Cool and minty

 

I may have surpassed myself this time, I was weeding and had to cut back some mint that was taking over. It smelt so good I was determined not to waste it so I stuck it in a jug of water until later. This morning I googled mint sorbets and  found www.crumbsonthetable.co.uk a wonderful foodie read.

I have pretty much followed her recipe but of course changed it a little bit. 

40 gms of mint leaves 300gm sugar 300 mls boiling water. I stirred it vigorously to bruise the  mint and to release the flavour, let it steep, and let it cool. When it had reached room temperature, I added half a cucumber whizzed up with a pinch of salt  and 200mls of water  and about 2 tablespoons of  a spanish apple liquor.  The mixture needed to be strained as bits of mint aren't very appetising, rather dark khaki green is fine in a mint sauce but not in my pretty sorbets. I added ice cubes to bring it up to 1litre.  The resulting liquid is a delicate pale green courtesy of the cucumber I think. The taste is amazing, I can't wait to try it once it's frozen.

 More Strawberries

Here you can see how small my strawberry plot is, only 20 plants surrounded by coriander and poppies. The fallen red petals from the poppies often confuse me but picking strawberries means careful searching deep under the leaves. I found another 750gms of strawberries today.  

This time I decided to make a boozy strawberry and rubarb sorbet. I used two sticks of rubarb from the garden and sliced it thinly into a pan with half a cup of water an inch of fresh ginger sliced finely, 2 slices of candied orange, 700 grams of hulled strawberries and about 200gms of sugar and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. I cooked it all together for about 5 minutes until the rubarb was very soft and puréed it.  It has to cool down in the fridge but I am planning to adda. large slug of rubarb and ginger gin. Adding alcohol helps prevent large ice crystals forming as well as being delicious. I want this sorbet to have quite a kick to it.

I churned it in the ice cream maker and it made a wonderfully strong and spicy but creamy sorbet The ginger and black pepper bring a wonderful heat which contrasts well with the sweet fruit.  I can't wait to serve it up as a delicious interval for the adults during  a long relaxed sunday afternoon lunch with friends and family.I. 

 2024 and the return to sorbet making and blogging.

It has been very wet and not particularly warm this year but after last years drought I think my garden is grateful and doing its best.

The strawberries have been prolific, nearly a kilo a day which is impressive for just 20 plants. We ate a lot and gave some away but now it is time for some serious sorbet making. 

The first bowl full of strawberries had to be halved and hulled, then I added white sugar, black pepper and about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. and a bit of star anise. The proportions for fruit sorbet are about 4:1 according to icecreamnation.org. A super site for technical information and delicious recipe ideas.  I had 700gms of fruit  so I used about 175 gms of sugar. I let it all macerate for several hours and then whizzed it into a purée. Because I didn't cook up the fruit or a sugar syrup it was all quite cool. I let it sit in the fridge while I made some sugar syrup and  macerated a bowl of scented rose petals. (Coming shortly.)

The next step was to prepare some containers for the finished sorbets I have some plastic pots with lids but I also decided to try some paper /cardboard coffee cups  which would be perfect for individual servings. When everything was ready I poured my fruit purée into the ice-cream maker, added half glass of rosé and left it to churn. I felt fairly confident but also apprehensive as I hadnt made a sorbet since 2022.

A few days later we had to try out the coffee cup moulds. I remembered buying Kulfi in India from a street vendor and how he had briskly rolled the paper cone between the palms of his hands before peeling it away, so I rolled the little cardboard cups in my hands, feeling very streetwise, while my husband looked on in anticipation and sure enough a beautiful little strawberry pink cone of sorbet popped out into his waiting bowl. It worked!