when planning our indian meal last week i wanted to create a light pudding, knowing that people would probably over-indulge with the curries (it happens every time!). cardamom sorbet got fixed in my mind and i decided pear would be a good second flavour.
unfortunately the pears i bought turned out to be hard and not very flavoursome so i was stuck with tinned ones, which i blitzed to a pulp in my food processor.
luckily the tinned pears worked fine and the flavours combined well.
pear and cardamom sorbet (serves 8)
200ml water
6 tablespoons caster sugar
10 cardamom pods, seeds removed and lightly crushed
500g pear pulp
juice of ½ a lemon
put the water, sugar and cardamom seeds in a pan over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. simmer for a few minutes until a thin syrup forms. add the syrup and lemon juice to the pear pulp.
put your sorbet in the freezer and stir it every half hour, for the first 3 hours to prevent crystallisation.