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Friends came over last night for dinner. Monica had made a pork roast with some albondigon, and we roasted potatoes, cauliflower, and the very last of the parsnips. All simple and delicious.
But I have a rhubarb patch that I don't know what to do with, so the experiment of the evening was making sorbet. I copied down this recipe from The Year in Food blog:
3 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 cup water 1/2 cup sugar 1-2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced (adjust according to taste) 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons gin or vodka 1/4 teaspoon sea salt |
I tried this one because it was light on the sugar and didn't call for corn syrup, using vodka instead for a similar effect. You simply simmer the ingredients for 10 minutes or so, until the rhubarb is soft, run it through a blender, chill it, and then put it in your ice cream maker.
For that we'd bought a Play and Freeze, a device built on the idea that it's more fun to play with a ball than turn a crank. We got the bigger, quart-sized one, so I had to double the recipe above (which makes a pint). The ball filled with the puree and ice and rock salt weighs nearly ten pounds -- so throwing it around is a bit like playing catch with a bowling ball. (I think next time we'll set up some water bottles in the yard and use it exactly in that way.) Fortunately we had a couple of 14-year olds who were good sports.
After half an hour we had our sorbet, very gingery, with the rhubarb somewhat in the background. It wasn't as red as the picture on the blog - more like a rosy, peach color. If you like your sorbets in that gourmet, palate-cleansing mode, this is really nice. (If you like your sorbet to taste like ground up popsicles, then there are recipes that will use a lot more sugar.) But I'm going to cut the ginger in half the next time I make it.
We served it out, and I put the remainder into the freezer. Monica's already planning the next one: Mango!
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