Sorbet is basically ice cream without cream, milk or egg yolk. It is a mixture of fruit juice and ice that is softer and grainier than ice cream flavor because it contains more ice. Sorbet is easy to make and we have an profusion of local ingredients that can be used to create a wide variety of exotic sorbet flavors such as snake fruit, nutmeg fruit, ginger flower (kecombrang), tamarind and tamarilo (terong belanda). The basic ingredients of sorbet are simply fruit juice or fruit puree, sugar and the liquid of limes or lemons.
Sorbet is really the first iced dessert because ice cream was not invented until the 18th century. The Chinese introduced sorbet to the Persians and Arabs, who passed it on the Italians, who perfected the dessert and its cousin, gelato ice cream. I have two different flavors of sorbet featuring recognizable fruits for this week’s recipes. They are prepared in two different ways to give them different textures. With temperatures on the rise the last few weeks, I am sure you will find these sorbets’s to be a revitalizing treat.