But to make it worthy for a Weekend Herb Blogging submission, I give you a good tip for cleaning sea-buckthorn berries. You see, sea-buckthorn branches are prickly shrubs, and the berries are quite soft. Picking them individually from the branches is a difficult, messy, painful and wasteful task. It's best to cut off berry-laden branches from the tree, remove superfluous leaves and smaller berry-free branches with scissors, wash and drain the branches, and throw them into your deep freezer for 24 hours. Then remove the branches from the freezer, and pick off the berries - as they are frozen, they come off very easily now.
Keep the berries in the deep freezer. For an excellent refreshing smoothie, blitz a handful of frozen berries in a blender, mix with water, press through a fine sieve and sweeten with sugar. Or make this sorbet:
Sea Buckthorn Sorbet
(Astelpajusorbee)
200 ml water
200 ml sugar
400 ml sea-buckthorn juice, preferably freshly extracted
You can either use shop-bought good-quality sea-buckthorn juice, or make your own. To make your own, wash about a cup of sea-buckthorn berries and puree in a blender. Press through a fine sieve. Then take some boiling water and pour over the sea-buckthorn pulp on the sieve to extract more juice. Continue, until you've got 400 ml liquid. (Using boiling water helps to extract more 'juice matter' from the pulp).
Pour water and sugar into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes to make a syrup. Cool.
Mix sea-buckthorn juice and syrup and churn in your ice cream maker according to the instructions. (We gave it 25 minutes in a Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment).
Put in the freezer to harden a little before serving.
WHB: This is also my entry to the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Kalyn herself. Click on the logo below for more information about this established foodblogging event.
16 comments:
you have the most interesting berries where you are, I love it!
So interesting! Someday I'm going to have to come to Estonia and try all these strange and exotic fruits you've been posting about. There's always so much to learn, isn't there?
Oh, I love it! I'm thinking that you could do the same thing with berry brambles, particularly since they need to be pruned, ideally each season. So, you could freeze the branches whole & then shake the berries free, maybe? Anyway, the idea of removing the branches & then freezing & removing the fruit is a fabulous one.
Thanks for sharing, once again. :)
Pille ~ What I love most about sorbets is that you really get to taste the essence of a fruit. My most favourite sorbets are made with quince (which gets really creamy because it is naturally very high in pectin, and the sorbet is a pretty rusty-pink) and blueberries (which turns out a deep purple, not blue, surprisingly). I think your sorbets always look beautiful, and I bet they are always of the most perfect texture.
Pille, you always amazing me!!! you never stop!! nice reipe,xxGloria
I gotta say, Pille, I got tickled by the name "sea-buckthorn" juice. You always have such intriguing ingredients.
It sounds like it would taste just wonderful. The color is just beautiful too. This is exactly how I freeze my herbs, and they fall off the stems after they're frozen (most of them at least!) Great idea.
What an interesting way to 'pick' the berries! Lovely color - perfect for an autumn dinner!
Fanta - very popular in Spain, not so much here...
kus mind need sorbeed ärritavad. eriti astepalju oma. sest siin neid ei tunta. pane või endale põõsad aeda.
I have never heard of these berries! How fascinating, and what a beautiful name. But I love sorbet, any flavour.
Would it be possible to post a pic of these berries for us? I would love to see them.
Suurepärane värv! See pilt on oluliselt parem, kui su esimene :)
Hi Pille!
The sorbet's color is an absolute eyecatcher, but I have to admit, I had to look up the German translation of sea-buckthorn berries... Just to find out to my surprise, I have some sea-buckthorn berry jam in the fridge - waiting to be eaten!
Beautiful, beautiful colour!
Wow - look at at the colour! If that shade had a name it would definitely be Fanta orange (like Yves Klein blue ;-))
Wow, it's beautiful. I've never tried sea-buckthorn berries but I hope to do that one day.
K&S – we do indeed!
Melissa – I’d be delighted to introduce you to all those berries and ‘exotic’ fruit :)
DaviMack – I guess that would work. It definitely works with sea-buckthorn berries!
Shaun – I must try quince sorbet – your description is delightful! And I’ve loved the colour of all sorbets we’ve made so far - sea-buckthorn sorbet, orange sorbet, gooseberry sorbet, watermelon sorbet or hibiscus & strawberry sorbet - it’d be hard to choose just one!
Gloria – thank you!
Susan – well, it’s what we eat here. In addition to all ‘normal’ ingredients, that is :)
Kalyn – both the taste and the colour were wonderful, trust me! I haven’t tried freezing any herbs yet (apart from dill), but I’ve understood from your blog that many of them freeze nicely.
Katie – the orange hue was very autumnal indeed..
Maarja – no aga Sul ju suur aed!? Pane aga põõsas kasvama :)
VegeYum – you can see a picture of sea-buckthorn berries here.
Kärt – aitäh :) Uus on vist parem, jah. Minu arust polnud esimene ka nüüd nii halb, aga K. tegi kihutustööd, et ma uue teeksin.
Nicky – thank you! I’ve tried jam as well, but I prefer juice/cordial, sorbet and fresh berries in desserts to the jam.
Wendy – thank you! I love the colour, too!
Jeanne – noo, this one cannot be Fanta orange (this is Fanta orange, but we could call it maybe Hippophae orange (playing on its Latin name) - that’s not bad either, is it?
Dagmar – I’m sure they’re pretty easily available in Sweden, considering how popular they are in Finland and Estonia!
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