[ice-cream] 'Otai Sorbet
Ever year Canberra hosts a Multicultural Festival. For me, one of the highlights is the Food Festival, where all the Embassies work with community groups to showcase their country through food. It is GLORIOUS day of food and drink.
One of the highlights is the Tongan Tent, where they serve 'Otai. On a stinking hot day, this drink trumps them all.
Today I made 'Otai Sorbet with my new ice cream maker.
When I got my ice-cream maker I was worried that it'd take up room in my cupboard and rarely get used. Now I know that it will take up room in my freezer and will be used almost daily! :D
I thought it might be useful if I logged my recipes so I can have a record of what I did, so that I can learn from what didn't quite work, or repeat my successes.
'Otai Sorbet Recipe
Sorbet is basically sugar dissolved in water and then frozen while being churned. To this, we can add fruit or other flavouring, but the important thing is that there is additional sugar added when extra bulk (like, for example, fruit) is added. Before I did anything I wanted to understand about how sorbet works and found The Science of the Best Sorbet by Serious Eats that helped me learn the SCIENCE!™ of making sorbet. They also have some recipe ideas that I'm eager to try.
Ingedients
• 1 Cup Caster Sugar
• 1/4 cup of Boiled Water
• 500gm Fresh Watermelon
• 500gm Fresh Pineapple
• 400mL tin Coconut Cream
Make Sugar Syrup
Melt sugar in water in a saucepan to create a sugar syrup. If it doesn't all melt, put saucepan on a stovetop and heat until all the sugar is dissolved.
Blend Fruit
Blend Watermelon and Pineapple until they are a smooth paste. I used a stabby/stick blender. Strain through a sieve into a jar. Add Coconut cream and blend more.
Add sugar syrup to fruit mix. Blend again.
Put jar of fruit mixture into the fridge for at least two hours. You could put your mix into something other than a glass jar, but I've found that the glass helps to chill the mixture to an extra cold level, and this makes for a smoother sorbet.
Churn in ice-cream maker per instructions.
Put into freezer-friendly container(s), leaving space at the top for expansion and to avoid leakage into your freezer.
Reflection
The coconut cream gave this a wonderful, creamy texture. It froze a little too solid for my liking; I think I needed to increase the level of sugar to stop it from freezing solid (not that it was super-solid, but it was a little firmer than I wanted it to be.
I think my sugar ratio was out because I failed to factor in the coconut cream. When I try this recipe again, I'll do so with more sugar and may try the "floating an egg" trick to measure how much sugar I have/need.
One of the highlights is the Tongan Tent, where they serve 'Otai. On a stinking hot day, this drink trumps them all.
Today I made 'Otai Sorbet with my new ice cream maker.
When I got my ice-cream maker I was worried that it'd take up room in my cupboard and rarely get used. Now I know that it will take up room in my freezer and will be used almost daily! :D
I thought it might be useful if I logged my recipes so I can have a record of what I did, so that I can learn from what didn't quite work, or repeat my successes.
'Otai Sorbet Recipe
Sorbet is basically sugar dissolved in water and then frozen while being churned. To this, we can add fruit or other flavouring, but the important thing is that there is additional sugar added when extra bulk (like, for example, fruit) is added. Before I did anything I wanted to understand about how sorbet works and found The Science of the Best Sorbet by Serious Eats that helped me learn the SCIENCE!™ of making sorbet. They also have some recipe ideas that I'm eager to try.
Ingedients
• 1 Cup Caster Sugar
• 1/4 cup of Boiled Water
• 500gm Fresh Watermelon
• 500gm Fresh Pineapple
• 400mL tin Coconut Cream
Make Sugar Syrup
Melt sugar in water in a saucepan to create a sugar syrup. If it doesn't all melt, put saucepan on a stovetop and heat until all the sugar is dissolved.
Blend Fruit
Blend Watermelon and Pineapple until they are a smooth paste. I used a stabby/stick blender. Strain through a sieve into a jar. Add Coconut cream and blend more.
Add sugar syrup to fruit mix. Blend again.
Put jar of fruit mixture into the fridge for at least two hours. You could put your mix into something other than a glass jar, but I've found that the glass helps to chill the mixture to an extra cold level, and this makes for a smoother sorbet.
Churn in ice-cream maker per instructions.
Put into freezer-friendly container(s), leaving space at the top for expansion and to avoid leakage into your freezer.
Reflection
The coconut cream gave this a wonderful, creamy texture. It froze a little too solid for my liking; I think I needed to increase the level of sugar to stop it from freezing solid (not that it was super-solid, but it was a little firmer than I wanted it to be.
I think my sugar ratio was out because I failed to factor in the coconut cream. When I try this recipe again, I'll do so with more sugar and may try the "floating an egg" trick to measure how much sugar I have/need.