1.30.10 Sweet & Sour
I'm trying to cut back a bit these days. Too much indulgence catches up with me quickly, always manifesting in the body. My pants are tight, my neck hurts, my skin is blotchy. Last night, I slept 12 hours. One minute I was watching "The Baader Meinhof Complex" (boring, or was I just too tired?) and the next I was face down in the pillow. I'm in recovery. This means clean eating, exercise and plenty of rest. A lot of soups, as you've seen, the requisite daily juice and maybe the occasional treat of fresh sorbet. When I was in LA, I swooned over all the citrus. Oranges, satsumas, mandarins, grapefruits, and the lemons, especially the fragrant Meyers, even growing in friends' back yards. So lucky. Shopping at Fairway on our way back from the airport, I picked up armloads of citrus. The result was this intense and refreshing sorbet, a gorgeously concentrated flavor, spiked with spicy ginger.
Although citrus tends to be pretty far down the list of pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables (to see the full list, click here), I prefer to buy organic. If you can afford it, you probably should, too. When buying fresh ginger, look for smooth, taut skin; avoid anything shriveled or with brown spots.CITRUS-GINGER SORBETserves 42 tablespoons freshly grated ginger1/2 cup honey1/2 cup water4 lemons2 navel oranges (Cara Cara are delicious)3 clementines2 ruby grapefruitsCombine honey and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer until they form a smooth syrup, then add ginger. Stir to combine and simmer for another couple of minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.Cut all the citrus in half and juice with a reamer into a bowl. Strain through a fine strainer. Strain honey syrup through strainer into citrus juice, pressing on solids to extract all the liquid. Stir well and chill until cold. Then pour into the bowl of your ice cream maker and process according to directions. If you aren't serving right away and find that the sorbet has become hard and icy in the freezer, simply break it into chunks and process in your food processor until it's creamy and smooth.
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