Tropical Sorbet

A tropical sorbet is as close as I'm getting to a balmy location these days.

Hunting the produce aisle for fruit from sunnier climes, closing my eyes, clicking my heels and wishing I were on a beach. Maybe wishful thinking will bring the tropics closer. Oops, not working ... and the people in the supermarket are no longer making eye contact as they reverse their wonky carts back up the aisle.

The package of mangoes that I bought for my planned sweet mango sorbet turned out to be mango skins with brown stuff inside. Not sure what type of trip they had on their way up to Canada but it wasn't good. So I switched to the good old tropical standby fruit - bananas.

Bananas are so common place in supermarkets that we don't appreciate their presence enough. My neighbour confided to me that when he was young, a banana was never seen in the markets during the winter. Now, we toss them into our carts without a second thought to the amount of time and distance they have travelled.

We always have a stash of super sweet frozen bananas on hand for smoothies, for shaving onto peanut butter sandwiches, and for eating straight up. You haven't lived unless you had a cold treat of sweet banana slivers and chocolate sauce.

My children have an aversion to artificial banana flavour since a lot of medicine for kids would have this doubtful additive. But the pure sweet flavour of ripe bananas churned into sorbet or smoothies... well, that's something else entirely. They have no qualms slurping up banana flavours like this.

Bananas, lime juice, coconut milk and a simple syrup are churned into a smooth creamy sorbet. Lime juice prevents the sorbet from turning into a "tan banana slime" so it's rather important. A strong muscle bound blender or ice cream maker is required to make this sorbet.


Banana Coconut Sorbet

About 3 very ripe and frozen bananas
1 cup simple syrup, cooled and refrigerated*
3 tablespoons lime juice, cold
1 can unsweetened coconut milk, cold (400 mL or 12 oz)

Serving dishes should be refrigerated to keep the sorbet cold since it is very soft and melts quickly.

Add the frozen bananas, cold simple syrup, and lime juice to the blender. Shake the canned coconut before opening and pour into the blender. Whiz everything until smooth. If you don’t have a strong blender that can crush ice cubes, use fresh fruit and puree the ingredients in the blender before transferring to an ice cream maker.

*Simple Syrup

2 cups sugar
1 cup water

In a medium saucepan over high heat, cook sugar and water stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and mixture reaches a full rolling boil. Immediately remove from heat and cool to room temperature. If you are making it ahead of time, store it in the fridge.

Simple right?

A lighter (less sugar) syrup intensifies the fruit taste but will yield a grainier sorbet and a heavier (more sugar) syrup yields a sweeter smoother sorbet.

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You can freeze this sorbet in serving dishes but they will require a bit of warming before consuming. Unless you like chiseling away at your food; then by all means serve rock hard and frozen.