Home > Recipe > Blood Red Orange, Vodka and Lychee Sorbet
Blood Red Orange, Vodka and Lychee Sorbet
A beautiful, sexy and very refreshing sorbet. If you're cooking for a hot date on a fine summer evening, this is the sweet you need to be serving.

If I'm making a sorbet I never bother to use fresh lychees, I'd rather use a good quality canned lychee, the flavour in the final, frozen product is just as good and it saves me the chore of peeling and stoning the fruit. (Call me a cowboy chef, but I'd rather spend less time preparing the sorbet and more time getting my mojo ready for my hot date...)

Makes 750ml / 1 1/4 pints

Recipe Ingredients
570ml / 1pint blood red orange juice (about 15 oranges)
110g / 4 oz granulated sugar
200g / 7oz lychee
25ml / 1fl oz vodka
1 egg white

Mise-en-Place:
Juice the oranges and zest 2-3 for added flavour
Weigh the ingredients

Cooking Method:
Place the orange juice, zest and sugar in a saucepan, bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes
Remove from heat and allow to cool (place in a container with wide surface area to aid swift cooling OR place in a small bowl then place the smaller bowl in a larger bowl with ice and water to act as an ice bath.)
When cool (or at least lukewarm) blend the lychee, vodka and orange mix until smooth

Using an Ice Cream maker:
Place the mix in the maker
Lightly whisk the egg white to the 'ribbon stage'
Add the whisked white to mix
Leave to freeze in mixer

By Hand:
Turn the mix into a container
Freeze for 1 hour
Lightly whisk the egg white to the 'ribbon stage'
Stir the whisked white into the partially frozen mix
Leave to freeze for another 1 hour
Churn the nearly frozen sorbet with a heavy whisk to prevent the formation of ice crystals
Leave to freeze

Where you went wrong:
Sorbet doesn't freeze or remains quite 'slushy': You got the measurements wrong, either you added too much sugar or too much vodka. To fix -stir more orange juice into the sorbet and refreeze

Presentation:
Serve either in a bowl or on a plate
Serve with fresh lychee, a sprig of mint and if you wish some fresh raspberries which complement the fresh flavours of the sorbet

Chef Insight: Sorbets came from the east. It was the Chinese culture that introduced this sweet to the Turks, the Turks to the Italians and through Italy to the rest of Europe. Sorbets first started appearing in Britain during the 18th Century as a result of the new 'ice houses' being built within the richer mansions and estates of the wealthy. These 'ice houses' were often subterranean affairs insulated with brick and stone, ice was cut during the winter (or imported from the north) and kept within the insulated cold stores for use in the hot summer months. It was this initial year-round availability of ice that saw the real rise of sorbets.

Cowboy Trick: In a rush? Use a good quality blood red orange juice instead of juicing and zesting the oranges