Cherries & melon in lemon thyme syrup

Step by Step

Step 1

Put the sugar into a medium saucepan with the wine, lemon zest, ½ the lemon juice, thyme and 100ml water. Bring to the boil, stirring to help the sugar dissolve, then boil for 8 minutes. The syrup will thicken as it cools.

Step 2

Taste the syrup – you should detect the thyme but it shouldn’t be overwhelming. If not strong enough, add more leaves and let it infuse the syrup as it cools. Taste again and add more lemon juice to lift the flavour if needed.

Step 3

Put the cherries into a serving bowl and strain the syrup over the top. Leave for a couple of hours, then add the melon (it gets tired and flabby if it’s in the syrup for too long). Toss in a few fresh sprigs of the reserved lemon thyme, then serve with pistachio or vanilla ice cream (if making your own, almond or ginger flavours would also work well).