Tuesday, July 24, 2007

In My Freezer
Peach season has begun. That sound you hear is the distant echo of my slavering. Oh my, oh my, oh my I loves me some white peach flesh. And this year, I figured I'd do something about it. Last Saturday I bought a big bag o' white peach culls (bruised or less "attractive" fruit) from the local stand of my favorite orchard. And I Googled up "white peach sorbet" for nearly 1,200 results. I picked a couple of 'em and now have made one with certain modifications. First, the recipe that I chose:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Juice of 1 lemon
1 pound peeled, pitted peaches

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, water and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Remove from heat.
In a blender, combine peaches and sugar syrup. Puree until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve. Process the fruit mixture in an ice cream maker. Serve soft or freeze until firm. Makes about 2 cups.
Pretty direct - a simple syrup with lemon juice and processed peaches into the ice cream freezer. But I can't leave well enough alone. First, I used more than a pound of processed peaches. I can't tell you how much more but I processed probably five pounds of culls and couldn't use all the puree so maybe 2 pounds of peaches into the actual mix.
And I didn't bother to strain anything. I don't mind some fruit texture in my sorbet.
But that's not all. Some time ago I made ginger vodka. And I let it get far too ginger-y. But I wasn't about to toss it. Toss it out. Toss it into the sorbet - oh hail yeah! Two tablespoons of ginger vodka into the mix.
I tried the stuff coming out of the cream maker and if it freezes up as nicely as it came out - oh mah gawd! Gorgeous white peach flavor with ginger flavor
ghosting over the sweetness. Yuh-um!
I'll be making several of these of the remaining days of summer and on some I'll crank up the ginger to find the point where the flavor peaks. If you're in the neighborhood, drop by, we'll eat a dish.
UPDATE: I made my ginger vodka with a recipe from Forbes FYI (which I haven't found online but I think I've saved somewhere in printed form). My search on the the string "ginger vodka recipe" yielded a commercial ginger vodka: Yazi Ginger Flavored Vodka. It claims to have been created for women but anyone can enjoy a ginger vodka. Really.

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