Recipe: Orange or Blood Orange Sorbet with a Salad of Blood Oranges

Orange or Blood Orange Sorbet with a Salad of Blood Oranges
Source: Entertaining Light by Martha Rose Shulman
Servings: 6

Sorbet:
1/4 cup unrefined brown sugar (turbinado sugar)
1 Tablespoon mild-flavored honey
1/2 cup water
3 1/2 cups fresh orange/blood orange juice (from about 3 pounds oranges/blood oranges)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Salad:
6 blood oranges
2 to 3 Tablespoons Grand Marnier (to taste)
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
fresh mint sprigs for garnish

To make the sorbet:
Combine the sugar, honey and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Combine the juices and syrup in a large bowl. Freeze either in an ice cream maker (according to manufacturer's instructions) or in a covered bowl. When frozen solid, remove from the bowl and spoon into a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process until fluffy; this breaks up the ice crystals and gives you a smooth texture.

Spoon into individual serving dishes and cover each one with plastic wrap then foil. Or oil a loaf pan and line with plastic wrap. Pour in the sorbet mixture, cover tightly with plastic or foil then freeze. Work quickly so that the frozen mixture doesn't melt to a liquid, or ice crystals will form again when it freezes.

To make the salad:
Peel the oranges and cut away all the white pith. Cut the sections out from between the membranes, holding the orange over a bowl so you catch all the juice. Chill until about an hour before serving.

About an hour before serving, toss the oranges with the Grand Marnier and chopped fresh mint. Return to the refrigerator.

Twenty to 30 minutes before serving, place the sorbet in the refrigerator to soften. If you froze the sorbet in a loaf pan, unmold onto a platter. Cut slices using a sharp knife, and place in serving bowls. If you freeze it in individual molds, unmold into the serving bowls (run a knife around the edges to facilitate unmolding).

Spoon the orange salad around the sorbet and garnish each sorbet with a sprig of fresh mint.