Winter is officially here… the weather in Melbourne has been crisp but deliciously sunny – the leaves are still falling and the air is misty.   Couldn’t resist buying a bunch of the first white jonquils to appear and am loving their heady perfume. Piles of shiny mandarins are in all the fruit shops and markets, golden, fragrant and juicy.  Time to make the first Mandarin Sorbet of the season. My take on sorbets is that they should taste more like the fruit than the fruit itself… with that third dimension that  I like to call the IMAX effect… !  Adding an alcohol made from the same fruit used to make the sorbet gives it a depth and smooth texture that is otherwise hard to achieve without adding too much sugar and making it oversweet.
An ice cream churn is a must to get the smooth, ice free texture that makes your sorbet so perfect – I’ve had my trusty Simac Il Gelataio for nearly 30 years.  (It’s a huge monster but I wouldn’t be without it… the results are perfect every time and it has only needed a service twice since I’ve owned it.) It lives on a shelf in my pantry and never comes out except for spring cleaning.

Several types of mandarins appear as the season progresses but only the Imperial variety is fragrant enough for making sorbet with a flavour to make you swoon.

MANDARIN SORBET

500 ml mandarin juice
250 ml simple syrup (1:1 sugar/water)
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp finely grated mandarin zest (use fine microplane)
2 tbsp Mandarin Napoleon liqueur

Combine all the ingredients in a jug and chill.
Taste for sugar and acidity adding more syrup or lemon juice if needed.
Churn until smooth.  Transfer to a container and freeze for a few hours to let the flavours develop.

A little salad of fresh mandarin segments tossed in a tbsp sugar syrup and a tsp Mandarin Napoleon is a lovely accompaniment.