Melon N' Cream Fresca Salad / Melon Agua Fresca

It's been scorching hot the past few days, and what better way to the pallate, a luscious CANTALOUPE MELON  dessert!  A borrowed recipe from a family friend and amped up the ingridients just a little bit for a little bit of umph!  Though preparation for some of it's ingredients maybe a bit time consuming, putting it all together is a cinch!  Juice extracted from the melon maybe set aside and made into a refreshing drink!

Ingredients: 
- 2 ripe cantaloupe melons (the more fragrant the better = the sweeter!)
- 1 bag of small tapioca (red/pink)  - 2 cans of Nestle table cream or heavy whipping cream
- 1 small can of condensed milk  - 2 boxes of UNFLAVORED gelatin powder (red)
- 1 can almond jelly
- 1 jar pineapple jelly (Nata de Pina) or coconut jelly (Nata de Coco)

Nata de Coco (Coconut jelly)

Nata de Pinya (Pineapple Jelly)

Preparation and Instructions:  (Prepare the gelatin and tapioca ingredients first before the rest of the other ingridients. 

-Gelatin: Dissolve 2 boxes of gelatin powder into 4 cups of water in a pan on low heat.  Stir until gelatin powder is dissolved and thickens.  Once gelatin mixture comes to a slight simmer, pour into a large glass bakin pan and refrigerate until gelatin hardens. 

-Tapioca:

 In a large pan,  bring 5-7 cups of water to a boil and add tapioca into boiling water.  Important:  continually stir until tapioca cooks, expands and is transluscent.  Remove from heat and place tapioca into a strainer to remove excess water.  Place in a bowl and refrigerate until tapioca cools and slightly hardens.

- In a separate large bowl, cut cantaloupes into quarters and grate.  Tip:  Do not grate until the white of the cantaloupe's skin to avoid bitterness when cantaloupe mixes with cream.  Pour grated cantaloupe into a strainer to filter out juice.  Save and set juice aside for(another yummu recipe!)
- Remove and strain pineapple jelly from syrup.  Do the same for the almond jelly, and cut into cubes.  (Set half a cup aside for the cantaloupe juice)
-Add jellies into bowl of grated cantaloupe.  Remove unflavored, red jello from cooling, cut into small squares, and add into bowl.  Add cooled tapioca also into the bowl.

unflavored red gelatin, pineapple jelly, grated cantaloupe, almond jelly

- Stir until are ingredients are mixed well.

- Add cream and condensed milk and mix well.  Refrigerate for 2-3 hours for best results.  Best served when chilled.

SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE JUICE, YOU ASK...?

MELON AGUA FRESCA

 Add water to dillute, ice, sugar, almond jelly, and a bit of grated melon for garnish.  Chill...serve...and VIOLA!