Buy very ripe melons with a sweet fragrance that you can smell from a distance.

Ingredients

　　2 medium melons

　　Juice of 1 lemon

　　3/4 cup sugar, or to taste

　　1/2–1 tablespoon orange-blossom water, to taste

　　Cut open the melons. Peel and remove the seeds. Cut the flesh into pieces and blend in the food processor—with the lemon juice, sugar, and orange-blossom water—to a liquid pulp. You should have about 6 cups. The amount of sugar depends on how sweet the melons are. Continue following the “basic method” (page 423).

　　The New Book of Middle Eastern Food Copyright © 2000Knopf