen shears, and then toss it in the pan to cook. I try to keep a jar of crumbled bacon on hand in the refrigerator as a quick salad topping.

See my earlier post for making Zesty Tomato Garlic Croutons …. or use store-bought if you prefer.

Melt butter and olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add diced potatoes and cook until tender.  Don’t worry about the potatoes sticking to the bottom of the pan a little.   Once the potatoes are tender, add flour and stir until all oil and moisture is absorbed.  Next add the chicken broth and stir until the broth starts to heat up.  Mix the heaping tablespoon of corn starch with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water, and add to the broth.  Continue to stir until the soup thickens. Salt and pepper to taste.

This is one of those soups that does not have to be served piping hot.  In fact, I like to wait for it to cool a little before I assemble my bowls.

Assemble by ladling soup into bowls and then topping with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and croutons.

You’re going to need these croutons for the next recipe I post.  I suppose you could use store-bought, but these are better…. at least I think so!

Sometimes I’ll whip up a batch of my Honey Whole Wheat Bread just so I can let it go stale for making croutons.  My family loves croutons. We throw ’em in soups and salads.  Of course they go into French onion soup.  I’ve even caught my 17 year old munching on them like popcorn.

Croutons are a snap. Coat stale bread cubes in flavor bombed oil, toast in the oven, and viola! Croutons! I just throw it all together (not the bread cubes) in my food processor, and taste as I go.  I use tomatoes I’ve dried myself, which don’t have as much moisture as store-bought sun dried tomatoes.  I have to soak them in a little water before I get started, or they won’t pulverize properly in the food processor.  This recipe makes up a batch of flavored oil which is more than needed to make a batch of croutons.  It can be stored in a jar in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 weeks, and can be used in a variety of ways: croutons, tossed with pasta, or spread on sandwiches for an extra punch of flavor.

Zesty Tomato Garlic Croutons
Cubed stale bread
1 cup sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 or 5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3 teaspoons dried basil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2-3 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup olive oil

Place all ingredients (except cubed bread) into a food processor and let ‘er rip. Process until the mixture is relatively smooth.

Place bread cubes in a bowl and spoon some of the tomato-oil mixture onto the cubes.

Toss until the bread is completely coated with the tomato mixture, adding more if needed.

Spread the croutons on a baking sheet and toast in a 350° oven.  Check the croutons about every 5 minutes and give them a quick stir.  Because of the sugar content of the tomatoes, the croutons will tend to caramelize, and you want to be careful not to burn them.  My croutons took approximately 15 minutes.

Before I get on with this, I’m warning you my motivation is on its way back,  and I was a little camera happy this morning.

I realize bread making is a little time consuming, but I think it’s worth the effort. You’re probably wondering how I manage to bake bread several times a week when I work a full time job.  Here’s the beauty of working from a shop located on the same property where I live.  I can head to my kitchen on my lunch break, and mix up a batch of dough and knead it.  It’s not uncommon to find a batch of dough rising in my office.  At the end of the work day, I take it back to my kitchen, ready to pop in the oven.

I don’t know why I haven’t blogged my bread recipe before.  I make it so often I could do it in my sleep.  I’ve fiddled around with different ways of making bread over the years. The resulting conclusion of all this fiddling….. the books, famous chefs, food network, etc….. they’ve made it WAY too complicated.  No wonder so many people are intimidated by homemade bread.  Seriously folks, bread has been the staff of life, successfully feeding and nourishing mankind for thousands of years….. it can’t be that complicated!  Of course, in the last 100 years, we’ve managed to corrupt the stuff beyond what our ancestors would recognize as bread.  However, that’s a whole ‘nuther conversation.  Anyway, I’ll show you how I make bread, and I’m warning you…. I break a lot of rules.

I don’t have a convenient local source for bulk organic grains and flours, so I have them shipped from Heartland Mill out of Kansas.  You can shop online, but I tend to phone my orders so I can have them ship on my business’ UPS shipper account.  I’ve got a negotiated volume discount with UPS. Heartland’s prices are fantastic, and even with shipping I’m paying less than if I bought 5 pound bags of organic Bobs Red Mill from the local grocery.  I purchase in 25 or 50 pound quantities, depending on the type of flour.  I tend to use about twice as much all-purpose flour as I do whole wheat flour.  I’m still working on that. I keep my flours and grains in 6 gallon buckets stored under some of my canning shelves in the basement.

Yes, I’m a little OCD.  Yes, I know the shelves are bowing a little. Drives me nuts!  I’ve got a bunch more shelving on the opposite facing wall.  Everything in the buckets is organic: durum semolina for pasta, rye flakes, steel cut oats,  arborio rice, wild rice, green coffee beans, whole wheat flour, unbleached all-purpose flour. The wooden crates are where onions, squash, and sweet potatoes are stored. The large jars on the shelves are dried herbs, spices, dried fruit, and other things of that sort.  I have an arsenal of herbal witch doctory on that shelf. Top shelf is elderberry juice, jams, salsa, and assorted pickled veggies and relishes.  If you’ve ever received a food gift from me, it’s a good bet it came from the top shelf.

So, on to bread making. This is my base recipe for bread, and I vary it depending on what I’m making. If I’m making raisin bread I’ll add more honey, a little cinnamon and some raisins.  I’ll form it into focaccia and slather it with olive oil and olives, artichokes, or roasted red peppers. I’ll form it into bagels, boil, then bake them. This recipe produces one average  sized loaf.  I don’t like to make 2 loaves at a time, since I prefer fresh bread and there are only 3 of us in the house these days.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
Up to 1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 to 1 1/2 cup warm water

I usually just throw my ingredients into the bowl without measuring: one part each of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour, about 1/2 palm full kosher salt, a scant palm full active dry yeast, and a palm full vital wheat gluten.  I decided to be kind and give you some measurements.  I warned you I break rules.  No messing with extra containers, softening yeast in water ahead of time.   I just dump all the dry ingredients together and give them  a quick stir with my spoon.

A little bunny trail here with some information on ingredients.  Bread does not taste good without salt. (period).  Most recipes don’t call for enough.  I use more salt.  Salt does tend to slow down the activity of yeast, yeast feeds on sugar, and this recipe includes plenty of honey.  See where I’m going with this? I’ve never had a problem with the salt preventing the yeast from doing its job.

I include vital wheat gluten when using whole grain flours because I get a better rise from the dough as well as a lighter crumb in the finished bread.  You can choose to leave it out, but you’ll probably end up with a heavier more dense loaf of bread.

Next, combine the honey, egg, and warm water. A quick aside on water amounts.  The amount can vary depending on your flour.   My current batch of flour needs about a cup, but I’ve needed to use as much a 1 1/2 before.  If your dough is a little too wet, just work a little more all-purpose flour into it when you knead the dough.  I’ve developed a sense for how the dough should feel, and know when I need to use more or less water.

Don’t worry if the warm water causes the egg white to get a little hazy, because you’re just going to mix it up like this.

And then dump the wet into the dry.

Stir it until it forms a rough dough.

Dump it onto the lightly floured counter top and knead for about 5 minutes.  At this point I walk away from it, and let it rest for 5 minutes while I do something else.  I took the time to refill the nearly empty flour canisters I keep on my counter. Knead the dough for a few more minutes, until it feels smooth and elastic.  Drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom of a bowl and turn the dough in the oil to coat it.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and set it in a warm draft free place to rise until doubled in size.  Rising time will vary depending on too many factors to list.  Expect anywhere from 1 to 2 hours for the first rising. This batch took 2 hours because the house was cool this morning.  This is one of my favorite vintage tea towels.  It’s too pretty to use for any messy kitchen work, so I use it as a proofing cloth.

Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down, knead it a few times, and place it back in the bowl with a drizzle of oil to rise a second time.  The dough will rise more quickly the second time.

After the dough has doubled a second time, punch it down, knead it a few times, form it into a loaf, and set it aside to rise for the last time.  I love crusty free form loaves, but my guys don’t care for crust, so I bake the bread in loaf pans.  I do whatever it takes to keep them from requesting that soft, tasteless, chemical laden, plastic wrapped stuff that passes for bread these days.  This last raising will take as little as 30 minutes. 

Once it has doubled, place the loaf in a 350 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes. Yet another bunny trail….. baking time and temperature.  350 for 30 minutes is what works for me.  My oven is not properly calibrated, so I bought an oven thermometer to make sure my oven is properly preheated.  As I mentioned before, my family likes a less crusty, soft crumbed bread.  If I had it my way, I’d make a crusty free from loaf baked at about 400 or 425 for about 20 minutes, on a stone, and with steam for the first few minutes of baking.  My point being, do what works for your quirky oven and personal taste.

I know you’re supposed to let the bread cool before cutting if you don’t want to mangle your loaf.  Mangling be damned! I wanted a piece so I cut it right away, slathered it with some homemade strawberry vanilla jam, and made myself very happy.

I am long, long overdue to post a recipe. In fact, I was looking over post archives, and noticed that I didn’t post a single thing last January.  It must be a hibernation thing.  All I feel like doing lately is snuggling in with a pair of knitting needles, a pot of herb tea, and a pair of warm squishy socks.  This morning I was forced to come out of hibernation, thanks to several inches of snow last night.  I had to bundle up and dig out my chicken coop so I could feed the girls.

This particular soup recipe is a winter regular in my household, and my 16-year-old son’s favorite. I always make this after we’ve had a roast chicken, using the leftover meat and stock that I’ve made from the carcass. The rest of the ingredients are always on hand in my pantry and root cellar from late summer preserving efforts.  I used up the last of my fennel at Christmas when I made Pasta E Fagioli Salad with Fennel for my overseas house guests, but I found some nice fat organic bulbs at a local grocer. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m going to tell you again …. I don’t cook with celery.  I think it’s an evil, vile, nasty vegetable, and my husband is allergic. The carrots were pulled from the winter garden tunnel last week.

Fire Roasted Tomato and Wild Rice Soup
Olive oil
2 carrots, diced
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and sliced (or other celery like veg)
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped ( I use more)
7 1/2 cups chicken broth (if I don’t have enough broth, I cut it with water)
1/2 cup wild rice
Bay leaf
Leftover chicken
2 pints fire roasted tomatoes (you can substitute oven roasted or canned tomatoes)
Salt to taste

Soften carrots, fennel, onion, and garlic in olive oil.

Add chicken broth, rice, and bay leaf; bring to a simmer, cover and cook until rice is tender. Add leftover chicken and tomatoes and their juices to the soup.  Salt to taste. Bring soup up to temperature and serve.

I have no clue why this recipe is called jackstraw.  It’s what I always heard it called while I was growing up.  Jackstraw is actually an old-fashioned name for a game of pick-up-sticks.  My mom never made this enough to please me when I was a kid, and I would always angle to be the one who got the last piece.

Another piece of trivia from my childhood is that I was a voracious reader, and read every kind of mythology I could get my hands on.   I can’t look at eggplant (also known as aubergine) without remembering the Turkish myth about a famous Turkish dish called Imam Bayildi.  It goes like this:

“A long time ago there lived a Turkish imam, well known for his appetite and love of good food. One day he surprised his friends by announcing his engagement to the beautiful young daughter of a rich olive oil merchant.  Part of her dowry was a consignment of the very finest olive oil. The wealthy merchant gave the groom twelve great jars of the prized oil, each one as big as a man.

Following the wedding, the young daughter quickly revealed her talents as a Turkish cook and every day prepared a special dish for her new food-loving husband. Stuffed aubergine in olive oil was his absolute favorite, and so he asked his wife to make it for him every night as the centrepiece of his dinner. Being a good wife, she did as she was told, and made the delicious dish for twelve days in a row. On the thirteenth day, however, when the imam sat down to dinner, his favourite aubergine dish was starkly absent. The imam demanded to know the reason for its disappearance. The bride replied, “My dear husband, I cannot make your favourite dish anymore, for we have no more olive oil. You will have to buy some more.” The lmam was so shocked by the news that he fainted. And so ever since that day, his favorite dish has become known as ‘Imam Bayildi’,(the imam fainted).”

I’ve had a bumper crop of these beautiful Italian heirloom eggplant this year.

If you’ve ever cooked eggplant, you know how much oil it will soak up during cooking. If you make the following recipe, be sure your oil is well heated before you add the eggplant, and it won’t absorb quite as much oil.

Jackstraw Eggplant
Eggplant
Flour
Egg
Panko Crumbs
Oil for frying

Peel eggplant and cut into 1/4″ slices.  First flour the slices.

Then give the slices an egg bath.

Finally, coat the slices in Panko crumbs.  My mom always used corn flake crumbs, but once I discovered Panko a few years ago, they became my preference.  Nothing crisps up quite like Panko crumbs.

I like to have all my eggplant coated and on my cutting board before I begin frying.

Heat oil over medium high heat. Fry a few slices at a time.  You’ll get the best crispy results if you don’t crowd the pan. OK, a little bunny trail about oil.  I use lard, but feel free to use olive oil.  I won’t go into a lengthy explanation of my views on oils and saturated fats, but I will tell you that I eat real fats.  Real raw butter from cows raised on grass, real lard from pigs allowed to roam pasture. Real beef fat from cows raised on grass, not grain.  Real chicken fat from happy, roaming chickens.  You get the picture.  I wouldn’t touch those highly processed tubs of lard they sell in the grocery store with a 10 foot pole. Back to business.

Once the eggplant is browned on both sides and tender, place on draining rack or paper towels.  I like to eat my Jackstraw eggplant sprinkled with a little salt and Parmesan cheese, and served with a simple salad of fresh garden tomatoes with a little basil, salt, and pepper.  I’m ashamed to say I ate two whole medium sized eggplants for dinner this evening. See what happens, Mom, for not feeding me enough eggplant when I was a kid.

The heat of this past week prompted me to try a frozen treat a little more grown up than popsicles, although I’m not knocking popcicles.  I wanted something simple, and I wanted to use up the watermelon taking precious space in my refrigerator.  I was thinking this could also become a more family friendly Watermelon Limeade Granita by omitting the alcohol, and increasing the amount of lime juice and sugar. Don’t be surprised if I give you more granita possibilities before the summer is out. I’m on a granita roll, playing around with different flavors.  I also made an amazing espresso granita that’s my favorite so far.

Puree your watermelon flesh by throwing it into a food processor, or whiz it with an immersion blender.

Watermelon Margarita Granita
2 1/2 cups  watermelon puree
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 cup simple syrup (1 part sugar to 1 part water)
1/2 cup tequila

Combine ingredients in a shallow baking dish and place in the freezer. When slushy  ice begins to form around the edges (20 to 30 minutes), use a fork to rake the ice back into the mixture. Repeat this every 20 to 30 minutes until the mixture is completely frozen and granular.

Serve in dishes that have been pre-chilled in the freezer, and garnish with a small watermelon wedge.