Thyme Mango Sorbet

The perfect little palate cleanser when you serve a six course meal.  What?  You don't serve six course dinners on a regular basis?  I don't either.  But you can still enjoy sorbet without all the fanfare of a fancy dinner.

The base of a Sorbet is fruit juice, fruit pureé, wine, liqueur or tea infusions.  Mixed with a simple syrup and frozen.  Easy - peasy.

Every so often I go through my freezer and use up what I've stored over the past months so I can free up space.  Since the holidays are creeping up on me I decided to do just that.  I found a bag of frozen mango and here's what I came up with.



Make your simple syrup first because it needs to be cooled.  I made mine the night before and stored it in the refrigerator.

Place the fruit and the simple syrup in a blender and pureé until very smooth.  That's it.  You're done.  Almost.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and flip the switch.  Now you're done.

Thyme Mango Sorbet

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 package frozen mango or 3 fresh mangoes

Mise en place:
This recipe is so simple, there's really no extra prep work to do.

Method:
In a small sauce pan, bring sugar, water and thyme to a boil until sugar is completely dissolved.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Put fruit in the blender.  Add the simple syrup.  Blend until very smooth.  Pour mixture into ice cream maker and mix for about 25 minutes.  Transfer to a plastic container and store in freezer.

Mango-Lime Ice

When you have luscious fruits like these, and add a little sugar you know it's got to be something good.  Mango-Lime Ice is my choice for Sweet Tooth week at I Heart Cooking Clubs. 

Rick Bayless' cookbooks don't just throw recipes on a page.  He teaches you a little something that you might not otherwise know about a particular food in the Mexican culture.  For this recipe he explains that tropical fruit ices and fruit popsicles called paletas are a way of life in Mexico.  That shouldn't surprise anyone with all of the different tropical fruits they have at their disposal.

Measure out your sugar, peel your orange,  peel the mangoes, and juice your limes.  Oh, and measure out a cup of water, which I totally left out of the photo.

When peeling the orange, make sure you only take the thin orange part.  You don't want any of the white pith which will make it bitter.




See this little piece?  Too much white on it.  Finely chop the zest.

Mangoes have this large flat, oval pit which makes it a little tricky to cut up.

I stick my knife tip into the fruit to get an idea of how fat the seed is.  Propping the mango on end, cut down one wide side then repeat down the other side.

I then take my knife and cut in a tic-tac-toe grid on each half

Fold back the fruit and you have a little hedgehog.  Slice off each little section with a paring knife.

There can still be 'meat' around the pit.  You can trim off any substantial amount.  Or, you can do what I normally do and that is

stand over a sink and eat around it.  Mmmm...one of life's little pleasures; a treat for the cook.

Throw the mangoes, lime juice, orange zest, sugar, & water into a food processor and process until smooth.

Push the mixture through a fine sieve then pour into a 9 x 9 inch pan and place in the freezer for 2 hours.

See these solids that were left?  I ate them as a snack.  It was very orange-y and tangy and sweet.  Another treat for the cook.

When the mixture is firm 2 inches in from the edges, whip with an immersion blender.  You can also scrape it back into the food processor as well; your choice.  Place back in freezer.  Perform this ritual 2 more times then freeze for 1 hour before serving.

As I was enjoying this treat, I began dreaming of all the wonderful ways to use this tropical concoction.  Most of them included alcohol; like mixing with champagne.  But, it's hard to beat the pure pleasure of eating it just the way it is.

Mango-Lime Ice (Nieve de Mango con Limón)
Serves 6 to 8
From Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen


Ingredients:
4 large (2-1/4 pound total) mangoes, peeled, fruit cut away from the pit (about 2 heaping cups)
Rind of 1 orange (colored zest only)
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 cup water

Mise en place:

• measure your sugar
• measure your water
• juice your limes
• peel rind from orange and chop fine
• cut fruit away from the pit on your mangoes & coarsely chop

Method:
In a food processor, combine the mangoes, orange zest, sugar, lime juice and 1 cup of water.  Process to a smooth puree, then press through a strainer into a stainless steel bowl or 9 x 9 inch pan.  Freeze until the mixture is firm 2 inches in from the sides, about 2 hours.  Whip with an immersion blender or scrape into a food processor and process until slush.  Repeat the freezing and beating 2 more times, then freeze at least 1 hour before serving.

Rick suggests that it is best to eat the ice within a day, because it will become progressively more icy.  If the finished ice has been in the freezer for several hours, soften it in the refrigerator for half an hour before serving.

I'm sharing this recipe at IHCC