Luscious fresh fruit - that's what summer means to me. Some people like summer for the beach or the pool; I prefer peaches and shade trees. This summer I've exploring new ways to keep enjoying some of my favorite fruits. After one incredible tasting batch of hopelessly runny strawberry preserves I tried making strawberry sorbet. Oh my, oh sweet strawberry nectar! It was eating a creamy, cool essence of strawberry, not at all what I expected a fancy sounding thing like sorbet to taste like.
Sorbet is not a dessert that I've spent time exploring before. If there is good chocolate or a baked good around, no other dessert gets a chance. Since getting a ice cream maker a few years ago, it has been in my mind to try sorbet and now I wish I had tried it sooner. The ingredients are simple - pureed fruit, water and sugar boiled to syrup and a bit of either lemon or lime juice. You can add a little liqueur at the end of churning to give the sorbet a kick. Peeling, coring or pitting the fruit can be time consuming, as can putting the fruit puree through a sieve to remove seeds, but the result is worth the trouble. You need to use the best fruit for the best flavor. The first batch of strawberry sorbet didn't even last a week and I had to make more but my second batch did not have as full a strawberry flavor - neither did the strawberries. Next batch was a delightful and decadent white peach sorbet, pictured above.
Last week I tried a plum sorbet using some Japanese red plums. The batch was too small but really had a lovely full plum flavor that has made me think of a William Carlos Williams poem ever since.
This is Just to Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
