Lemon and Basil Sorbet

Are you a fan of Italian ices?  When I lived in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, they called them water ices. Joe has been buying a lot of the lemon Italian ices from the supermarket, and I wondered about making something similar.  After two rounds of homemade ice cream recently, it sounded like a lighter and more refreshing option.  And not in that bland diet way.  These are wonderfully cold and lemony and won't weigh you down.

But I didn't want to do a plain lemon sorbet, and I remembered Kiersten from Oh My Veggies blogged a Meyer Lemon and Basil Sorbet a while back.  Alas, meyer lemons were in season when she blogged them in February but they aren't now, and I've never seen a meyer lemon sold around here.  But the sorbet still turned out awesome with ordinary lemons.  I was afraid when making the simple syrup that it smelled too strongly of basil, but when tasting the sorbet it truly was the perfect amount of the herb.  It doesn't overpower the lemon at all but enhances it, and while the basil definitely has a presence I wonder if others could guess what it is.

And Joe?  He went nuts for the sorbet.  It costs just a little more to make the homemade sorbet rather than buying the Italian ices -- luckily I plucked all the basil off my front porch -- but the sorbet was way better.  I can't say I'll be replacing his Italian ice fix with homemade sorbet a few times a week, but it will make an appearance a few more times this summer.

Click here to visit Oh My Veggies for the recipe.

Update: This post made the Foodbuzz Top 9.  Thanks for all the buzz!

Lychee Sorbet

I may not have been crazy about my last few frozen dessert recipes, but I love this one!  It seems like lychee has become a trendy flavor over the past few years.  I've been eating lychees since childhood, but I've never had Lychee Sorbet.  It has all the wonderful flavor of the fruit in a slushy kind of texture.

The recipe calls for canned lychees and makes use of the syrup they're packed in.  The fresh fruit (in back) has a rough, thick skin you peel away with your fingers, and the juicy, white fruit has a pit inside.  I once offered a very similar fruit, the longan, to some friends in college, who found the texture too weird and said it was like an eyeball.  Which is funny, because the Mandarin long yan directly translates as "dragon's eye";  (the Mandarin for lychee is li zhi).

The sorbet is a cinch to whip up.  I'll be cooling off again with it on some hot summer days.

Tastes Like Summer: Mango Sorbet

I make this every summer.  I know summer's not quite here yet, but it sure feels like it.  Sorbets are easier to make than ice creams (no tempering!) and also usually fat free, since they lack cream.  This sorbet has only four ingredients: mangoes, sugar, water, and lime juice.  Cool off after a scorcher with this one.

To cube a mango, run your knife along the pit to make two halves.  Then make crisscross cuts on each half, turn them inside-out, and remove the fruit.  Cut the remaining fruit along the stone as best you can.  Puree it in a food processor, and add the sugar-water and lime juice.  I love this ice cream machine.  It's big and heavy, since it's got a built-in compressor, which means no advance chilling of bowls necessary.

Lick the beater, anyone?  I made a double batch and put it through the machine in two runs.  The finished product is ready to eat but should go in the freezer for another two hours.  I should note to the uninitiated that ice creams and sorbets are not an instant gratification thing.  You prepare all the ingredients, and that usually requires some level of cooking to dissolve the sugar and slightly cook any eggs in the recipe.  Then the mixture must chill in the refrigerator for at least a few hours, and overnight is better.  For a quick fix, 7-Eleven is still the way to go.

And those strawberries from my last post?  I was excited to find they're blushing a slight red and will soon be ready for the pickin'.