Seville orange sorbet

If you live in London SE1 and wonder why there aren’t any Seville oranges in the shops, it’s because I’ve bought them all. I’m testing a sorbet recipe for the book I’m writing with Jose Pizarro called Seasonal Spanish Cooking.

I started by thinking I’d need a 2 to 3 ratio of bitter orange juice and sugar syrup, but actually equal quantities works brilliantly: it produces an intensely tangy sorbet. Here’s how I made it.

First make 400ml of sugar syrup: dissolve 250g of castor sugar in 250ml boiling water and leave it to cool. When the sugar syrup completely cold, mix it thoroughly with 400ml of bitter orange juice. To give you some idea of how many Seville oranges to buy, I used sixteen small very juicy ones. Next stir in the finely grated zest of one orange and then follow the instructions for your ice cream maker.

I always say that. It’s a total pain to keep opening the freezer to stir up the mixture every 20 minutes or so; the instant you forget, the slush turns rock solid. You can probably get away with this fridge door method if you are making a custard based ice cream. But for smooth luscious sorbets, I reckon an ice cream gizmo of some kind is essential.

Anyway, make this sorbet! It brightens up January no end.