Posts Tagged ‘sorbet’

Conference pears with panache

Sunday, March 16th, 2008


When I was growing up in Cashel, our neighbours had a pear tree, some branches of which overhung our back wall.

As children we’d help ourselves to the odd pear, never waiting long enough for them to ripen. Not surprisingly, we didn’t much like the fruit as they were often hard, dry and difficult to digest. Today my home also has overhanging Conference pear branches – from the back garden of our lovely neighbour Lil.

She provides us with bags of pears each year and we use them at home for sorbet or to prepare pear puree. We also use them in the restaurant for this dish. Like a lot of my recipes, you can use all or some of the elements.

Poached Burgundy pear with pear parfait and sorbet


500g pear parfait
200g pear sorbet
2 litres Burgundy pear syrup
8 slices of dried pears

Ingredients: pears in pear syrup
13 Conference pears
550ml port
550ml red Burgundy wine
1 litre stock syrup
250ml fresh pear juice
1 cinnamon stick
1 fresh vanilla pod
1 star anise
1 lemon rind
1 orange rind
3 cloves

Method
1.Mix all ingredients together in a pot and bring to the boil.

2.Wash and peel the pears, remove the core and place them into the pear juice and cover. Cook over a low heat for approx 15 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the heat and place in a basin of cold water to cool it down quickly.

3. Remove the pears from the liquid and place into a clean container. Pour the liquid on top and rest in the refrigerator for 36 hours.

Ingredients – Italian meringue
2 free-range egg whites
50g icing sugar
50g granulated sugar
15ml water

Method
You will need this Italian meringue for the pear parfait.

1.Place egg whites and a third of icing sugar in a mixing bowl and mix until stiff. Add remainder of icing sugar and mix for a further two minutes.

2.Place 15ml water and 50g granulated sugar in a pot and bring to the boil without stirring, until the syrup registers 112c on a sugar thermometer. Remove and place the pot into cold water for a few seconds until it reaches 110c.

3.Pour the mixture slowly into the egg whites and mix for a further five minutes.

Ingredients: pear parfait
500ml pear puree
100g Italian meringue
900ml whipped double cream
5 leaves gelatine
10ml Poire William Liqueur
2 pears (taken from burgundy liquid and finely chopped)

Method: parfait
1.Dissolve the gelatine in cold water. When soft, remove the gelatine and squeeze off the excess water. Place in a pot and add 20ml of the pear puree (wash and peel the pears and remove the cores. Cut into small pieces and place in a pot. Add the juice of one lemon to pears and puree in a blender until smooth).Place over a low heat to dissolve gelatine completely. Remove and add to the rest of the pear puree through a fine sieve.

2.Whip the cream and pour in the Italian meringue. Fold in the remainder of the puree and add the chopped pears. Add the Poire William Liqueur.

3. Pour the mixture into a lined mould (eg bread tin lined with cling film). Cover and place in the freezer overnight.

Ingredients – pear sorbet
1 litre pear puree (36 pears 1 lemon)
210g caster sugar
1 teaspoon glucose
430ml water

Method
1.Place the sugar, glucose, water and puree into a pot and cook until it reaches 72c on a sugar thermometer. Remove and return to the blender for 3-4 minutes until smooth. Remove and pass through a fine sieve.

2.Place the pot into a basin of cold water to cool down. Prepare the sorbet machine by washing with hot water and allowing to cool. Pour half the mixture into the machine and turn until it binds together. Remove and place into a container, cover and place in freezer. Pour rest of mixture into sorbet machine and turn until it binds together. Remove and add to container and freeze.

To serve
Slice the parfait into thin slices and place in the centre of a wide soup plate. Using a warmed dessert spoon, spoon an oval shape of sorbet on top of the parfait. Cut the poached pears in half and slice thinly and fan around the sorbet.

Place some dried pear slices, which can be bought in the supermarket, beside the sorbet and pour a little pear juice around the bowl.

Kevin Thornton is a Michelin-starred chef and owner of Thornton’s Restaurant on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.

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A very icy end to the meal

Sunday, February 17th, 2008


A sorbet aids digestion and leaves you feeling refreshed. They are as easy to make as soups and are a great finisher to a meal – and don’t contain any fat or egg yolks.

Historically, sorbets were the first iced desserts, as ice cream didn’t appear on the menu until the 18th century. They were made originally with fruit, honey, an aromatic substance and snow.

The Chinese introduced sorbets to the Arabs, and the technique travelled on to the Parisians, who in turn introduced them to the Italians.

There are many fruits you can use to make sorbets and they are a good way to use up excess fruit at home. You can also use a fruit vegetable such as tomato, pumpkin and courgette, in creating a savoury sorbet to serve between courses.

I like savoury sorbets to have a more slushy consistency, so they are best served with a liquid, such as with a dash of ginger ale with a red pepper sorbet or a splash of aqua libra with a tomato sorbet. Or try a thyme sorbet with a dash of Bombay Sapphire. Tea infusion sorbets are also delicious, using a wide variety of teas such as Earl Grey and green tea.

The sky is the limit in terms of combinations, and imagination is a great tool. At Thornton’s restaurant we use a Pacojet blender to get our consistency right and a sorbet machine is a great help.

If you’re making sorbet at home, the most important thing to concentrate on is the fruit-to-sugar ratio. Sugar doesn’t freeze, so the more sugar used, the softer the sorbet gets.

Another tip is that the fruit or fruit vegetables used should be fully ripe.


Raspberry sorbet (serves 4)
750g fresh raspberries
5g granulated sugar
10ml of water
140g castor sugar
10g glucose
255ml water

Method
1. Place raspberries in a pot, add granulated sugar and 10ml of water and cook over a low heat until the fruit is cooked through. Remove and place into a blender to purée. Remove and pass through a fine sieve to remove the raspberry seeds.

2. In a different pot place the castor sugar and 255ml water and cook over a medium heat to a temperature of 95 degrees centigrade (just until the sugar dissolves). Do not allow to boil as this will increase the sugar content.

3. Remove from the heat and add the glucose, allowing it to dissolve in the liquid. Add the puréed raspberries and mix well. Cover with cling film and place in fridge to cool.

4. Clean the sorbet machine before each use with boiling water only. Allow the machine to cool before adding mixture.

5. When the machine is fully cooled add half the mixture and turn for 20 minutes. If you add half the mixture at a time it puts less pressure on the motor. Remove the mixture and place in a cool container and freeze (-20C). Repeat these steps with the remainder of the mixture.

To serve
Remove the sorbet from the freezer and allow it to soften for about ten minutes. Use a heated dessert spoon to scoop and shape the sorbet onto a plate. The heated spoon gives a nice shine to the sorbet.

Tomato sorbet (Serves 4)


500g vine tomatoes (roughly chopped)
1 garlic clove (roughly chopped)
10 leaves basil
Half a shallot (roughly chopped)
40ml olive oil
5g carageen moss (available from most good health shops)
1 egg white
Pinch of sea salt

Method
1. Place vine tomatoes, garlic, chopped shallot, basil and olive oil in a blender and purée until smooth. Then allow to rest overnight in fridge.

2. Strain the juice from the mixture into a bowl. Place a little juice in the bottom of a pot and place the carrageen moss in on top and dissolve over a low heat.

3. Add to mixture and strain into sorbet machine. Mix until just about set (about ten to 15 minutes).

4. Whisk egg whites until stiff, then add pinch of salt and fold into the set sorbet mix. Remove and place in bowl. Cover and place in freezer.

To serve
As above. This sorbet is good served with a dash of fresh tomato juice (and an optional dash of vodka), between courses.

Kevin Thornton is a Michelin-starred chef and owner of Thornton’s Restaurant on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. www.thorntonsrestaurant.com

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