Admittedly, peeling the lychees is a pain, but otherwise, this is an easy-to-make sorbet and a fantastic base for many uses. I particularly use it in intermediate courses and for cocktails. It preserves well in the freezer for quite a while. Although it contains little sugar, do not be fooled – it is quite sweet with most of the sweetness coming directly from the lychees.

Sanni

Ingredients:

• 800 grams of fresh lychee (resulting in approximately 500 grams after peeling / removing the stones)
• 50 grams of sugar
• 100 ml of water
• juice of 1 to 2 limes
• 1 egg white

Preparation:

1. Put the water and the sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Let simmer for 1 minute. Take off the heat and let cool down.
2. Peel the lychees and remove the stones. Keep a few for serving.
3. Blend the lychees in a food processor until very finely chopped. Add the lime juice (use more or less depending on the level of sweetness you wish to achieve). The mix will not be perfectly smooth at this point, do not worry about it – this will follow in the next step. Pour the mix into a container and freeze for at least 6 hours until solid.
4. Break up the frozen mix and put into the food processor. Add the egg white, then blend until smooth, thick and white.
5. Return to the container and freeze, ideally overnight. (The sorbet should have a good consistency for serving when you take it out of the freezer, but should it be too hard, you can process it again in the food processor.)

Serving:

The sorbet is nice on its own, but it also makes up, e.g., for an ideal and refreshing intermediate course or as ingredient for cocktails. Here are a few ideas:

1. For a simple intermediate course, place a scoop in a champagne glass or cup and fill up with champagne/crémant. Decorate with bits of lychee.
2. In the more daring version, shake the sorbet with 1/2 scoop of crushed ice and 1 shot of vodka until frothy, strain, and then fill up with champagne or crémant.
3. For a aperitif cocktail recipe, see my soon to follow post….