Raspberry Sorbet, Toffee and Lime

When I think about foods like blue cheese or even something simple like meringue, I always wonder how people came to invent these recipes. How did someone know to leave cheese to age for a few years or beat egg whites for a long time and then bake it? Well a few nights ago I had a similar revelation: I stumbled across how to make a really great sorbet.

It started with a long day of uni work, coming home spent and having to push on into the night. I needed a raspberry smoothie. Bad. I blended raspberries, ice cubes, icing sugar and fruit juice together and found that it had the texture (if not a bit softer) of sorbet. Then I remembered from an episode of The Naked Chef that sorbet is essentially frozen sugar and water. Man am I glad I made a smoothie that night, because I never knew making sorbet was this simple!

So now that I don't have back-to-back assignments, I decided to make it again tonight with some adjustments. I added a thick sugar syrup with glucose so that it'd hold and it'd have that lovely thick texture of mango sorbet. I've got to say, I am really happy with this recipe so I hope you guys enjoy!

Raspberry Sorbet

2 milk glasses of ice cubes (smoothie measurements!)
1 milk glass of raspberries
½ cup sugar
¼ water
1 cinnamon quill
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon glucose
Icing sugar to taste

Place sugar, water, cinnamon, vanilla extract and glucose in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, take out the cinnamon quill and cool completely.

Place ice, raspberries and sugar syrup in a blender. Blend until smooth.

Depending on the sweetness of the raspberries, you may want to add icing sugar for extra sweetness.

Set in a shallow dish in the freezer overnight.

Toffee Shell

½ cup sugar

Lightly grease the backs of metal tablespoons.

Heat the sugar over medium-low heat until the it liquifies and colours slightly. Remove from heat. Cool until you can make ribbons on the surface.

Drizzle over the spoons in criss-cross patterns.

Cool the spoons in the freezer for a minute and gently remove toffee from spoon.

Set aside at room temperature.

Mould the sorbet with two tablespoons and fit the toffee shell onto one side. Serve with creme fraiche and candied lime zest. It's creamy, sweet, fruitily refreshing and the toffee adds a crunch to it.

Rice Pudding with Honey and Cinnamon Roasted Fig

Recipe adapted from Sweet Food, published by Murdoch Books.
Rice pudding
20g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons Arborio rice
3 eggs
¼ cup castor sugar
1¾ milk
½ cup cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon and nutmeg for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 160°C.
Grease an ovenproof dish with butter.
Cook the rice in a saucepan of boiling water for 12 minutes or until tender. Drain well.
Beat eggs lightly in a bowl.
Add sugar, milk, cream and vanilla essence and combine well. Stir in rice.
Make a bain-marie in a deep roasting tin by pouring in enough hot water to cover half the greased ovenproof dish.
Pour mixture into the ovenproof dish. Sprinkle a light layer of cinnamon and nutmeg on top.
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.
Rest for 5 minutes out of the water before serving.
Honey and cinnamon roasted fig
2 tablespoons honey
1 cinnamon quill
4 fresh figs, quartered
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
⅓ cup water
Preheat oven grill to moderately hot.
Place honey, cinnamon, vanilla essence and water in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for 6 minutes.
Place figs on a shallow baking dish.
Pour honey mixture over figs and grill until the fig juices just start to come out.
Enjoy!