Thai Sorbet

For the last few weeks, I've been getting a lot of Thai basil from my CSA. Loving Thai food, and basil generally, this has not proven to be a problem for me. However, this bounty has also had me considering some less conventional ways to use this basil, too!

Since I like sorbets, and the weather has been ridiculously hot, it seemed like the right experiment to try. I thought basil alone might be a little bland, so sought out some lemongrass too. Little did I know that finding it would be so difficult! I've seen it in my local grocery store a number of times, but now that I was looking for it...well, it just wasn't there! I finally went to a Whole Foods, where I bought the last lemongrass they had. Maybe there's a run on it, or a worldwide shortage, and I just didn't know!

I took to the basil and lemongrass, slicing and chopping a little, crushing some others, and generally trying to get both the tender basil leaves and the hardy lemongrass stalks to open up to release their flavors.

I put all the basil and lemongrass into a saucepan with about two cups of water and put it on to boil, then reduced it to simmer. This part is like making tea, and allowing it to steep! Once it had boiled and then simmered for about 10 minutes, I added a bit of sugar. I didn't want it to be so sweet as to overpower the subtle lemongrass and basil, but it did need some sugar to help it become something other than tea-colored ice cubes! (Nerdy science fact: adding sugar to water turns it into a different substance, obviously, but it also lowers the freezing point, which is why you get a soft freeze that you can eat with a spoon, instead of a block of ice.)

I simmered for another 10 minutes, then let the entire mixture cool, steeping the entire time. When it had cooled, I strained the mixture, added in a couple small, whole basil leaves, and put it in a container in the fridge. The best part about sorbets is this natural stopping point - I do not have to freeze it that night!

The next night, I pulled out the mixture, which is a little sweet, and very fragrant with herbal notes. I poured it into my trust ice cream freezer, and let it whir. Because it has a little less sugar, it took a little less time to freeze up, but I let it continue to spin to achieve a creamy consistency.

I can admit that I am biased in favor of my own cooking, but this truly was lovely - flavorful but restrained, cool and creamy, and just plain good!