- Julia Thiel
- Pisco sour (sort of)
Last weekend I had friends over for dinner and decided to make sorbet for dessert, finally using an ice cream maker gifted to me last fall by a friend who was moving away. I read through dozens of recipes—so many possibilities!—for strawberry, lemon, lime, basil, pepper, and a plethora of other sorbets. I was hoping that Stanley’s would still have Meyer lemons in stock since they seemed to be popular for making sorbet, but no such luck. I finally settled on lemon-basil-ginger sorbet, and the day before my guests came over I put the bowl of the ice cream maker in the freezer (it’s supposed to stay in there for 24 hours) and made the sorbet base so that it would have time to chill.
- Julia Thiel
- The rum cocktail
Since I had lots of syrup left over, later in the week I tried mixing it with a couple other liquors. I started with pisco, which yielded a drink very similar to a pisco sour—the basil and ginger flavors were subtle to start with, even more so once the alcohol was added. It was a nice light cocktail, though, perfect for the balmy 50-degree weather we’ve been having. Next I tested the syrup out with aged rum; it didn’t taste quite right, but adding a little pineapple juice—and a bit more lime juice (real this time) to balance out the sweetness—improved it considerably, making a tropical-tasting drink. I wouldn’t advise scrapping your favorite cocktail recipes and using a sorbet base instead, but for using up the liquid from failed sorbet the drinks worked great.
