Every year Joe and I host a holiday party — the party where I serve the trifle. We serve a great many savory and sweet items, and our guests bring a numbing number of additional dishes. Though some dishes, like the trifle, have become traditions that I dare not break or face the wrath of our guests, I try to rotate at least one or two dishes each year.
Several years back I got the idea of looking for recipes in that most mundane of American cookbooks: the Betty Crocker Cookbook. It's one of those cookbooks that have a lot of basic recipes but also feature monstrosities out of some parallel universe that I wouldn't feed to my cats. This year's selection was "Melon Balls in Wine."
Knowing that the wine could make all the difference, I headed to Everyday Wines in Kerrytown and asked for a recommendation. The owner gave me a puzzled look. Cantaloupe marinated in dry red wine? She hadn't heard of such a thing. I began to worry. What if I picked one of those "monstrosities", you know, like a "Cabbage Mold", that no one in their right mind would serve at a party lest they face ridicule all the days of their lives. But after only a pause, she decisively picked a wine and said, "This wine loves food." Oh, and would I be so kind as to tell her how it turns out?
How did it turn out? Just before putting it out on the buffet, my mother-in-law and I tasted the melons and wine decided that maybe we'd keep it for ourselves. The wine was scrumptous all by itself, sweet and tinted with a lovely canteloupe flavor. But being unselfish people, we set it out. In the morning Joe informs me that his parents took some of the melon balls and wine home with them. "Did they leave any for us?" was the first thing out of my mouth.
Melon Balls in Wine
Per 2 cups of cantaloupe balls, add:
3 Tbs sugar
1/2 cup dry red wine
Sprinkle cantaloupe with sugar, pour wine over the cantaloupe, and stir gently. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour.
And the wine they recommended, that worked so well?
A secret? Or might you share?
Posted by: jenn | January 31, 2005 at 06:43 PM
Duh. Photo, Jenn.
Village idiot, right here!
Posted by: jenn | January 31, 2005 at 06:43 PM
Those Cantaloupe Balls taste terrific. thanks for sharing the recipe.
Posted by: wine australia | October 25, 2011 at 02:58 AM