Two restaurants we've been to recently feature foam in their dishes: Binkley's and Per Se. Kevin Binkley came up through The French Laundry, so the link is not surprising. But at both restaurants (among our all-time favorites) Alison and I have enjoyed a variety of foams served as a delightful accompaniment to meat dishes. The foam is airy, superlight, and has a very concentrated flavor. A little touch of foam is different and exciting and fun. I stumbled upon this recipe by accident while making a cocktail, and we enjoyed it so much that we forgot about the drinks and sat down with utensils to eat spoonful after spoonful of this delicious spiked melon foam.
Ever since ordering an appetizer of "Surf and Turf" at Binkley's, which was wittily accompanied with a little foam to punch up the "surf" metonymy, I have been intrigued. I figured I lacked the knowledge to make foam (I did, er, do), and decided that even if it was a simple recipe, there must be some tool or technique that would keep something as dazzling, as spectacular, as de troupe as foam out of the home kitchen. But following my serendipitous encounter with an Emeril "cooler" recipe, it turns out to be fairly simple, fun to make, and an absolute knockout. You can use the foam in this recipe in place you might otherwise use whipped cream. Alison and I will use it on our raspberry fool, which recipe I'll record later. Perhaps we will call it a "Drunken Fool"...
Spiked Melon Foam
Ingredients
1/2 small round watermelon (2 cups)
1/2 cantaloupe (2 cups)
1/2 honeydew (1 cup)
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup vodka
Cube the melons and place in a freezer bag for 1.5 hours.
Put the frozen melon cubes, honey, and vodka in a blender. Blend on high speed for a couple of minutes. You want to pulverize the stuff.
Place a sieve atop a bowl or other container (we used a Pyrex measuring glass) and pour the blended mixture through the sieve. It will drip slowly from the sieve; the process will take several minutes.
The foam will gather in the sieve. Scoop it out with a regular spoon for desert topping. Drink what ends up in the container.
Serves 6-8.
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