Flaherty Wines

I recently bought a fully automatic ice cream maker, and I am really having a lot of fun with it. I’m mostly using recipes from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop, but yesterday I branched out. We’re still in late spring here, so we don’t have a huge variety of fruit yet. Gorgeous strawberries, kiwis, the ever-present apples. And chirimoya. Chirimoya (apparently cherimoya in English) is native to the tropical Andes of Ecuador and Peru. In Chile, it is mostly grown in the areas around La Serena in the Fourth Region and Quillota in the Fifth Region (about an hour from our town). One of the most common ways to serve chirimoya here is with a splash of orange juice, a dish called chirimoya alegre. So why not freeze that into a sorbet? The result was delicious. The chirimoya provided a very creamy texture, and the sorbet did not get rock hard when stored in the freezer.

Chirimoya alegre sorbet

1 to 1.25 kilos (2 to 2.5 pounds) chirimoya (about two large)
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2/3 cup sugar
pinch salt 
Orange slices (for garnish)
Thin strips of orange zest (removed with a zester) 

Peel the chirimoyas and pick out all the seeds. In a blender, puree the chirimoya with the rest of the ingredients. Chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator, and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It will be very soft when it comes out of the ice cream maker, so you may want to put it in the freezer for an hour or two before serving. Garnish with a half-moon orange slice and a few strips of orange zest. Makes about one liter (one quart).