For many a child, summers are synonymous with vacations. Vacations themselves mean playing endlessly n the heat and then quenching your thirst with a treat. Over ages in India this has often meant two things a satisfying sharbat –a rooh afza or a cool khus khus, or drooling over a kala khatta chuski. When we translate this to today’s age master chef kitchens we essentially come up with terms like a sorbet or a granite which are similar to these. The heat outside today prompts me to think of something cool and so our food journey today will be with a sorbet- a lemon sorbet in fact.
Sorbet is indeed often confused with sherbet or sharbat, and in all probability the name draws its reference from sharbat, which in turn is rooted in the Arabic word sharba meaning drink. Sharbat originally in its west and south Asian avatar of origin was a cool drink prepared from the essence of flower petals or fruits, and always served chilled. Through turkey the sharbat travelled into Italy and evolved into the Sorbetto and in France became the sorbet. Today the sorbet has evolved into being a dessert on its own made out of sweetened water with appropriate flavouring. This may or may not have alcohol on one hand, on the other it may or not be based of dairy products. For example in the US a sorbet and a sherbet are differentiated in this that sherbet has dairy content being a frozen dessert of dairy origin with fruit flavor and butterfat, while the sorbet doesn’t have the dairy content. A sorbet differentiates from an ice-cream on two aspects, the dairy content that is milk fat in it being more than 10% and the air that is whipped into it to make it fluffy. Thus a sorbet is often used as an alternate to ice cream for people wanting to avoid fat. The granite on the other hand is frozen in such a manner that the smooth texture of a sorbet is replaced by significantly larger crystals.
One of the most common sorbets is made using lemon peel and excellent to savour in the heat of summers. Our journey will thus be with orange sorbet to be used as a cool and refreshing dessert for the summer months. As in every journey packing is very important, in a food journey it is all about collecting the right ingredients. To make a portion of 2 serves we will need:
- Lemon peel-1
- Water -1 cup
- Sugar – ½ cup
- Lemon- 5-6 medium (to make about ½ cup juice)
- Aerated mineral water- ½ litre
- Lemon 1 large to make 6-7 strips of zest
While the cooking is easier if we have an ice cream churner, which also affords a better texture, we will do ours without one albeit in a more tedious manner.
To begin with we will use a juicer to make out about ½ cup worth of the juice from the medium lemons we have selected and set aside. We will then use the large lemon and peel it to use for the peel and part of it will be scraped to make 6 to 7 strips of the zest to be used as garnishing. A large slice may also be set aside to be used for garnishing. The peel is then diced thinly and set aside.
To begin in a sauce pan add 1 cup of water and the sugar. Add the diced lemon peels and while stirring bring the water to boil. Now lower the heat to a simmer and let the mix reduce over about 5 minutes. Now remove heat and cool this lemon syrup. In a pitcher now add this syrup along with the lemon juice set aside and using the aerated water stir till mixed evenly. If you have an ice cream maker it can be now frozen in it. For our purpose, we will now transfer the entire mix into a tall canister and freeze for 80 to 90 minutes. After the duration we will bring it out of the freezer and whisk it vigorously, and the let it reset for an hour. At the end of an hour we will again re- whisk the mix, repeating the process 4 or 5 times more over a 4 to 5 hour stretch till we have a nice smooth finished product. Now use a scoop to make a nice round scoop and transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with the lemon zest, a lemon peel or a lemon slice.
Desserts are always about happy endings to a great meal, and a dessert like a sorbet brings back the memories of childhood. So while making it remember my mom’s secret ingredient for making a fab dish a helping of love and a dash of smile. Smile thinking of the pleasures of a dessert, and stir in some love for whom you are making it.
Bon appétit.
