tequila lime sherbet

I have the occasional glass of white wine, and I do find a good gin & tonic to be a helpful lubricant at parties, but I can't say that I'm much of a drinker. Jeremy makes beer, mead, herbal wines, and other homemade hooch, and I obligingly taste his concoctions and occasionally imbibe (especially during cider season), but this only happens every few months.

Nevertheless, my freezer is full of liquor. Most of it, I use for making tinctures. Different alcohols are useful for different herbs, though high-test vodka is always the standby. Some liquors, such as brandy and whiskey, are important additions to homemade cough remedies. But any booze is good for homemade ice cream, sorbet, or granita. Without it, these treats tend to ice up and become hard as rock after freezing.


In this case, I decided to highlight the flavor of tequila while taking advantage of a sale on limes. I used coconut milk for the base. For several years, I've been using coconut milk to create dairy-free ice cream. Its saturated fat content makes for a very creamy product, but if you have access to cream from pastured animals, you can use that instead.


As a general rule, when I cook with alcohol, I stay away from the bottom shelf if the flavor is intended to be an important feature. If you're only using a tablespoon of liquor to keep a sorbet from freezing too hard, it's fine to use three-dollar vodka, but if you want a rich stew with high notes of red wine, you should choose a bottle of something you'd actually drink. Where the flavor counts for something, spring for the good stuff. You don't have to spend $80 on a handmade ceramic jug of tequila, but don't get a no-name bottle, either.

I have a special affection for the kind of palm sugar that comes packed into bricks. I definitely prefer to buy fair-trade sugar, but this sweetener is so multi-layered in its flavor and so generally versatile and beautiful, I still buy it when I see it in Asian markets. Palm sugar is generally interchangeable with coconut sugar (though they're not the same), so if you can't find palm sugar, coconut sugar is fine - or another type of sugar such as turbinado.


You might wonder about the avocado in this recipe. Several years ago, I ordered a coconut smoothie in a Mexican restaurant and was invited to guess what natural food ingredient made it green. The answer was avocado. I was surprised because, at the time, I didn't care for avocados, but in that smoothie, I couldn't taste it at all. I've been wanting to experiment ever since, and got my chance with this sherbet, which screams green in flavor but would be plain and white without the avocado.

Tequila Lime Sherbet
1 1/2 c. coconut milk
3/4 c. fresh lime juice
1/2 c. palm sugar
1/4 c. tequila
1 ripe avocado, peeled and seeded
1 t. vanilla extract
zest from 1 lime

Combine the milk, lime juice, sugar, tequila, avocado, and vanilla in a blender.
Process until smooth, then stir in the lime zest.
Taste and add more sugar if needed (depends on the tartness of the limes).
Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions.
If you don't have an ice cream maker, pour the sherbet into a freezer-safe container.
Stir the sherbet every hour, until it's frozen through.
Let the sherbet thaw slightly before eating, if you freeze it for more than a day.

This recipe is a part of Real Food Wednesday.