Spring is barely here and I’m already nostalgic about winter. I was on the phone with my aunt (who lives in my home state, Alabama – please no jokes about Alabama, especially if you’re from Mississippi). Anyway, we were talking about the warmer weather and how she is already missing her favorite winter fruit. Pomegranates. Which reminded of this interesting Turkish pomegranate/vodka sorbet recipe that I had recently come across.
Inspiration hits. So, I head to the grocery store…
When I got there I was surprised to see that there was not one pomegranate in sight. Convinced that the store had to have pomegranates somewhere (I mean, it’s one of those God-awful mega-supermarkets), I asked a stock guy where they kept them. Here’s how the conversation went:
Me: Excuse me, I can’t find any pomegranates. Can you tell me where they are?
Stock Guy: We don’t have any. But we do have pomegranate juice concentrate.
Me (Ignoring the concentrate nonsense): Are you out of fresh pomegranates?
Stock Guy: I wouldn’t say that we are out of them. You know they’re not in season, right?
Now, I love fresh, regional, seasonal produce as much as the next guy but seriously. What is this, 1709? They have airplanes now. Produce is shipped from all over the globe these days.
Me (pointing to the pineapples that were stacked next to the stock guy): Really, so I guess those pineapples were grown down the street here in New York, huh?
No pomegranates. But at this point I was determined to soldier on. I needed a Plan B.
Looking around, I spotted my new inspiration…coconuts (don’t even get me started on how pomegranates are not in season but somehow they had piles of tropical coconuts).
Okay, coconut sorbet it is. But what would I balance it with? Vodka didn’t make sense with coconut. And then Inspiration 2.0 hit me…I’ll pair it with cachaça.
Cachaça is a Brazilian liquor made from sugarcane juice. It has a very unique sweet flavor that I think serves as a perfect tropical under note to the relatively mild coconut – I know, could have written that in a more pretentious way? (Note: Although cachaça is a liquor, some bottlers have oddly named it a rum. So if you don’t find it with the liquors try the rum section.)
I’d never written a sorbet recipe before. But after a few tweaks (and trials), I think the resulting recipe strikes a good balance. The sorbet is light, refreshing and not too sweet. No one will be able to name the hit of cachaça – they’ll just notice something different that they can’t quite put their finger on.
Oh yeah, you are going to have some left over coconut. I’ll figure out a use for that in a later post.
FRESH COCONUT & CACHACA SORBET
This sorbet contains fresh shredded coconuts. Biting into the coconuts releases an extra hit of the natural, milky coconut flavor into the sorbet. If you prefer a more tradition sorbet without fruit just strain the shredded coconut out of the base after the steeping process. If you strain out the coconut, I recommend using a cheesecloth to squeeze out as much of the coconut juice as possible into the base before adding the cachaça and lime juice.
2 coconuts (apprx. 2 lbs each – see yield notes below)
1 cup water
1 gelatin pack
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup syrup
1.5 oz Cachaça
½ tsp lime juice
Using nail and hammer punch three holes in each coconut to drain them of their juice (should yield about 1 cup per coconut). After ‘juicing’ the coconuts split one open to expose the inner flesh. Carefully carve out the flesh in chunks. Using a coarse grater, shred the flesh of one coconut (should yield about 2 cups in shredded coconut). Set juice and shredded coconut aside.
Mix milk, water, gelatin in med saucepan and let stand until gelatin has dissolved (about 5 minutes). Add sugar, syrup and ¾ cup of the shredded coconut. Bring mixture to a boil just to dissolve the sugar. Stir, take off heat and let coconut steep, covered, for 25 minutes.
Stir in Cachaça and lime juice. After the mixture has completely cooled, freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instruction.
Meanwhile, dry toast the remaining cup of shredded coconut in a nonstick pan over medium heat, stirring periodically until the flakes are golden brown (about 7 minutes).
Yield Notes: One 2 lb coconut yields about 1cup liquid & 2 cups shredded coconut
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Looks sooo delicious, like a pina colada, a scoop will have me thinking of the beach and the tropical breezes and tan lines
I NEED an ice cream maker so bad! Do you use yours often? Will it be like my juicer that sits on the counter and never gets ay love? This sorbet looks so delicious! Its inspiring me to go and crack some coconuts over the head. They are so intimidating but your directions make it look so easy.
Seize the day MDF! Go and crack some coconuts. I use the ice maker just a tad bit more than the food processor – which isn’t saying much.