How to Make Prosciutto Melon Granita

All Recipes

You’ve never had a granita like this before! In this video, Chef John of Food Wishes shows you how to make prosciutto melon granita, a crowd-pleasing frozen treat that's perfect for a hot summer day. He shares his step-by-step method for infusing the melon with prosciutto flavor and creating an icy, sweet-and-savory dessert.

Transcript

00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Prosciutto Melon Granita.

00:08That's right, I wanted to create a frozen dessert that tasted like prosciutto wrapped melon,

00:13which we can't do by simply sprinkling some prosciutto over the top.

00:17I mean, we'll do that too, but we're also going to infuse prosciutto flavor into the melon granita,

00:23and I thought the results were absolutely mind-blowing.

00:25And to get started, we'll come swinging in with some sliced prosciutto,

00:30and we'll transfer it into a dry pan set over medium heat.

00:34And while that comes up to temperature and starts to sizzle, we'll kind of separate it with our tongs,

00:39and we'll pull that apart into a nice even layer.

00:42And what we'll do is cook this until the fat starts to render out,

00:45and these pieces start to very lightly brown.

00:48But we do not want to go too far.

00:51So what we'll do once our prosciutto starts to look something like this,

00:54is pull out two-thirds of it and transfer that onto a plate.

00:58And that's the part we'll reserve and use when we make the melon granita.

01:02And then we'll leave a third of it in the pan, which we'll cook for another minute or so,

01:07just to render out some additional fat and brown it up a little more.

01:11Since, as you'll see, we'll use this portion to make the candied prosciutto bits for the top.

01:16So once it gets to this point, we'll turn off the heat,

01:20and we'll go ahead and transfer that onto a paper towel-lined plate.

01:23Oh, and you see that fat in the pan?

01:25Do not, under any circumstances, wipe that out.

01:28Right, just leave that on the stove as is.

01:31And what we'll do is let that cool down to room temp,

01:33and I'll show you later in the video how we're going to candy that

01:36to make an incredible topping for our finished granita.

01:40And to start that, we will take the melon of our choice,

01:43and we'll start scooping that into a bowl.

01:45And I decided to use honeydew, but as long as it's sweet and ripe,

01:49anything will work, so you pick.

01:52I mean, you are, after all, the Helen Mirren of melon procuring,

01:56but no matter which you use, we'll need to scoop out exactly two pounds into a bowl,

02:01which is why the bowl's on a scale.

02:03And once we have that weighed out, we will grab our blender,

02:05and we'll transfer in eight ounces, which is easy to get exact

02:10if you're watching the scale count down.

02:12And if you're just doing it by eye, take out about a quarter,

02:16and then what we'll do is transfer in the prosciutto we reserved earlier,

02:19right, the two-thirds of it that we took out of the pan first.

02:22And we'll also toss in a nice splash of cold, fresh water,

02:25and then we'll head to the blender and puree this on high speed

02:29to produce one of the worst-looking smoothies ever.

02:32And then what we'll do is transfer that into the pan we cooked our prosciutto.

02:37And we'll also rinse out the blender with about a quarter cup of water,

02:40and we will add that in as well.

02:43And then the last two ingredients will include a pinch of salt,

02:46followed by some white sugar, but not too much,

02:50because our melon's already sweet.

02:52And we will turn our heat on to medium-high,

02:54and we will bring this up to a simmer,

02:56at which point we'll lower our heat to medium-low,

02:59and we'll let this simmer for about 15 minutes,

03:02stirring occasionally,

03:03during which time this mixture is going to be infused with the prosciutto.

03:08And I know that is not very pleasant to look at,

03:10and completely unappetizing.

03:12But hang tight,

03:14because after simmering for about 15 minutes,

03:17somehow, someway,

03:18it even looks worse.

03:20I mean, if I ever produce a horror movie,

03:22that is going to be the color of the psycho's house.

03:25But anyway, once our mixture's cooked for 15 minutes,

03:28and it looks like this,

03:29we will pass that through a strainer into a bowl,

03:32since all we want is the liquid,

03:34and we'll discard any prosciutto sludge left behind.

03:38And then, very important,

03:40we will let this mixture sit and cool down to room temp,

03:43since I don't want to add fresh melon to this when it's hot,

03:45since that will affect the flavor.

03:47And that's it.

03:49Once that's cooled down,

03:50we'll take the rest of our melon,

03:52and we will liquefy that in our blender on high speed.

03:55And we'll go ahead and pour that in.

03:57And we'll give it a quick stir,

03:59and check out the color that's produced,

04:01which does not look like any melon I would want to eat.

04:05So I highly recommend we grab some gel-style green food coloring,

04:09and we whisk in a drop or two.

04:12And by the way, when you're going to color a granita,

04:14if you just put in a little bit like this,

04:16because you think that looks like melon,

04:18it's going to be way, way too light

04:20when we're finished with the forking step.

04:22So we actually need to add enough food coloring,

04:25so it's twice as dark as we want it to be in the final product.

04:29And once that's been mixed in,

04:30we'll transfer that into a casserole dish,

04:32or some other kind of similar container.

04:34And I know you're concerned,

04:37since this does look much more like Irish spring than summer melon.

04:42But you'll see what happens.

04:43It's going to be fine.

04:45And that's it.

04:45I went ahead and covered that,

04:47and popped it in the freezer for one hour,

04:49at which point I pulled it out,

04:51and I grabbed a fork.

04:53And what we'll do for this first forking,

04:55is just kind of push that slightly frozen stuff away from the edges,

04:58into the center.

05:00And we'll just break up those slushy bits,

05:02and stir everything together.

05:04Oh, and I should mention,

05:05you don't have to cover it.

05:07And all this will happen faster if it's not covered.

05:10Okay, I knew I couldn't get to it for about an hour,

05:12so I didn't want it to go too fast.

05:14And for the rest of the process,

05:15I'm not going to cover it until it gets where I want.

05:18And what we'll do is pop that back in for another 30 to 45 minutes.

05:22And then we'll repeat the exact same procedure.

05:25We'll take our fork and mix the frozen stuff from the outside,

05:28into the unfrozen slushy stuff in the middle.

05:31And each time we do this,

05:33it's going to become more frozen,

05:35and more granita-like.

05:37And after doing that like three or four times,

05:39we'll eventually end up with something that looks like this.

05:42Which is sort of like grainy wet snow.

05:45And once it does get to this point,

05:47since we're probably making this ahead of time,

05:49we can wrap it and pop it in the freezer

05:51until we're ready to serve.

05:53Which for me was the next day.

05:55And once we are finally ready to enjoy this,

05:58we'll give it the final forking.

06:00And exactly how fine or coarse a texture you achieve

06:03is going to be up to you.

06:05Okay, if you take your time and use a light touch,

06:08you'll get beautifully small crystals.

06:10Which personally is the texture I prefer.

06:13Oh, and I should mention,

06:14you could just skip all the previous forking,

06:17and just pour the mixture in and let it freeze solid.

06:19And then just scrape it once at this point.

06:22But having said that,

06:23I do think the texture is better

06:25if you give it those forkings while it freezes.

06:28And that's it.

06:29Once we're finally happy with how that's been forked,

06:31we'll go ahead and grab a spoon,

06:33since our prosciutto melon granita is ready to enjoy.

06:37And that, my friends, really was shockingly good.

06:40Right?

06:40This tastes exactly, and I mean exactly,

06:43like a really cold prosciutto-wrapped piece of melon,

06:47except we're enjoying those flavors

06:48and something that has the texture of a snow cone.

06:51I mean, it really was perfect.

06:54But it could be more perfect,

06:56since what we'll do to make a topping

06:57is chop up that reserved prosciutto

06:59and we'll toss it in a pan and set over medium heat

07:02and sprinkle over a teaspoon of sugar.

07:05And we will cook that stirring

07:07until the sugar disappears

07:08and those pieces of prosciutto start to turn a little bit shiny,

07:12which is from both the fat being warmed up

07:15and rendered out again,

07:16and also that sugar is melted and caramelized to the surface.

07:19And once it's looking like this,

07:22we'll turn off the heat

07:23and we'll grab a plate

07:25and we'll transfer it on and let it cool.

07:28And if everything's gone according to plan,

07:30about 10 or 15 minutes later,

07:32our candied prosciutto should sound like this.

07:41Oh yeah, you can hear how crispy those are going to be.

07:44And once that's set,

07:45we can proceed to serve this up properly.

07:47And while I wasn't kidding that this was perfect before,

07:51when you top it with these salty, sweet, crispy bits,

07:53it becomes even more perfect.

07:56And I cannot think of a better,

07:58more beautiful, more refreshing,

08:01late summer treat than this.

08:03Although it certainly doesn't have to be late summer,

08:06since you can buy honeydews all year round.

08:08But no matter when you make it,

08:10if you enjoy things that straddle that line

08:12between sweet and savory,

08:14and you're a fan of prosciutto wrapped melon,

08:16I really do think this is going to blow your mind as well,

08:20which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon.

08:23So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,

08:27a printable written recipe,

08:28and much more info as usual.

08:29And as always,

08:33enjoy!

08:46Thank you!

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended