Papaya Orange Sorbet

This is easily within reach of any home chef. Doing a slight variation from the past sorbets and adding a bit of cranberry ginger ale in the spirit of the Christmas season.

Ingredients:
 - 4-5 large oranges
 - 1 or 2 papaya
 - 3/4 cup sugar
 - 1 cup water
 - 1/2 cup ginger ale
 - lime and or lime juice
 - optional - Cranberry or regular ginger ale
 - optional - Cointreau
 - gelatin

Scoop out the papaya and add to a mixer. Seeds? Don't include although there are reports that small amounts are good for you.

Cut the oranges in half and squeeze them into the mixer. Use a spoon to assist and a little pulp is no problem.

Zest the lime and add the shavings

Blend well.

 In a pan add 1/2 cup water with the 3/4 cup sugar and dissolve.

 Follow the directions on the gelatin. You might add the gelatin to some cold water first to get it started, then add the hot mixture to it. I just added it to the hot water and sugar mixture in the pan and stirred until it was dissolved. But it took a while. Remove from the heat and add another half cup of cold water.

Add the fruit mixture and water sugar gelatin mix to a bowl and stir. This is also where I added the ginger ale. Should add a nice dimension to it.

An optional but very good addition would be some yuzu liqueur (as shown below) or Cointreau. Stir it in. The yuzu liqueur is available in many liquor stores nowadays or in a Japanese store. Cointreau was the secret that I learned from the Maido restaurant owner. On a side note I found out he cut back his hours because he was working too hard and getting worn out. I do hope he takes it easy and that Maido is still open when I return to Japan sometime in the future.

Put the container in the freezer. As it freezes stir occasionally to add air to the mixture. If you don't do this then simply cut the frozen block up the next day and add it to the mixer to break up the ice. Then put it all back in the container. You are ready to enjoy your own homemade sorbet.