The CSA basket was a little different this week in that it contained only one item - over a quart of blueberries. Today's temperatures were right up at 100 or so, so I thought I'd look into doing something frozen with the blueberries. This recipe produced a very rich sherbet with very strong, concentrated blueberry flavor and just a little tang from the buttermilk. It's from my current ice cream bible, Ices, by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir.
350 g. blueberries
250 mL simple syrup
250 mL chilled buttermilk
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 egg white
Put the blueberries into a colander, rinse well, and remove any stems or damaged fruit. Drain thoroughly and transfer to a medium saucepan. Add the syrup and bring to a boil. Cover and remove from the heat. Allow to cool before transferring to the refrigerator to chill. When ready, mash the fruit coarsely with a potato masher. Stir in the buttermilk and lemon juice. Put it into the ice cream machine and start freezing. When the sherbet is just starting to get icy, beat the egg white with a fork for to loosen it and add it to the sherbet while the machine is running. When frozen to the consistency of thick whipped cream, either serve or transfer to the freezer to harden. According to the book, you may need to put it into the fridge to soften up for a half hour or so if it gets really hard.
