Saturday 27 February 2010

Pomelo! Sorbet

The dessert (3rd in a row) I am showing off to you today isn't even ready yet. No, no.. it's in the freezer, waiting for me to go stir it every once in a while.. so it can still show its creamy side when I serve it along caramel sauce and bird chirping tomorrow to the guests I haven't even invited yet. Hidden within the cooking instructions, I will set loose my dearest tip for achieving perfection as a chef.. but of course you'll have to hold on through my usual love-at-first-sight encounter with the recipe! tee-hee

Forget the misleading name. This late-springy ice-creamy is nothing I'd have expected when thinking/whispering/ shouting "sorbet". Where I come from, a sorbet is a very sweet cream you're not allowed to eat very much of because it's so vintage your parents only buy it after encountering long-lost friends. Also, it is so sweet even cavities fear it. Or do they?
Either way, no, sorbet-sorbet is just a luscious way of saying ice-cream. In a way it is entitled to be the bearer of a fancier name. After all, among its flavours we will never find labels such as "crazy mango" or "pear-twisted-with-almond-chunky-goodness" or stuff that Ben&Jerry's are supposed to come up with. Au contraire, the elegance of names involving "sorbet" is best suited for 30 year-olds rather than kiddies. Not only the names, but the flavours themselves go by unexpected combinations, such as today's recommendation (ignore the name I've given it, I am still a kiddie) : pomelo & banana.

Here comes the funniest part of the (still) introduction, according to me. How in God's name did I get to prepare this? Home alone, hyper music, bad food, worse weather (Mary Fucking Poppins, ...Bucharest?), generous amount of pomelo. Quick question: Didn't you ever find yourself singing about stuff you were doing out of boredom while being home alone? Quick answer: hell yeah? Well, I sometimes do, but.. I come from a strange family. The deal is, I was about to crack open my size decency-challenged grapefruit when lyrics of songs were connecting in my head. And I listened. What seemed to be Ameno! turned into Pomelo! ..aand that's how this whole religious song translated into names of fruit and nuts.



Pomelo! Visine dulci si amare, Pomelo! Alune! Alune! POMELO! Cirese si.. Pomelo! A rhyming english alternative would perhaps be.. Pomelo! Fresh berries and summer grape seeds, Pomelo! Muesli grains! Muesli grains! POMELO! Honeycomb and.. Pomelo! (Translation not respected.)


You may be wondering why I'm going for ice-cream this time of year. I thought it was outrageous too, but you know what? Those crazy americans know what they're on to when they treat a sore throat with ice-cream. Forget about drinking hot teas and agglutinating tons of lemon slices! Munching on some good quality ice-cream is sure to soothe your pain (and yes, I've tried that a while ago, works like a charm).

One of the difficulties I've encountered while procuring ingredients was obtaining pomelo juice. Especially since I had already peeled it. Save yourself an afternoon and juice it halved, like you would a regular orange. Cause I'm warning you.. pomelo cells are indestructible. Except by human teeth of course. You could juice it with your teeth, but make sure your guests don't know about that. Actually.. scratch that list thing. Emphasize on it. More for you. (I beseech my imaginary readers to pick up that faint pinch of sarcasm. Ooh this is change our mind day (is it not?), so forget I ever mentioned sarcasm on this serious matter. Should create one hell of a comical situation.) To be continued..

For the long awaited Pomelo! Sorbet,

You will need:

1 cup pomelo juice
1/3 cup orange juice
2 perfectly ripened bananas (not the over ripened kind that you use for cakes, but the kind that is uber appealing to the human tooth)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Since this has not sprung from cookie realm, you are absolved from preheating the oven this time. Just make sure your freezer is plugged. Use your food processor or hand mixer to mash up the bananas nicely, incorporating the orange juice. Add the sugar in increments and pour in a bowl. Switch to using a spoon or a spatula and blend in the water and pomelo juice. Continuation of the pomelo tale from the first half of this entry: I could only manage to squeeze out about 1/2 cup of pure pomelo juice(why does this recipe only ask for ingredients that are just right to eat?), so I made up to 1 cup with fresh pieces of fruit, and smoothed it out with my mixer. Now, it is high time you knew my most cherished secret.. (spring roll, er, drum roll please): If it tastes gud even before it's done, you know you've bonded with your dish and turned it into a masterpiece. It was that moment when I licked the spoon today that I said to myself.. this was meant to be.

Cheerio,
Andi

P.S.: I dare you to sing the Pomelo! song when you're tipsy.

P.P.S.: Notice how the the "imagine this paragraph is invisible" tags appear although they stand inside angle quotes? I laugh in the face of HTML!


4 comments:

  1. i demand you post something easy and delicious for lazy people like me to eat :))

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  2. kay bebeh, gonna think of something.. speshully for you!

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  3. congratulations I love pomelos!! Pierre the french foodie based in Paris France

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  4. Andy's becoming famous. I love you SO much >:D<.

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