Blackcurrant sorbet recipe

I've heard it said on more than one occasion that the reason it is so hard to buy blackcurrants in the UK is that Robinson's buy them all to make Ribena with.  I don't know whether this is true or not, but Robinson's did used to claim that "nearly all of British blackcurrants are used in Ribena" and that it's rare to see them on the supermarket shelves.

I love blackcurrants and  I love sorbet, and on a couple of occasions over the years I've been lucky enough to find some in a decent restaurant (usually overseas) but had pretty much given up hope of ever being able to buy some blackcurrants and make my own.

So imagine my surprise and delight about two years ago when I walked in to my local Tesco and saw a huge display of them!  It was 2010 and there must have been a bumper crop that year.  Now I don't remember how much they cost but I'm sure I bought about four or five kilos which I thought indulgent at the time, although even now I wish I had bought ten times as much as I've yet to see them since.

Making sorbet is so simple, especially if you have your own sorbet/ice cream maker.  You can pick these up pretty cheap these days, I bought mine on ebay for not much more than £40 about  four years ago and it is still going strong.  

Another tip is to keep the bowl part in the freezer all the time so that you can just take it out and use it whenever you need it.  It's pretty frustrating to have to wait twenty-four hours for it to chill down if you keep it in the cupboard.

I also run the ice cream/sorbet maker in the freezer, hang on, there is a good reason!  I do this as the quicker the mixture freezes, the smaller the ice crystals that are formed are, thus making the finished product smoother.  I run an extension cord to the freezer door then plug the maker in to this (ensuring the extension cable is kept outside of the freezer itself), then simply put the maker in the freezer and close the freezer door/lid.  Pretty much any modern day freezer will have a soft enough seal to mould around the cable.

Ingredients

1kg blackcurrants

500g caster sugar

lemon juice to taste

handful of mint to garnish

Method
Carefully remove the stalks of the blackcurrants and wash them thoroughly. Remember that blackcurrants can easily stain clothes/work-surfaces/chopping boards etc., so handle accordingly.

Reserve a handfull of the blackcurrants for serving.

Place the blackcurrants and the sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly until they soften and just start to burst open, then remove them from the heat immediately and place them straight in to a blender to cool. Be careful that you don't overheat them during this first stage as you don't want to cook them.

Blend the mixture and then strain through a fine sieve into a clean bowl.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice to taste.  You are trying to balance the acidity with the sweetness, remembering that both the taste of the blackcurrants and the sweetness will be dulled the colder the temperature that they are served at.

Pour the mixture into an ice-cream/sorbet maker and churn until frozen.  If you don't want to put this is your freezer like I do, put the air-con on if you live in a hot climate, or stick it out the back door if it's the middle of winter and cold outside (I also do this), yes, this does help!

If you don't have a maker, pour the mixture into a small baking tray and place in the freezer, taking it out every 10-15 minutes to give it a good mix with a fork until it is creamy and evenly forzen with small ice crystals.

Scrape the sorbet into a container and gently press some cling film/plastic wrap onto the surface to prevent the top 'burning' and store until you are ready to serve.

Depending on how warm your house is and how frozen/melted you want to serve it, take it out of the freezer 10-20 minutes before you want to plate it up.  The warmer it is, the sweeter it will taste and you'll also get a richer, fruitier flavour coming through.

Sorbet can be served as an accompaniment to all sorts of desserts, hot and cold, or you can just serve it with some of the reserved blackcurrants and a couple of mint leaves on top.