Simple Recipes For Sorbet, Granita, And Other Frozen Favourites Arrive Like A Breeze On A Hot Night

The kitchen overflows with dirty pots, discarded skins and leaves, and sticky spoons. A sense of chaos and imminent disaster prevails, and there's only one thing to blame: books. All this mess owes its existence to an afternoon way back in 2000, when I first opened Regan Daley's In the Sweet Kitchen (Random House Canada). Following 550 pages of baked and boiled desserts was a handful of ice creams (roasted cinnamon, mango ripple, orange-date...), including one that ignited my senses: litchi--coconut milk sorbet.

The image of litchi and coconut was so exotic and promised to refresh like a long-awaited breeze on a summer evening. Last weekend I made a batch, and the setting of eastern flavours in the sorbet texture was every bit as blessed a holiday as I'd expected.

LITCHI---COCONUT MILK SORBET

3 540-millilitre tins litchis in syrup

1 400-millilitre tin coconut milk

1/4 cup powdered cream of coconut

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup light corn syrup

Food-process the litchis with a quarter-cup syrup. (Discard the rest.) Spoon in one cup of the thick coconut cream from the top of the coconut milk tin and whir again. Strain mixture through a coarse sieve into a bowl, pressing on the solids to extract any remaining liquid. (Throw out the pulp or mix it into yogurt and serve with granola. Yum.)

In a small bowl, stir together the powdered coconut milk and water, and add to the litchi purée. Blend well, then stir in the corn syrup. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least three hours or, better, overnight.

Process the chilled mixture according to your ice-cream maker's instructions. It can be frozen for up to two weeks. Serve in tall wineglasses garnished with a handful of fresh or lightly toasted coconut flakes or a few fresh litchis, if in season. Serves four to six.

With the litchi-coconut sorbet as an example, I started questing for the perfect example of Asian cold fusion. (Not as strange as it sounds: the myth goes that Marco Polo brought ice cream to Europe from China.) Nadia Roden's Granita Magic (Artisan, 2003) was a treasure trove: it features many exotic additions to the Italian water ice called granita (a grainier cousin to sorbet). Beyond the standards, Roden gives Southeast Asian--inspired recipes like litchi-lime, the three Ps (pineapple, passion fruit, pomegranate), coconut-lime, saffron-honey, tamarind, ginger, and chai spice.

The chief difference between ice cream or sorbet and granita is technique. Ice creams, whether custard-based or not, depend on a mixing machine; it beats (or "dashes") the ice cream to discourage the formation of ice crystals and add air. This yields that creamy texture. Granita, by contrast, needs nothing but a freezable pan and a fork to fold the ice crystals back into the mixture.

LEMONGRASS GRANITA

4 large lemongrass stalks

1/2 cup sugar

3 cups water

4 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice

Top and tail the lemongrass and discard the tough outer leaves. Roughly chop the stalks into one-centimetre pieces and food-process them with the sugar into a paste. Spoon the paste into a medium saucepan with the water. Heat to just below boiling, then remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Strain through a fine sieve, pressing down on the solids to extract any liquid. Stir in the lemon or lime juice, and pour into a wide, shallow dish. Cover and freeze for one hour. Remove from the freezer and, with a fork, break up any ice, working from the edges to the centre, then return to freezer. Repeat every half-hour for another 90 minutes, until the mixture has transformed to small icy sequins. Serves four to six, immediately.

Once you're comfortable with the techniques, you can begin experimenting with flavours. Try a trip to Chinatown or the wonderful South China Seas Trading Company at Granville Island to open your mind. For further inspiration, Asian Fusion (John Wiley & Sons, 1997) by Wini Brugger introduces the possibility of ginseng ice cream (using ginseng liqueur) and chocolate/five spice. Moroccan-born Nadine Abensur describes fig-and-rose-water double-cream ice cream in The Cranks Bible (Cassell & Co., 2001), and suggests serving it with quinces in rose syrup, melted bittersweet chocolate, or toasted slivered almonds. Finally, Robert Wemischner and Diana Rosen's Cooking With Tea (Periplus Editions, 2000) yields green-tea ice cream served with sesame-caramel sauce. Any of these icy ambrosias will transport you far from Vancouver's brief burst of heat.

John Burns is coauthor of The Urban Picnic (Arsenal Pulp Press, $24.95).