Sunday, March 10, 2013

Meyer Lemon Sherbet

In Australia, sherbet is (correct me if I'm wrong) a fizzy powdered candy which I have never tried. In America, sherbet is pronounced like "sherbert" and means a fruity sorbet-style ice cream with a bit of milk in it. It's sort of halfway between ice cream and sorbet. Why it was given the name "sherbe[r]t" is beyond me.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine gave us a big bag of Meyer lemons from her tree. We used them to make lemon & sage burgers, added them to dal, and they appeared in other dishes, too, but we still had a bunch left to use. Andy suggested that we make sorbet. I decided to make it a sherbet, because hey, why not?

I googled some recipes, and then just ended up making my own recipe up as I went, tasting and making sense of things along the way. The end result was really extraordinarily delicious, if I can say that without sounding arrogant - tangy, sweet-tart, creamy, zesty, and refreshing.

Meyer Lemon Sherbet

4 meyer lemons (meyer are sweeter than other lemon varieties; if you don't have these, you may need to add more sugar to taste)
1 c. sugar
400 ml coconut cream
100 ml water
2 Tbsp. corn flour
2 Tbsp. water
1/4 tsp. tumeric (optional)

Carefully zest the lemons, avoiding the white pith. If you have a fancy zester, lucky you! Skip to the next step. If, like me, you use a peeler to get the zest, chop it up as finely as you can get it. Juice the lemons. I had 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice. If your lemons are smaller, maybe use another one, or else try it with less and see if you like the taste. You can always add more later.

In a saucepan, combine the coconut cream, 100ml of water, lemon zest and sugar. Heat over medium until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice. Bring it up to just bubbling, taste it and add more sugar if it is too tart for your liking. Mix the corn flour with 2 Tbsp. of water and pour this into the sherbet mix. Stir it in very well, turn off the heat, and if you want your sherbet to be OMGSOYELLOW add some tumeric. Just a little bit won't make it taste like anything but lemons. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, and then chill it in the fridge until it is very cold.

Churn it in an ice cream maker until it has set. If you have no ice cream maker, try these instructions.

8 comments:

Claire said...

YUM! oh that looks so good... you're making me want an ice cream maker! Thanks for teaching me about sherbet- I've only ever known it as the sweet white powder.

Kari said...

What a gorgeous looking recipe! I love the half-way cross between sorbet and ice cream. You are spot on re. Australian sherbet too - it's also that way in the UK. I knew it was sorbet-like in the US but hadn't known quite the difference from sorbet, so thanks for that bit of information!

Hannah said...

The Australian sherbert almost makes me gag just thinking about it. It's like how I feel about pop rocks: I don't like it when food moves in my mouth of its own accord.

Lemon frozen sherbert, though? Gimme.

Joey said...

I really like the look of that - nice idea to put coconut milk in the sorbet. I love lemon sorbet, but something more like ice cream would be even better.

And yes, sherbert to me is a fizzy powder you eat with liquorice and if you cough while you do, it comes out your nose (alas, first hand experience as a kid).

Sherbert is a Turkish word apparently - used to be used to mean lemonade. (Or so Wikipedia tells me! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbet)

urban vegan said...

You got my attention at "lemon." I am a lemonholic. Seriously. Love the addition of coconut milk, too.

Millie said...

good job Theresa.

http://nuestracena-vegancuisine.blogspot.com

Claire said...

This sounds really good and refreshing!

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