Satsuma Sorbet!

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 With satsuma season finally here it is time to take advantage of our tasty bounty! It is believed that this citrus variety started as a seedling from an already established cultivar in Japan over 350 years ago. Satsumas are easy to peel, juicy, and sweet. But they neither keep nor travel well, making local satsumas a rare, but delicious, treat!

This satsuma sorbet tastes remarkably similar to those orange push-ups made by Nestle 20 years ago...  Enjoying this after a rich meal will leave you, and your guests, smiling. The sorbet has the perfect balance of sweet and acidic needed to cap off a satisfying dinner. The syrup benefits from steeping over night to let the flavors develop, but the actual time it takes to put this together is very minimal. Having a gadget to easily remove the juice from the satsumas certainly helps. You can serve the sorbet as dessert with almond biscotti.


*Note: If you don't have access to satsumas, you can replace them with other Mandarin-type oranges such as clementines or tangerines.


Ingredients
1 1/4 cup Water
3/4 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Organic satsuma zest (from 2 satsumas)
2 1/3 cups Organic satsuma juice (approximately 11 juicy satsumas)
4 tablespoons Buttermilk (preferably whole fat! but light won't harm the recipe)
3 tablespoons Cointreau-- this keeps the sorbet from becoming too icy when frozen (you can substitute Grand Marnier if that's what you have on hand)
3 tablespoons lime juice


Making Sorbet Syrup
In a medium sauce pan mix water, sugar and orange zest.  Bring mixture to a boil to melt sugar. Stir and remove from heat. Juice the satsumas. Add satsuma juice, lime juice, and buttermilk to sugar syrup and refrigerate in a covered glass container overnight to let flavors infuse.


Freezing Sorbet

Strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove zest and pulp. Add Cointreau. Adjust flavor as desired. (The sorbet will taste exactly how the syrup does at this point). Place syrup in freezer to speed processing time (but for no more than 15 minutes--I do some cleaning up and get my freezer containers ready at this point).

Process in your ice cream maker according to directions (approximately 45 minutes). Put into freeze proof containers and freeze until ready to eat!

Just poured into the ice cream maker

After 18 minutes

Just finished, after 45 minutes

Enjoy!

*Food for thought: "The essential oil expressed from the peel is employed commercially in flavoring hard candy, gelatins, ice cream, chewing gum, and bakery goods. Mandarin essential oil paste is a standard flavoring for carbonated beverages. The essential oil, with terpenes and sesquiterpenes removed, is utilized in liqueurs. Petitgrain mandarin oil, distilled from the leaves, twigs and unripe fruits, has the same food applications. Tangerine oil is not suitable for flavoring purposes."   Julia F. Morton; Fruits of warm climates; 1987. pp 142-145. So let the distillation begin!