Continuing on the theme of grossly out of season recipes.Whilst out shopping a few days ago we acquired 2 punnets of organic strawberries, down from £2.99 each to 49p each. Perfect condition, just in need of eating quickly.
Recipes on line for mint-strawberry sorbet seem to involve mincing/shredding/blending the mint, which can surely only cause little specks that get stuck in your teeth like a bad mojito. The real taste of mint is in the oil, so I experimented with using muddled mint in syrup and discarding the leaves.
The result was pretty damned amazing; it's one of the nicest sorbets I've ever had either in a tub from a shop or in a restaurant. I'm guessing that part of the reason for this is the cost; I didn't use extra water or juice to bulk it out.
It's definitely a strawberry sorbet rather a mint sorbet, however the flavour totally comes through. The sugar and the lemon really lift the taste, but there's only a small amount of sugar added - it's a reasonably healthy recipe.
Ingredients:
- 400g Hulled Strawberries
- 18g Fresh Mint Leaves
- Juice of Half a Lemon
- 2 shots Simple Syrup
Wash the mint and tear off leaves. Muddle with 1 shot simple syrup. Pour some of the strawberry purée in, combine then add back to the rest of the strawberry. Force the mixture through a sieve to remove the mint, which should then be discarded.
Whisk in another shot of simple syrup and the juice of half a lemon. Transfer to a freezable container and place in freezer for 15 minutes. Take out and whisk briefly then place back. For the next 2-3 hours repeat this process of whisking every 15-25 minutes, to ensure that no large ice crystals form.
Before serving (if your freezer has turned it very hard); remove from the freezer and allow to sit for a few minutes before scooping.
Goodness me. I want this very much! My sorbet always goes much too ice-crystally and not smooth at all...