What you do when your year turns out to be a lemon?
As 2020 turned out to be a proverbial lemon, I decided as the saying goes to make the most of it. Refreshing as an addition to your summer lemonade or as an ‘amuse bouche’ but I like it on its own as a light dessert after a meal, cleans and refreshes the palette. This dessert has no enemies and as I have a picky lot to entertain is broad and inclusive as it contains no, nuts, dairy etc.
Ingredients
- 225g caster sugar
- 6 unwaxed lemons
Method
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to the caster sugar add 250ml water and bring to the boil keep boiling for a couple of minutes and then remove from heat. Ensure when combining to stir to ensure you dissolve the sugar and get no big lumps. Voila, you have sugar syrup. Add the zest of 3 lemons to this and 250ml of lemon juice stir and leave to cool for a couple of hours.
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Alternatively pour the mixture into a freezer friendly box, close with lid tight and freeze for 1 hour. Remove from the freezer and whisk the half-frozen sorbet to break up the ice crystals, and return to the freezer for a further 40 minutes. Continue whisking the sorbet mixture every 40 minutes, until it has completely frozen. Scoop the frozen sorbet into a food processor and blitz for seconds until smooth and then return to the freezer until frozen again.
This method is my preferred because I do not use buy an ice cream machine, by all means cheat, see if I care! Truthfully, I do not subscribe to buying lots of equipment that stay in my cupboard to be used once a year. I know that an Ice Cream machine would take up valuable real estate in my kitchen cupboard and gather dust, and besides I already have a food processor.
Serve
I like to serve in a hollowed out lemon skins and with a sprig of mint from my garden. Nature’s own disposable cups, less cleaning for me yeah! I promise this is a great treat and my partner often uses the sorbet in our margaritas in the evening…. all right in the afternoon, don’t judge!