Mini Minga Melon Sorbet | The Pirates of Dark Water

          "The Pirates of Dark Water" is an ♪awesome♫ Hanna-Barbera production that began in 1991 and ran 21 episodes (incomplete. Bah!). This show was one of my childhood favs and I wish upon wish that it'd be rebooted, or better yet, made into an well-done live-action movie. It'd be perfect; you've got pirates, a world-saving quest, great villains, great main characters (with an awesome female character), a talking animal sidekick for hijinks, and did I say pirates? Like, a planet of them? Yeah. Someone please get on this. Check out the opening for the show below (this theme song has been stuck in my head for over 20 years!).

          Looking back on PoDW with the mindset of food, there's one character in particular who's all about it. Niddler is a monkeybird (a spider monkey/parrot hybrid) who was a slave and then becomes close friends–and free–with the main character of the show, Prince Ren, after saving his life. He loves all the foods but his all-time favorite is a fruit called minga melon that often looked like a watermelon on the outside but sometimes looked like a light green bell pepper squash thing–but always green–and then orange to red-ish on the inside. Man, Niddler can put down some minga-melons.

Niddler: Find any minga-melons?

Ioz: Get lost, monkeybird, before I shave your feathers.

–"The Ghost Pirates", "The Pirates of Dark Water" S.1, Ep.15

Note: The recipe below is for small minga-like-melons good for several individual servings, but you can totally make a big minga melon for an awesome par-tay or something by hollowing out a small-medium watermelon and filling that with the sorbet below. You'll need to triple or dipple the recipe, of course.

Niddler's Mini Minga Melon Sorbet

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Ingredients:
6 Limes
1 Mango, peeled & chopped (= ~1 Cup)
1/2 Cup Fresh Sweet Cherries, pitted
1 Yellow Nectarine, chopped (= ~1 Cup)
1/4 Cup Plain Yogurt (I used Greek)
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 tsp. Lime Juice

Important Items:
Blender or Food Processor
Mesh Strainer
Ice Cream Maker (optional, but oh so efficient!)
Mini Muffin Tin or Empty Egg Carton

Directions:

Combine the mango, nectarine, & cherries in a blender or food processor & blend until smooth. Scoop the mixture into a mesh strainer set over a medium bowl & stir the mixture with a spoon until all of the liquid escapes into the bowl below & you're left with a pulpy mess in the strainer.

Wash out the blender/processor & pour the fruit puree/liquid back in, adding the yogurt & sugar.
Cut the top 1/3 off of one of the limes & squeeze about 1 tsp. worth of lime juice into the blender. Set the lime aside for later. Blend the mixture until everything is combined & creamy smooth. Give it a taste test & blend in more sugar or lime juice if you'd like.

Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker & follow the ice cream mixer's directions for sorbet. If you don't have an ice cream maker pour the mixture into a shallow container & pop it in the freezer for an hour & then stir it all up & let it freeze again for an hour & then stir again. Repeat this process until your mixture comes to a sorbet-like consistency. After your mixture becomes sorbet, whether you used an ice cream maker or stirred it by hand, put it into an airtight container & keep it in the freezer.

While your sorbet is in the process of becoming sorbet, use a pairing knife to cut the top 1/3s off of all of the limes. Cut the bottom nubs off so the limes can stand upright, being careful that you don't cut into the "meat" of the lime, only into the rind & expose some of the white pith (no holes, okay?).

Take one lime "cap" at a time in one hand & using the thumb of your other hand dig into the pith to get in between the skin/rind & the "meat"/pulp. Move your thumb all around until you've separated the innards from the outards (see image above). Put the pulp in a bowl.

Using your paring knife, work on the other part of the limes, the "body" or larger portions, by cutting into the pith between the rind & the pulp, angling the point of the knife inward so that you don't puncture the skin. Twist out the pulp & add it to the bowl. Now use your thumb like you did before to get in between the skin & the "meat" & pull them apart to reveal a smooth inside.

Clean out all of the lime tops & bottoms like this. Rinse them off & pat them dry with paper towels. Sit the limes upright in the muffin tin or egg carton, keeping the parts separate but being able to match up which tops go with which bottoms. Place them in the freezer until you're ready to fill them. Squeeze the lime pulp for juice & save it for something else.

Once your sorbet is ready pull it out of the freezer along with the lime cups. Fill each lime with sorbet & top with the lime caps. Serve immediately or place back in the freezer for later. Noy Jitat! Enjoy! (Well, I'm using that as a positive expletive contrary to how Ioz often used it in the show...oh well!)