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A delicious, refreshing and not too sweet monkey orange sorbet. Made without an ice cream maker, all you need are monkey oranges, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and water to make this exotic monkey orange sorbet recipe.
I’ve recently brought monkey oranges from our Namibia vacation and made lots of desserts including this amazingly good and easy to follow monkey orange sorbet that I’m so proud to share with you today.
What are monkey oranges
The round, orange-sized monkey orange (Strychnos spinosa) known as Omauni in my vernacular (Oshikwanyama) is one of the popularly eaten wild fruits in the northern and north – eastern part of Namibia from August to December.
Omauni are cheap and abundant when in season and make an ideal source of Vitamin C, Iron and Zinc. Those who have traveled to Southern African countries like Namibia may have already come across monkey oranges.
I grew up with my grandparents and Omauni trees where everywhere, in their field and beyond. My grandmother used to distill monkey oranges into Ombike (a traditional home-brewed liquor made from various indigenous wild fruits such as Eembe, Omauni, Eembu and Eenyandi in rudimentary distilleries) to sell while us kids were busy swallowing the seeds and being constipated.
The sweet and slightly sour monkey oranges grow on corky monkey orange trees. They’re made up of edible seeds embedded in the fleshy pulp in a thick inedible woody shell, that’s hard to crack.
The monkey orange fruit is green when unripe and turn to a bright orange color when ripe (though there are also some ripe green monkey oranges).
When ripe, the inner flesh ranges from champagne to dark brown color. We normally pick green monkey oranges end of August and keep them in the house until they have a deep orange color.
When we were kids, we even used to dig holes in the sand with our own bare hands and bury unripe monkey orange fruits for a couple of weeks until ripe. Crack the monkey orange with wooden spoon, rolling pin or something similar or poke a hole in the monkey orange and eat the insides with a spoon. They’re amazingly good!
So hurry up and try this monkey orange sorbet while Omauni are in season.
What you’ll need to make Omauni Sorbet
- 75 g (¼ cup + 2 tablespoon) sugar
- 300 ml (1 ¼ cups) water
- 1 large monkey orange (450 g/1 lbs)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
How To Make Monkey Orange sorbet
Gently hit monkey orange in the sand or on the counter repeatedly (in this way the monkey orange will become juicier) and crack open.
Next combine the monkey orange seeds (and juices) and about 250 ml (1 cup) water in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let cook for about 10 minutes. While stirring constantly and gently pressing the seeds with a potato masher or something similar.
Next strain the monkey orange sauce to remove the seeds. Simply take the sauce that you just made and sieve it using a fine mesh sieve over a bowl.
Press all the sauce through with the help of a spoon. You want to get rid of the seeds. Pour the remaining water through the sieve. You just want to remove as much monkey orange flavor as possible.
Put the sauce back into the pot, add sugar, cinnamon and freshly squeezed lemon juice and warm over medium heat, keep stirring until the sugar has melted. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Then chill for at least 2 hours or preferably overnight.
Next transfer monkey orange sorbet mixture to a freezer-safe container and freeze at least 5 hours, keep stirring every hour.
Remove from the freezer and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
If you enjoyed my monkey orange sorbet recipe you may like this no-churn vanilla ice cream recipe as well.
Omauni Sorbet (Monkey Orange Sorbet)
Ingredients
- 75 g (¼ cup + 2 tablespoon) sugar
- 300 ml (1 ¼ cups) water
- 1 large monkey orange (450 g/1 lbs)
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- Gently hit monkey orange in the sand or on the counter repeatedly (in this way the monkey orange will become juicier) and crack open. Next combine the monkey orange seeds (and juices) and about 250 ml (1 cup) water in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let cook for about 10 minutes. While stirring constantly and gently pressing the seeds with a potato masher or something similar.
- Strain the monkey orange sauce to remove the seeds. Simply take the sauce that you just made and sieve it using a fine mesh sieve over a bowl. Press all the sauce through with the help of a spoon. You want to get rid of the seeds. Pour the remaining water through the sieve. You just want to remove as much monkey orange flavor as possible. Put the sauce back into the pot, add sugar, cinnamon and freshly squeezed lemon juice and warm over medium heat, keep stirring until the sugar has melted.
- Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Then chill for at least 2 hours or preferably overnight. Next transfer monkey orange sorbet mixture to a freezer-safe container and freeze at least 5 hours, keep stirring every hour. Remove from the freezer and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Have you ever eaten a monkey orange? What do you call it in your mother language? I’d love to hear from you! And if you happen to make this Omauni sorbet recipe simply write a review and add rating to it.