Berry smoothie

I bet  a lot of people don’t know that the word “sherbet” comes from the Arabic language. I guess Arabs who had to live in hot temperatures devised the notion of smoothie and sherbets centuries ago. I remember in Beirut when I would go downtown with my mother or grandmother, before the civil war, seeing vendors pushing  their wooden cart filled with a pyramid of  fruits of all kind and a large brass juicer to make fresh orange juice, or lemonade or jellab, with a large block of ice next to it. I was always tempted …now Beirut is slowly losing all the juice specialists except in some very popular areas such as the Corniche. Too bad! Never mind, we will  make them at home then!

I am always disappointed by so-called smoothies that I have ordered at smoothie joints. I find that the taste of fruit is almost nonexistent! My smoothie is creamy, with a very concentrated taste of berries. My son told me one time that drinking it ” made his stress go away”!

INGREDIENTS:

1 quart of strawberries, washed briefly and cored and cut in 4 pieces

1 basket of raspberries, rinsed briefly

1/4 cup of cranberries

2 cups of 2% milk

2 Tablespoons of ater

1 cup of ice cubes

METHOD:

Throw all the fruits and milk and syrup and ice cubes in a sturdy blender. Run it for 2 minutes. Sahteyn!

TO MAKE ATER (sugar syrup)

3 cups of sugar

1 cup of water

1/2 lemon juice

1 Tablespoon rose water

1 Tablespoon orange blossom water

Boil the sugar, water and lemon juice while stirring from time to time. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the rose and blossom  water. Let it cool. Syrup can be used right away or stored for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

NOTE:

I prefer to use organic fruits; they have more flavor, less pesticides, etc.. Even frozen, I noticed a big difference in taste. So, if I am short of, say, strawberries, I will use the organic frozen variety, which captures the taste of the fruit superbly.