As many of you know, I grew up in Mexico and my culinary curiosity, at a young age, was fed on the most part by my Nanny and my Dad. My Nanny cooked the traditional Mexican fare every day and oftentimes you’d find me right there beside her in the kitchen, taking it all in. My dad, on the other hand, was the foodie of the house, and he would spend some of his free time on Sundays reading his favourite food magazine: the now defunct Condé Nast Gourmet. With every new issue, he would find inspiration to make whatever he craved (now you know where I got that from!). My Dad only cooked when Nanny was off, so on Sundays I would watch him make his favourite food, as he explained to my young self what he was doing. Dad created many amazing meals and I hold beautiful memories of those days with him in the kitchen.
When I left home - and Mexico, I just had to get my own subscription to Gourmet! Not only did it make me feel close to my Dad, but I learned a lot from it: I learned to read about food and later on to talk about food, and it also influenced me on how to write recipes so they would be understandable and achievable for the home cook. As you may imagine, I was very sad when Gourmet shut down, but I still have many of my favourite issues in my library!
Eleven years after I left Mexico (and at the very beginning of my career in food) Gourmet published my first recipe: Agua de Semilla de Melón. It was one of my proudest moments, and the first thing that came to my mind was: "look Dad! Gourmet published one of my recipes!” In fact, when I told him, he immediately went out to buy his own issue (those days, you could not buy a subscription in Mexico, you had to buy magazines on the newsstands) and he didn’t waste any time telling all his friends about it.
Twenty four years later, I am still at it and enjoying every minute of this creative process. My life and profession revolves around food and I would not have it any other way. Food is so linked to culture and it creates those special moments with the ones we love. I don’t think I will ever get tired of sharing my humble knowledge and passing it on to others.
So in memory of that very first publication, I share with you these recipes: Agua de Melón, two ways. The first one is what Gourmet published, it is made with the seeds of the cantaloupe (us Mexicans are frugal people and we don’t like to waste anything!), and the second one is made with the flesh. Whenever I make Agua de Melón, the seed drink (called horchata) is my own particular treat, as it only makes 2-3 cups of this light cantaloupe water. The second one is a full flavoured, beautifully coloured and refreshing drink.
Agua de Melón can be made with cantaloupe or any melon you may have on hand, and it can be spiked with rum, tequila or vodka, if you are so inclined. Either way, I hope you make it part of your Aguas Frescas repertoire!
Horchata de Melón
Cantaloupe Seed Agua Fresca
Seeds from one large cantaloupe
2 cups water
Sweetener of choice to taste
Scrape seeds and soft membrane off a large cantaloupe into blender jar. Add 2 cups water.
Process for a full minute on high speed. If your blender is not too powerful, you may have to process a bit longer.
Pour through a fine sieve into a small pitcher. You can add up to one more cup of water if you want a lighter tasting drink.
Sweeten to taste. Refrigerate to chill or serve over ice.
Makes 2-3 cups
AGUA DE MELÓN
Melon Agua Fresca
4 cups fresh melon chunks (such as cantaloupe, honeydew melon, watermelon) peeled, and seeded
1 1/2 cups water
Sweetener of choice, or to taste
2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice, or more to taste
Place fruit and water in blender jar. Blend until smooth and pour into large pitcher.
Add more water to make 2 litres. Add sweetener and lime juice to taste.
Refrigerate to chill or serve over ice.
* You can add extra flavorings (mint to honeydew, orange juice to cantaloupe, and blended raspberries to watermelon) if you like.
Makes about 2 litres.