Mango sorbet

These days:

I have free time to make pites (savory Greek pies) with homemade phyllo. S, a lover of pies, is ecstatic.

I can't stop watching the Olympics and Michael Phelps in particular, winning medals. I think he's adorable and I'll be rooting for him tonight.

I'm wearing my new red lipstick all the time. Red rules.

We're traveling around Holland by car, music playing loud, me singing louder, enjoying the scenery and beautiful colors of the flat Dutch countryside.

Sun, everywhere.

I cut my hair; finally. It was very long, now it's at shoulder height. The hairdresser asked me if I wanted to keep some of it. I looked at her like she was nuts and she got it. Who keeps their cut hair, people?

I take photos of everything, all the time.

I have free time to make jams. Wild peach, nectarine, strawberry. The refrigerator is filled to the brim, it's starting to fall apart. Seriously. A shelf broke yesterday.

I can't stop eating this sorbet. Mango sorbet.

The markets here in Holland are bursting with fresh mangoes at the moment and of course I couldn't resist them.

My first thought was to make a chutney but then I reconsidered. I wanted to taste the fruit in all its glory and what's more enticing, irresistible and refreshing than an iced sorbet eaten on a scalding hot day. If it's a popsicle, even better. No bowls, no spoons, no waiting around for it to come to room temperature to scoop it. You grab it out of the freezer and eat it, just like that.

Mango Sorbet Popsicles

Light, fresh and full of mango flavor. The sugar highlights the taste of the fruit and the lemon tames its sweetness, giving a pleasant acidity to the sorbet.
You can use lime instead of lemon, if you prefer it.

How to pick a mango
First, you need to know that the color of the mango is not an indicator of its ripeness. Whether it's greenish, red, yellow or orange, it really doesn't matter.

How to tell if a mango is ripe:
a) Touch it. Take it in your hands and give it a gentle squeeze. If it gives slightly, it's ripe. If not, move to the next. If the mango is very soft, it's overripe. Very ripe mangoes tend to go all stringy so they're not ideal for sorbets.
b) Smell it. If the mango (especially if you smell it towards the stem end) has a sweet smell, it's most probably ripe. If you can't smell anything, move on to the next.

Keep mangoes at room temperature and not in the fridge. If they're too ripe, refrigerate them but you should eat them very soon.

Yield: about 15 popsicles (50-60 ml each)

Ingredients
2 large, fresh, ripe mangoes, about 1 kg
250 g icing sugar
Juice of 1 lemon (40-50 ml), freshly squeezed

Special equipment: food processor, 15 vodka shot glasses (50-60 ml capacity), wooden popsicle sticks


Preparation
Rinse and peel the mangoes. Be careful when you peel them because their flesh is slippery. Cut it into chunks and squeeze the pit with your hands to release the juices from the flesh that is stuck around it.

Add the mango chunks in the food processor along with the icing sugar and the lemon juice. Process until smooth and give it a taste. If you find it too sweet, add more lemon juice. Pour into the vodka shot glasses or any other popsicle mold you're using. Add the wooden popsicle sticks and put the glasses in the freezer. Allow the sorbet to set. It will take about 4 hours, depending on the strength of your freezer.
Keep in mind that if you're using larger molds, the sorbet will take more time to set.

Alternatively, you can pour it into an ice cream machine and then in a suitable container and into your freezer, thus making simply a sorbet and not pospicles.

Taking out the popsicles from the shot glasses is a piece of cake as long as the sorbet has set properly inside the glass. Run the sides of the shot glass under cold running water and holding the wooden popsicle stick with your hand, turn and pull the popsicle out of the glass. You might feel some resistance at first but it will eventually come out.

You can keep the sorbet in the freezer for up to 1 month.