Blood Orange Sorbet
february 16, 2016

The best part of winter in California is the citrus. Every year my family and I celebrate the season by ordering a box of tarocco blood oranges from Frog Hollow Farm for sorbet. Their juice makes a delicious dessert: sweet, tart, refreshing and cold as the snow we never have here in San Francisco.

Sorbet is ridiculously easy to make. The most difficult part is juicing the oranges, but the Acme Juicerator with citrus attachment my cousin Karl gave my husband and I for our wedding fifteen years ago makes the task into child's play. So much so that I usually rely on my son to do it. Until now this has been a beloved task for him, but this year he'd rather play Minecraft. Am I the only one with this problem?

For the freezing, I use an ancient version of Cuisinart's Ice Cream Maker, which I have to say is a remarkably good investment for fifty-nine bucks. Though I'm pretty sure it was thirty back when I bought it.  Looks like you can save eight dollars today,  if you buy the red one. It is February, after all, so go for it. And get an extra bowl if you think you might ever want to make more than one and a half quarts of sorbet at a time, as the bowl has to chill in the freezer for 24 hours for each batch.

My daughter served each bowl of sorbet with a sprig of mint and an olive oil truffle from Frog Hollow Farm, the perfect accompaniment. Their olive oil brownies are also good with it, too. 

Yum, yum! Eat up! Celebrate the season!

Blood Orange Sorbet: (adapted from Chez Panisse Cooking)

You'll need an ice cream maker for this, if it is a modern one with a bowl that goes in the freezer, make sure the bowl gets at least 24 hours in there to chill in advance.

12 to 16 blood oranges, to yield 1 quart juice

grated peel of two of the oranges

1 cup sugar

Grate the peel of two of the oranges and set it aside. Juice the oranges directly into a 1 quart measuring cup, so that you can measure as you go and won't need to dirty another dish for mixing. 

Add the sugar and the peel. Stir the mixture until the sugar is entirely dissolved (a good preschooler job). Chill the mixture in the refrigerator, then freeze in an ice cream maker. Serve the day it is made. Leftovers will keep for several days in the freezer.

Sprigs of mint and dark chocolate (truffles, brownies, etc.) are good accompaniments.