The neverending sherbet

Tükenmez is a sustainable home version of the kind of sherbet you used to buy in the street from hawkers with tanks on their backs – still seen occasionally in some parts of eastern Turkey. The street sherbets were often made with tamarind or liquorice root, while the home version uses medlars. As you’ll see in the ingredients list, I’ve suggested a variety of fruits that will contribute interesting notes to the taste, but you can keep adding cores and skins of any hard fruits that take your fancy. To get fermentation started, you need to keep the chickpeas in the water for at least five days. The liquid will continue to ferment gently once the chickpeas are removed, and you can keep refreshing the drink with water for three months. If it starts to taste like vinegar, use it as vinegar and make another batch.

Credit: Bree Hutchins

• serves

  25

• prep

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 red apple 
• 1 granny smith (or sour green) apple 
• 1 quince (or nashi pear) 
• 1 pear
• 100 g (3½ oz) green grapes
• 200 g (7 oz) medlars (or loquats or firm red plums)
• 50 g (1¾ oz) dried or frozen sour cherries (or red grapes) 
• 220 g (7¾ oz/1 cup) sugar
• 5 chickpeas

Fermenting time 5 days

Instructions

Quarter the apples, quince and pear without removing the seeds. Remove the stalks from the grapes. Mix all the fruits, including the medlars and sour cherries together in a bowl.

Put the mixed fruit into a 2-litre (70 fl oz/8 cup) jug (pitcher) with a sealing lid and then add the sugar. Wrap the chickpeas in muslin (cheesecloth) and add to the jug. Fill the jug with 1 litre (35 fl oz/4 cups) of water, up to the brim. Seal tightly and then store in a cool spot for 10 days before serving.

Note

• Each time you want a drink of sherbet, pour it out and replace it with 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) of water and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stored in the pantry, the sherbet can be kept and replenished for up to 6 months.

Recipe from Anatolia by Somer Sivrioglu and David Dale (Murdoch Books, $79.99, hbk). Photography by Bree Hutchins.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.