It's a typical New York summer, hot and and humid. Luckily we've done most of our cooking with liquid nitrogen for the past few days because applying actual heat to food holds little appeal. It may not be healthy to live on ice cream alone, but some days I'm tempted to give it a go. Fortunately (or not, depending upon your perspective) the fact that I'm eating for two keeps me at least partially in line. Still, a little bit of chocolate sorbet is never a bad thing. I'm lucky enough to have a dewar of liquid nitrogen on hand so making my own is almost instant gratification.
Chocolate Cardamom Sorbet
200 grams chopped chocolate
500 grams water
175 grams sugar
2 grams salt
2 grams ground cardamom
Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over a simmering water bath. Once the chocolate is melted, turn off the heat but the leave the bowl over the warm water. Bring the water, sugar and salt to a boil. Add the water to the chocolate in small increments, briskly stirring in each addition with a rubber spatula before adding the next. Continue until all of the water has been emulsified into the chocolate. It may look broken in the beginning but it will come together. Stir in the cardamom. Blend the mixture for one minute using an immersion or stand blender. Cool the sorbet base over an ice bath and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least four hours before freezing.
I have frozen this base with liquid nitrogen and using a Paco Jet with very good results. I have not tested it in an ice cream machine although it should work without any issues. This base makes for an extremely tasty beverage if you freeze it in an ice cube tray and puree in a blender, a dollop of whipped cream is simply icing on the cake.
