Since the gods are being all sorts of unkind with the sun, what with the blazing rays and scorching heat, it’s only natural to pour in copious amounts of coolants into your body, without skimping on the sugar.
This is where sorbets come into existence. Like feathery ice, kissing the insides of your mouth ever so daintily, melting softly on your tongue; sending shivers of exquisite chill to your temples. The flavours are so delicate that you’re forced to down a few dozen scoopfuls, before you realize you’re a being surreptitiously iced. Lighter than air, frozen sweets, they are like the elegant cousins to boisterous ice creams and much too easy to make.
Easier still if you have an ice cream/sorbet machine/maker, because making these sans modern contraptions takes away the chill factor from the sorbets, and you’re left churning semi frozen liquid every hour of the day, and we are not here for that. NO!
It’s about making life comfortable sometimes, and summers aren’t for survival of the self righteous. Summers are to chill, and that’s exactly what this sorbet is about. Accentuated with cool vibes of mint and earthy tones of tea, this is easier than going out to buy a frozen ice treat.
I didn’t lay out ingredients this time, because this is much too easy. This is the beginning of a simple syrup. Sugar + water that you bring to a boil till all sugar is dissolved.
like so. It’s hot, really hot so don’t go around poking your fingers in.
throw in a pinch of salt.
and fistfuls of mint, and a tea bag.
cover and let it steep for half an hour
fish out the tea bag and add in some lemon juice. Let it cool completely and transfer to a fridge for a few hours or overnight. The flavours mingle and intensify in the syrup.
I let mine stay in the fridge overnight and the next day the mint leaves were weepy and the liquid was a fabulous murky brown.
sieve into a clean bowl
bring out the heavy machinery and we are en route to making joy
turn on the machine, pour in the minty tea syrup (as per your machine instructions)
a few seconds in and you can see the early beginnings of snow
churning into polar beginnings of your personal sorbet
twelve minutes in, and the syrup was a sweet scrunched ice berg
the glacial quality of this bowl was an indication enough to stop. Took about fifteen minutes.
This sorbet right here, in its most sherbet form is good enough to eat, but not quite frozen to the point you could scoop.
transfer to a freezer safe container for a firmer consistency and freeze for a few hours. I let mine gestate for about four hours.
scoop and serve.
Ingredients
Water: 800 mls (3 cups)
Sugar: 350 g (1.1/5 cup)
Mint leaves : 1 cup
lemon juice: 90mls (5 tbsp)
1 tea bag
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Recipe
Prepare a simple syrup with water and sugar by dissolving them in a sauce pan over medium heat until sugar has dissolved into the water.
To the syrup add in mint leaves and tea bag. Cover and let steep for half an hour.
Discard the tea bag and add lemon juice into the mixture. Once its completely cooled, transfer to a fridge for a few hours or overnight.
Strain the now chilled mixture and pour into ice cream maker according to machine to instructions.
Transfer sorbet into a freezer safe container for firmer consistency.
enjoy!
Driedredchillies 