SIMPLE SORBETS
Frederic Robert doesn’t quite understand the American tendency to all scream for ice cream.
“In this country, the people love too much the ice cream,” said Robert, executive pastry chef at Wynn Las Vegas and a native of France. “Ice cream is so rich. It’s too much fat. You need to discover sorbet.”
This, then, is your big chance. Sorbets are a perfect summer treat — for dessert, between courses or just as a pick-me-up — and they’re simple to make at home. If you have an ice-cream maker, you can make sorbet.
The staff at rm seafood at Mandalay Bay likes sorbet so much they’ve created more than 20 flavors of it. Consider lemon-lemongrass, Meyer lemon, passionfruit, blackberry-lime, prickly pear, yuzu or Granny Smith apple.
At rm seafood, sorbet is served in three different fashions, said Steven Geddes, co-pastry chef. The first is in a small portion with berry soup or fruit, as a pre-dessert. There’s also a trio of sorbets; a recent one included Santa Claus melon, caramel-apple and Ruby Red grapefruit.
And the restaurant always has a long list of ice creams, sherbets, ice milks and sorbets on hand, which executive chef Rick Moonen has turned into a game.
“Rick’s one of the few chefs I’ve worked with who’s really into wine and taste and flavor profiles as much as he is food,” Geddes said. “Sorbets and ice cream in general are great carriers of taste and flavor.”
What has evolved, he said, is a sort of dessert quiz, kind of a blind tasting — the 4-by-4-by-2 ice-cream name game — that asks guests to identify the flavors in each of 16 frozen desserts. A recent assortment included the Ruby Red grapefruit sorbet as well as tangerine and mango, and such ice-cream flavors as orange-anise and black pepper.
“For me, personally — a professionally trained taster — I find that sorbets are one of the cleanest, purest expressions of food in the kitchen,” said Geddes, a master sommelier. The best, he said, are made of seasonal fruits caught at their peak of ripeness.
“Because it is so pure, you have to be careful,” he added, noting that quality and flavor of fruits can vary greatly from shipment to shipment.
Robert agreed that the quality of the basic ingredient is paramount.
“I try to select the best fruit,” generally following the season, he said. Right now that means a lot of peaches and apricots.
“It’s very important, because when you make a sorbet, 65 percent is fruit,” he said.
The 35 percent is water, granulated sugar and inverted sugar (a particularly concentrated sugar syrup that’s available online and in some cake-decorating supply stores, or can be made by adding citric acid or ascorbic acid to sugar). He purees fresh fruit in the blender, but doesn’t peel the fruit.
“You need to keep your skin,” Robert said. “All the flavor is concentrated in the skin,” and that’s where a lot of color comes from.
Lemon juice is essential, as well, he said. The acidity helps bring out the flavor of the fruit and helps preserve the color.
The water and granulated sugar are combined to make a simple syrup, and the simple syrup, inverted sugar and fruit are combined and allowed to mature in the refrigerator for three to four hours before it’s frozen in an ice-cream machine.
At rm seafood, Geddes and his co-workers use a refractometer — a device used to determine the sugar level of fruit, and commonly used in wine-making. That way the sugar level can be adjusted precisely, he said, because the sugar level determines the texture when the mixture is frozen.
Geddes said he has done quite a bit of experimenting with flavors. While he’s mostly using fruit now, “because we’re going into the fruit season,” he has tried wasabi, lemongrass, prickly pear and “a cucumber one that was gorgeous,” among others.
“They usually have some kind of a citrus element — usually lemon — as a base,” he said. “For me, the biggest issue is balance. Sometimes you get some flat notes. You can brighten them up with citrus or something of that nature.”
Geddes said as is the case with ice creams, sorbet sales generally spike in summer.
“I think because we use only fresh ingredients, the staff certainly gets behind them because they’re exciting and flavorful,” he said. “We sell quite a few of the sorbet trios. Sometimes customers will choose a flavor and ask for a larger portion.
“They’re not laden with cream and butter. I certainly would say it’s a healthier alternative.
“It’s good for the health, because it’s fresh,” Robert said. And there’s an added plus to making your own sorbets:
“You know exactly what you eat.”
CRENSHAW MELON SORBET
1 2-pound ripe Crenshaw melon, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons Midori
Pinch salt
In a blender, puree all ingredients until smooth. Taste and check for balance. Strain through fine-mesh strainer, chill and freeze in an ice-cream freezer, following manufacturer’s instructions.
Serves 4.
— Recipe from rm seafood, Mandalay Bay
RUM MANGO SORBET
2 large ripe mangos, peeled, seeded and chopped
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon dark rum
Pinch salt
In a blender, puree all ingredients until smooth. Taste and check for balance. Strain through fine-mesh strainer, chill and freeze in an ice-cream freezer, following manufacturer’s instructions.
Serves 4.
— Recipe from Steven Geddes, rm seafood, Mandalay Bay
FRESH RASPBERRY-LIME
SORBET
1 pound fresh ripe raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon Hangar One Kaffir Lime Vodka
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
Pinch salt
In a blender, puree all ingredients until smooth. Taste and check for balance. Strain through fine-mesh strainer, chill and freeze in an ice-cream freezer, following manufacturer’s instructions.
Serves 4.
— Recipe from Steven Geddes, rm seafood, Mandalay Bay
PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS SORBET
3/4 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
5 prickly pears, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon citrus vodka
Pinch salt
To make sugar syrup, heat water and sugar over low heat just to dissolve, then let cool. In a blender, puree prickly pears and sugar syrup until smooth, then strain through a fine-mesh strainer. Add lemon juice, vodka and salt. Taste for balance. Chill and freeze in an ice-cream freezer, following manufacturer’s instructions.
Serves 4.
— Recipe from Steven Geddes, rm seafood, Mandalay Bay
PEACH SORBET
9 ounces water
11/4 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons inverted sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 pounds peach puree (made from unpeeled fruit, pureed in a blender)
To make simple syrup, combine water and sugar; bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer and cook until sugar is completely dissolved. Cool. Combine simple syrup, inverted sugar, lemon juice and peach puree; refrigerate 3 to 4 hours to mature. Freeze in an ice-cream freezer, following manufacturer’s directions.
Serves 4.
— Recipe from Frederic Robert, Wynn Las Vegas
APRICOT SORBET
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons inverted sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 pounds apricot puree (made from unpeeled fruit, pureed in a blender)
To make simple syrup, combine water and sugar; bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer and cook until sugar is completely dissolved. Cool.
Combine simple syrup, inverted sugar, lemon juice and apricot puree; refrigerate 3 to 4 hours to mature. Freeze in an ice-cream freezer, following manufacturer’s directions.
Serves 4.
— Recipe from Frederic Robert, Wynn Las Vegas
Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.
