Basil Lime Sorbet recipe

Taking the idea of a garden delight widely I thought that this week I would focus on Sorbet Recipes.  The garden is hot, the work is plentiful, and the need for herbs as a cool refreshing end to the day is perfect for sorbet.  A sorbet can capture the fragrance of summer in a single spoonful. Many people forget the “sweet” part of Basil.  It is a perfect savory foil to citrus and is perfect in many different types of sweets and desserts.  This is a Basil – Lime Sorbet. Tomorrow I will share another.

Basil-Lime Sorbet

Blanching the basil leaves before blending the sorbet base gives you an intensely colored and flavored sorbet. Be sure to freeze it immediately after blending or the color will fade.

3¼ cups water

2 cups basil leaves, gently packed
1 cup fine sugar
¼ cup fresh lime juice

Directions:

Bring water to a boil in small saucepan. Add basil leaves; cook 10 seconds. Drain and plunge basil into cold water. Drain again.

Puree sugar, water, lime juice and blanched basil leaves in blender on high speed for about 1 minute, or until you have a smooth, bright-green liquid. Pour through fine-meshed strainer.

Freeze immediately in an ice cream maker until slushy-firm. Scoop into a storage container and freeze until firm enough to scoop.

To find any recipe featured this month - use the search box and type: GardAug

To find any theme recipe from this year type: recipe2018

For 2018 the monthly recipe themes will be:

   January - Chicken Soup (ChickJan)

   February - Beef Stew (StewFeb)

   March - Jambalaya (JambMar)

   May - Ham and Shrimp Dishes (ShrHamMay)

   June - Bread recipes (BreadJun)

   July - Grilling (GrillJul)

   August- Garden Delights GardAug

   September - Salsa, Corn and Jelly 

   October - Squash Dishes 

   November - Pumpkin Recipes 

   December - Herbal Cocktails 

Melon Basil Sorbet - Weekend Recipe

Summer is not finished with us yet meaning there is still time for a frozen treat.  With cantaloupe still available, fresh and basil just hitting its stride, this is a great time to craft this sorbet.

Musk Melon Basil Sorbet

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
10 basil leaves, divided
2 small muskmelon (cantaloupe), peeled, seeded and diced

In a small saucepan, stir sugar and water over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat, add 5 basil leaves, and allow to steep until cool.  Strain or remove the basil leaves.

Puree the melon or cantaloupe in a blender or using an immersion blender until smooth.  Stir in 1/2 cup of the basil-infused sugar water (simple syrup) and reserve the remainder for another use (check out my herbal cocktail recipes for ideas.)

Finely chop the remaining 5 basil leaves and stir into the melon mixture.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Then pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturers directions.

Pack the sorbet into an airtight container  (optimally 24 hours.)  Makes 4 cups.

Making Herbal Popsicles at Home - How Tuesday

I have not done a How-to in some time so when I stumbled across this great new kitchen accessory, I just had to share!
 

ZIPSICLES!

A zip seal popsicle bag!  These must have come from the mind of genius.  So innovative and so OBVIOUS!  I wish I had thought of it first.

I love pushup frozen pops.  The King of them -- Jel-Sert http://www.jelsert.com/ is headquartered in the town I first lived in when I came to Illinois, West Chicago.  They call the creation Fla-vor-ice.  We used to call them colors as no one was really sure what flavor they were. But since they are made with sugar and food coloring and almost only sugar we stopped buying them to avoid the calories when our lifestyle became more sedentary.

Now I have a solution to my craving for a quick frozen cool down after a hot day in the garden-- Zipzicle pouches!   zipzicle ordering

Now my recipes for herbal infusions that are awesome frozen can be used to create these treats in a fun and easy way!  And the best part is these can be made with sugar substitutes as well as regular sugar.

And since I ordered my first batch of Zipzicles, I have been experimenting with recipes to make with them.

Here are the steps-- (two recipes are at the bottom.)

Lemon Verbena Sorbetsicles

2 1/2 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped lemon verbena
2 tablespoons lemon juice
 

Combine the water, sugar, and lemon verbena in a medium, heavy saucepan, and bring to a boil. Stir the pot until the sugar dissolves.

simmering the lemon verbena in the sugar water

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Allow the pot to simmer for 5 minutes.
 

You can see the green yellow color from the steeped leaves

Remove from the heat and allow the herb-syrup to steep while it cools. 

Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until thoroughly chilled. 

Strain.

Add the lemon juice.

Then pour into zipzicles 

and freeze until hard.  This recipe tastes like lemon ice heaven.  The fresh smell of lemon verbena is captured in the mixture.  And you will love it as a no sugar version too!

Lemon Verbena Sorbetsicles

2 1/2 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped lemon verbena
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine the water, sugar, and lemon verbena in a medium, heavy saucepan, and bring to a boil. Stir the pot until the sugar dissolves, and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Allow the pot to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow the herb-syrup to steep while it cools. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until thoroughly chilled. Strain, add the lemon juice, then pour into zipzicles and freeze until hard.

Pineapple-Lemon Balm Sorbetsicles

This pale yellow and green-flecked frozen treat was adapted from a recipe in Herbs in the Kitchen by Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger (Interweave Press, 1992).  The original recipe made 1 ½ quarts, but for sorbetsicles you only need a couple of cups.

2 Tablespoons sugar

¼ cup boiling water

¼ of a ripe pineapple, about ½ pound (you could use 2/3 of a 10 ounce can of pineapple packed in water)

2 Tbls. packed lemon balm leaves

Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water and set aside to cool. Remove the rind from the pineapple and core it. Cut it into chunks and measure 1 to 1 ¼ cups of pineapple. Puree the pineapple with the balm leaves in a food processor, or in a blender. Stir the sugar syrup into the puree and blend well.  Pour the mixture into Zipzicles and freeze for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until very firm.

BigOven has this simple syrup recipe you can make with sugar substitute Splenda.  http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/164356/Sugar-free-Simple-Syrup  I suggest you check it out for all the detailed instructions and information.   

Sugar-free Simple Syrup 
1 cup Sucralose Sweetener; Splenda or similar brand 
1 cup water, boiling 

Dissolve Splenda in water and allow to cool. Strain through a coffee filter to remove sediment. Use wherever a recipe calls for simple syrup. 

To use this in the recipes above –

For Lemon Verbena Sorbetscicles, add ¾ cup chopped Lemon Verbena leaves to the sugar-free simple syrup before you have strained it and allow to cool to room temperature.  Then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Strain the syrup, add 1 Tbls lemon juice and freeze in your zipzicles. 

For Pineapple-Lemon Balm Sorbetsicles add the Splenda equivalent of 2 Tbls to ¼ cup of boiling water and make sure the canned pineapple is packed in water, not syrup.  This one was not as good to the hubby’s blood sugar as the Lemon Verbena one was.

Lemon Sorbet in an Ice Cream Freezer

The ice cream freezer was patented on this day (May 30th) in 1848. Now at the time they were hand crank and required elbow grease as well as large amounts of chipped ice, but they did create a great frozen treat.

When my husband was Farm manager and later Site manager for Kline Creek Farm in Winfield, Illinois, every summer we would have an Ice Cream Social where we would hand crank hundreds of gallons of ice cream to serve to visitors. 

courtesy of 1890 farmer on flickr.com

The volunteers used ice blocks from the previous winter's ice cutting on the lake at the farm. They crushed it and mixed it with rock salt, then packed it around the one-gallon metal containers that held the ingredients. The salt melted the ice while a crank turned the container. As ice melted, more was added until the eggs, cream, sugar and flavoring became ice cream.  It took about one and a half hours to make a gallon of ice cream this way.

When you make ice cream with herbs you generally do so with a simple syrup rather than eggs and cream, which results in a Sorbet rather than an  true ice cream.  However, you can still freeze it and enjoy on a hot day using your ice cream freezer.  So selebrate the patenting of the Ice Cream Freezer with this great recipe using my favorite herb! 

Lemon Verbena Sorbet

2 1/2 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped lemon verbena
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine the water, sugar, and lemon verbena in a medium, heavy saucepan, and bring to a boil. Stir the pot until the sugar dissolves, and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Allow the pot to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow the herb-syrup to steep while it cools. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until thoroughly chilled. Strain, add the lemon juice, and process in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer the sorbet to an airtight container and let firm in the freezer for at least 2 hours before serving.