lemon

The hubs got me an early birthday present this year. He meant it to be a surprise but accidentally blurted it out ;) I guess I would have guessed it anyway. Here it is: my brand spankin’ new Canon Rebel T4i (well the box anyway, since I was holding the camera itself)

I still have to figure out exactly how this baby works since it’s so fancy… but so far it takes some pretty awesome food pictures.

Onto the foods!

I’ve been on a roll with my Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment this summer. Funny how I almost returned it thinking I have no space to hold it, but I’m so glad I kept it. It’s definitely keeping us cool with the NY heat and humidity!

So far I’ve made strawberry sorbet, cream cheese ice cream (2nd place in the annual Koppell’s Iron Chef competition), and peach berry frozen yogurt.

This time I wanted to try something a little different. I found fresh basil while walking through Union Square Green Market this past Saturday, so I decided to make strawberry basil lemon sorbet. Think about it like a strawberry basil lemonade, but frozen! I’m having some right now. Mmmmm…. delicious!

Money shot, what do you think?

Churn churn churn…

Final product, served in super cute “I scream, you scream, we all scream” bowls that my bestie gave me for my birthday.

Cute, no? My amateur picture didn’t do justice…

I googled away and found my inspiration at He Cooks She Cooks and modified the recipe slightly, so here’s my version:

Angieberry’s Strawberry Basil Lemon Sorbet

1.5 lbs. of strawberries, washed & cleaned
2 cups fresh basil leaves (loosely packed), torn coarsely
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
zest of 1 lemon (i used the chef’n no mess zest, neat little gadget indeed!)

First, start with your basil simple syrup. Heat the water + sugar + basil leaves until mixture boils and sugar dissolves (you’re gonna need to stir it too). Throw in the lemon zest, then let it sit to steep for about 20-30 minutes. Think of it like making tea, except with basil leaves.

While the mixture is cooling off, puree the strawberries. I used this cute little cuisinart 4-cup chopper/grinder. Then, transfer into a mixing bowl.

Strain the cooled basil simple syrup into the strawberry puree, you don’t want to be chewing on basil leaves and lemon zest. Start slowly and taste as you pour in the syrup in case you don’t want it to be too sweet.

I added the juice of 1/2 lemon since I felt that the mixture needed a bit more acidity. Also, at the time I made this I actually started with 1 cup of fresh basil and decided I couldn’t taste much basil, so I added another cup (recipe above is already modified, so you don’t need to, but please adjust to taste).

When you get the mixture to taste like you want it to, throw it in an ice cream maker and follow the maker’s directions.

For me and my Cinnamon Red Kitchen Aid with the Ice Cream attachment (which is now permanently taking over 1/2 the space in our freezer!), I placed the bowl of strawberry mixture in the freezer for about 2 hours to cool it down, then churn it for about 15 minutes.

Scoop and enjoy!

The hubs thought it was mint, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He ate it anyway.

note: He Cooks She Cooks suggested an adding a splash of alcohol, i.e. vodka so the sorbet doesn’t freeze too hard, but i skipped this step and it was fine. although adding vodka does sound like fun!!

Talking of strawberries and lemons… I leave you with images of the lemonade stand we had at our wedding. Photo credit: Acqua Photo.