Lychee Sherbet

Lychee Sherbet: very sweet and full of smooth lychee flavor. 

One of my favorite things in life is an Asian grocery store back home in Arizona. Shopping becomes a game of Russian Roulette, in which I hope the pictures on the packaging work out for me. Six years ago, our guessing games led us to a freezer full of durian fruits. A cheerful, and I now assume devious, woman raved about how much her children LOVE durian fruits and we absolutely should buy one. So we did.

Unfortunately, we now realize that durian fruits make better bludgeons than fruit, and we want to prove the point on that woman's head. We spent hours trying to access it the interior, up against an alien egg with an impenetrable shell. But there is no knife sharp enough to cut through that husk of thorns. After a brisk walk through the backyard, past the pool and a cow in a pen (it is Arizona after all), we came to the tool shed to plan our next assault. Duct tape? Solves all problem but this one. Pitch fork? Useless. Buzzsaw? Maybe, but we were lacking one. We needed weapons with lazers, or photons and a Trekkie who speaks Klingon. We settled for a rusty hatchet.

Three swings in, the Durian claimed its victory. The grotesque, gasoline-like smell of the inside overpowered us.

My latest trips to the Asian grocer have ended much more happily. I am even so bold as to bring my friends with me. After you've dealt with durian, how much worse could it get? My most recent trip included Butchie. I picked up orange flower water, powdered honey, exotic gummy candy, and some lychees. Butch bought everything else they sold. [I had 7 grocery bags. Udon, red bean paste, kimchi, Hello Kitty mango marshmallows, Japanese fish stock, coconut soda, baby bok choy, cactus pears, sesame EVERYTHING. Seriously, Super H. Y'alls gotta go. --B.]

To treat ourselves after two hours of good shopping we used my lychees for a makeshift sherbet. Unlike myself, Butchie does not stock cream in her fridge at all times. I find it baffling, but adore her all the same. [Normally, I would. But I'd just made marscapone-whipped cream frosting for some brownies, and it was all gone. I need to start buying cream in quarts.--B.] Anyway, this is a little too icy to really qualify as ice cream, but tasty and fully of lychees nonetheless. Enjoy!

Lychee Sherbet

3/4 cups sugar
3 cups milk

1 large can lychee fruit, chopped

1 1/3 cup lychee syrup, reserved

Gently mix in the milk, sugar and lychee syrup.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker. Allow the ice cream to churn until nearly finished and add in the chopped lychee. Freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.