watermelon sorbet with mint and vodka

If you have read my blog you will know I adore ice cream and sorbet.  I am lucky enough to own a semi-industrial Italian ice cream machine so making these delectable treats is a cinch. Ice cream and sorbet making is amongst the easiest things on the culinary spectrum to master and people are generally very impressed because for some reason they are not aware of this.

So the usual story for me, I had a large watermelon, I wanted to do something with it that I hadn’t done before.  I always want to make my watermelon, goat’s cheese and cress salad which has a splash of vodka as inspired by Societi Bistro head chef Stefan Marais, but watermelon is a big fruit and I needed something more.

So taking some of those flavours that go so well together and picking up the basics of the recipe on an American blog I love: Kitchenkonfidence I made this sorbet. Brandon added chocolate chips to his (yes he does some wicked stuff), but I thought more vodka and mint. His recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz, so you can rest assured this is one that has integrity.

Recipe:

• 3 cups watermelon juice
• ½ cup sugar
• Generous pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice (I used bottled lime juice because I couldn’t find limes)
• 60ml vodka (the original recipe was for 2 Tbs but this is me we are talking about)
• small bunch of fresh mint

How to make this:

Cut chunks of watermelon flesh and blitz them in a food processor until it becomes a liquid.  Strain the juice from the pulp through a sieve into a bowl and measure out 3 cups. In a small pot heat 1/2 a cup of the juice with the sugar and the mint and bring to a boil allowing the sugar to dissolve and the mint to infuse. Allow this to cool and strain the mint leaves. Add the sugar syrup to the watermelon juice and add the salt, vodka and lime juice. Freeze in an ice cream machine until it has solidified.

This sorbet leans towards being quite granita-ish so would be the perfect ending to a rich meal or as a palate cleanser between courses.  It tastes just like frozen watermelon but only better.