It's been hot, hot, hot this summer in Hong Kong and an oncoming typhoon has made the weather even more toasty roasty than before. "I'm melting...melting..." as the Wicked Witch of Oz did screech.
So it seemed the thing to do to make this chillingly appropriate Turkish Delight Sorbet, a delightful, elegant and cooling bit of rose flavored sweet ice just balanced with a touch of tart lime. Super easy to make, wonderful to look at and just the thing for the hottest days of the year!
It all started really, when I discovered a few boxes of turkish delight at my local grocery store. An exotic find to be sure! I bought one box to try, finished it in one night, and returned to the store the next day to buy up all the remaining boxes. This stuff is addictive! (Just as Edmund found it in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.)
Turkish delight usually comes as a rosewater flavored hardened candy gel cut into cubes and covered with a generous dusting starchy sugar but it also comes in other flavors such as lemon, mint, pistachio, etc.
Turkish delight is so gorgeous to look at, dontcha think?! We come to the only hard bit in this easy sorbet recipe. The turkish delight needs to be cut into small pieces and if you use a knife to cut through the sticky gel candy you will find yourself in a sticky mess before long.
So the best thing to use is a sharp pair of kitchen scissors to snip, snip, snip. Even with scissors tho' you may find that you have to clean the blades once in a while.
And then it's just a matter of melting your turkish delight in a bath of lime scented water. My turkish delight took forever to melt (and didn't completely melt in the end), I think I could have used higher heat and replenished the water as needed more frequently.
The end result was a most delightfully pink liquid that smelled of fragrant, heavenly rose.
Freeze, stir, freeze, stir your rose scented liquid until you've got an icy slurry. Then use smooth sided cups or bowls or whatever you have at hand as your sorbet molds (I used little plastic storage cups), keeping in mind that the final sorbet will be inverted on to the serving plate.
Line mold with cling film, pressing the wrinkles as flat as you can (the wrinkles will provide an interesting texture to your sorbet.) Tap your filled mold a tap or two to settle slurry. Let slurry freeze without covering so the bottom of your inverted sorbet can be as flat as can be. Once frozen solid, though, you can cover with the cling film or a cover.
And that's it! Time to garnish with a few slivers of lime peel and serve your elegantly beautiful Turkish Delight Sorbets to the chilly delight of friends and family. Each rose scented mouthful is guaranteed to elicit ohhs and ahhs from happy chilled out sorbet lovers! Happy last lingering days of summer!
Turkish Delight Sorbet Ice Recipe
(makes 6 sorbets) Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 10 mins
(makes 6 sorbets) Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
- 6 smooth sided approx. 1 cup size molds
- 9 oz turkish delight, rose flavored, 250g
- 2 tbsp white sugar, 25g
- 3 cups boiled water, cooled to room temperature
- 2 tbsp lime juice, or lemon juice
- 30 slivers lime peel for garnish
Directions:
Use a sharp pair of kitchen scissors to cut the turkish delight into small pieces, as small as you can without tiring your hands out too much.
Reserve 1/4 of turkish delight and put the rest into a small heavy bottomed pot with the sugar and half the water. Heat over medium low heat until the turkish delight is melted. (I found that my turkish delight refused stubbornly to melt completely, which was okay.) Top up the water a bit if needed, ending up with at least 1 cup of liquid.
Cool, then stir in lime juice, remaining 1 1/2 cup water and reserved turkish delight. Cover and freeze.
After about 1 1/2 hour, take out and stir vigorously, breaking up any ice crystals. Put back in freezer and repeat stirring at one hour intervals 2-3 more times until an even icy slurry is formed.
At this point line your dessert cups (or whatever you are using for a mold) with cling film, taking care to flatten the cling film as much as you can. (Don't worry about the wrinkles, that will give your sorbet a lovely texture but it should be flattened wrinkles.)
Spoon slurry into lined molds, and tap mold sharply once to settle slurry. Freeze 3 hours or overnight. Once sorbet is frozen do cover the sorbet with a cover or just fold the cling over snuggly.
To serve, remove from freezer, and overturn the sorbet onto serving plate. Carefully pull cling film off, garnish with lime slivers and serve nice, icy and cold. Enjoy!
Icy-liciousness at The Hong Kong Cookery:
Google
Dear God, I'm slavering at the mouth reading this....must try the recipe but can't get cheap Wellcome TDelight here in Ireland, I must visit the specialist Asian/Arabic store.
ReplyDeleteSince leaving HK 4yrs ago, I just want to thank you for keeping my taste buds in check - all Chinese restaurants here cater for 'Western' palates...yuck! HK is my 'adopted home' & I miss the true taste of Cantonese/regional cuisine,.....do you have a spare aeroplane ticket to come back? NO? Then pls keep up the GREAT work & recipes....especially the 'old-style'.
Thanks again
Paula
Dear Paula - what the hey is a Chinese food lover doing all the way over in Ireland? So glad we could tickle your palate and thanks for the thumbs up, we thrive on encouragement! ~ellen
DeleteWhat a brilliant idea! This is definitely going into my sinfully delicious iced desserts file, and believe me it is a very select one. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYour very welcome More Cowbell! Glad to have made it on to your list! ~ellen
DeleteThanks very interesting blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by!~ellen
DeleteVery nice
ReplyDelete😁
Delete