A little while back, I wrote about creating a Gin & Tonic sorbet and, with the weather heating up again, I thought that I would turn my attention to another cocktail sorbet. With its dry, refreshing flavours and bright colours, the Negroni seemed like a natural choice.
THE RECIPE
400g Caster Sugar
75ml Campari (except no substitutes)
75ml Red Vermouth
100ml Crodino or other Bitter Soda
100ml Orange Juice
70ml Water
30ml Dry Gin (I used Perivale Dry)
1 Egg White
- Mix the sugar, Campari, Vermouth, water, orange juice and Crodino until the sugar has dissolved, then chill in the fridge until cold.
- Once cold, remove the mix, add the gin, and pour into a container. Return to the freezer until the mix is almost frozen; this will take about 2 hours.
- Remove the semi-frozen mix from the freezer and break up with a fork. Froth the egg white with a fork, then add both to a food processor and pulse to blitz together – do it quickly so that it doesn’t start to melt. Pour the mix back into your container and freeze again until solid.
THE TASTE
A very fresh and bitter-sweet sorbet with a tangyness form the orange. It has the deeper herbal notes of the red vermouth and the Campari is flavours come through very well. It doesn’t taste to alcoholic and would make an excellent unusual palette cleaner between courses.
I aimed to make a sorbet that tastes like a Negoni and I think this got pretty close.
It is difficult to put a lot of gin in the sorbet, as it won’t freeze, but a good compromise is to pour some gin, straight from the freezer, over the sorbet when you serve. If you do this then the sorbet is even more Negroni like as you get more of the piney, citrus juniper.
Campari is available in most supermarkets and off licences priced at around £14 for 70cl.
What a great idea! I’ve just sent this over to I’ve taken the liberty of sending this blog page to @SohoVermouth and @AndreaCheff. They are the Bar Manager and Head Chef (and co-owner) of @meleEpere and claim to be the only vermouth bar in London. I met them a few weeks ago, I reckon this might be a nice crowd pleaser desert or bar snack! @wilkes888
I’ve experimented with boozy jelly (http://cowfish.org.uk/blog/2009/03/15/jelly/ – I need to buy pop rocks) but not yet fiddled with the world of sorbet – I see icy snacks in my future. The use of Crodino is a bit inspired and it’s gone back to the top of my experimental shopping list.