This sorbet is a new entry for Food Nirvana. Think of it as a frozen dessert that captures the delicious taste of fresh (hopefully home grown) strawberries in a very nice sorbet. Why sorbet instead of gelato or ice cream? Well, Food Nirvana has lots of nice ice cream recipes and some fine gelato preparations, and even some nice sherbet recipes, and as we move away from the use of cream or milk the frozen delights become more "bright" in fruit taste, thus interestingly different. Sorbets do not typically contain dairy products.

I decided to try making this sorbet with my son-in-law, Mike, using his recipe, because I grow my own delicious strawberries. Another very good reason is that my sweetheart, Peggy, loves strawberries. Smart move, right? Yes, and Mike and I were completely successful. I am most pleased with Mike's recipe, and have very much thanked him, and I've added the recipe to Food Nirvana for you to enjoy.

It is best to make sorbet using a gelato maker that comes with it's own freezing unit. If you buy one you can make great sorbets, gelatos and ice creams. Just don't try to use an ice cream maker to make gelatos or sorbets. Inherent design and capability differences indicate you want to buy a gelato maker for versatility. The price range for good gelato makers will range from a few hundred dollars up to about eight hundred dollars for top of the line equipment. That may sound expensive, but think how much you spend for store bought or roadside stand ice cream. I'm betting you can easily save so much money that the unit will pay for itself within two or three years ... and you truly control the quality of what you will eat in frozen desserts.

Note that fruit seed removal in some sorbet or gelato or ice cream recipes won't work with strawberries because the seeds are simply too small to capture and remove with any conventional kitchen equipment. Thus, if you have digestion or processing problems with small seeds you do not want to eat this strawberry sorbet.

Oh, yes ... one final thought ... the ingredient amounts shown in all the ice cream, gelato, sherbet and sorbet recipes found in Food Nirvana can be modified to please you best. After you have used the basic recipes, experiment with different amounts of sugar or lemon juice, etc. until you achieve what to you is perfection. You are not limited to what is sold commercially in super markets or other places ... You are the boss.

Okay, enough preliminaries. Let's get on with it ...

Ingredients: (Makes about 2 quarts of sorbet)

1 cup of sugar

8 cups of fresh strawberries

2 tbsp. of fresh lemon juice

Dash of salt (optional)

Directions:

Process all the ingredients in a blender on medium speed until the mixture is totally smooth.

Transfer half of the mixture to a gelato maker and proceed to make the sorbet. Once it is stiff, transfer the completed batch of sorbet to a one quart storage container. Put the container into the deep freeze for two to four hours to finish hardening it. Repeat the freezing and storage steps for the second half of the sorbet mixture.

When serving the sorbet you may want to let it partially thaw for perhaps five to ten minutes, but be observant and then scoop it from the storage container and serve it fairly quickly as it can melt faster than gelato or ice cream.

Enjoy!