Lychee Sorbet in Coconut Macadamia Tuiles with Papaya Coulis

Lychee Sorbet

• 2 lb. fresh lychees (use canned and drained in a pinch)
• up to 1/2 c. sugar, if needed
• juice from 1/2 lime
• 1 t. fresh grated ginger (optional, but tasty)

Purée all ingredients until smooth then freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Don't fret if you don't have an ice cream maker. If that's the case, follow the freezing instructions here.

Coconut Macadamia Tuiles

• 6 sheets phyllo dough
• 1/2 c. chopped macadamia nuts
• 1/2 c. grated coconut, fresh or dessicated
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/2 c. melted butter

The first thing you need to do is to figure out what you want to use for shaping your tuiles. Cylinders and bowl shapes are both good, but your imagination is the limit. You'll be laying phyllo dough "sandwiches" across the back of of your molds then baking them, so pick something oven safe. I used small pyrex cereal bowls, but next time would like to find a smaller mold.

Lay eight molds on cookie sheet(s). If you're using bowls like I did, you'll place them face down with the open side against the sheet. Lightly grease the side facing upwards. Set the molds aside for the moment and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the nuts, coconut, sugar and flour in a bowl and set aside. Lay a sheet of phyllo dough out on a flat surface and brush it lightly but thoroughly with butter. Sprinkle the surface with approximately one fourth of the nut mixture. Repeat the process with another layer of phyllo, butter and nuts. Finish with a final sheet of butter brushed phyllo. You will now have used half your tuile making materials.

Cut the layered sheet into squares (or any other shape I 'spose). For my bowls' size, I was able to get six squares. Lay each square across the back of a bowl and press lightly to shape it.

Make a new phyllo layer with the remaining ingredients. Cut. Shape. Bake these babies in the oven until light gold, about 10-12 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let cool for five minutes. As soon as they've cooled enough that you can stand to briefly touch them, gently pull each phyllo layer off its bowl. Set the bowl to the side and place the dough right side up on the cookie sheet. You'll notice the inside of the bowl, now facing up, is still pasty. Pop that sheet back into the oven for another five minutes until the bowls are a nice golden brown then remove to cool completely..

Original inspiration for this basic approach for the tuile comes from the Cooking Diva.

Papaya Coulis

• 1 very ripe papaya. Mine was slightly overripe-- perfect.
• juice from 1/4 lemon
• corn syrup

Coulis is just a fancy word for a puréed sauce, except that you sound more impressive. Go ahead, try it. Coulis. See? Traditionally coulis were made to accompany meat or seafood. These days, people make coulis from anything you can imagine, like papaya for instance.

Peel and seed the papaya. That seems obvious, but it sure would suck to skip that step. Puree the papaya and lemon juice in a blender, then drizzle in as little corn syrup as possible to bring the coulis to a pourable consistency. Chill until use.