I’ve had a love affair for years before I met Magellan. With grapefruit. Every year since I first made it in 2017, “Grapefruit and Campari Sorbet” from the cookbook, Sweet, has been our Christmas dessert.

And here’s the thing, the reason it’s become our go-to finale is because it’s not sweet.

This sorbet is light, vibrant, tangy and refreshing.

The ruby red of both the grapefruit and Campari made me think: why not serve it on Valentine’s Day instead of a too-rich chocolate dessert?

Sorbets have been around for ages. As far back as 3000 BC in Asia. The co-author of the cookbook from which this recipe comes is Helen Goh, who grew up in Malaysia.

In an interview with Grub Street, Helen says that as a kid, “At the table, you would not get away with just, ‘Thanks, Mum.’ You would have to say what was nice about the food, what you didn’t like, and how could she improve it the next time. I mean, every single meal was a discussion.” Good training for developing a discerning palate.

Helen’s family moved to Australia, a country renowned for its sweet tooth.

She didn’t plan a career as a pastry chef. Helen was working for a pharmacy company and studying to be a psychotherapist in the 1990s when her boyfriend received a small redundancy payment and they spontaneously opened a café. “It was sheer stupidity,” she told Dani Valent in Medium. “Neither of us had experience. We’d run out of money by the time we opened and I remember standing in the kitchen and thinking, ‘Oh f — , now I’ve got to cook.’ I bought books, I followed recipes, we worked 20-hour days, living above the store.”

(She learned about sweets by reading one of my favourite cookbooks, Emily Luchetti’s Four-Star Desserts.)

Helen worked as a pastry chef at another restaurant for seven years before moving to London to be with her boyfriend-now-husband. Tired of the long hours and testosterone-fuelled atmosphere of restaurants, she decided to get her doctorate in psychology. While studying, she began working for London’s Yotam Ottolenghi, the hugely successful restauranteur and author of award-winning best-selling cookbooks. (No slouch is she?) That turned into a full-time job and when she casually suggested the idea of co-writing a book, Yotam agreed, leading to Sweet, his sixth cookbook, her first.

You may be thinking, “Grapefruit. Helen sounds like a cool person but no way!”

But…

A medium grapefruit gives you 100% of your daily requirement of vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant that’s great for your immune system.

Grapefruit lowers your blood-sugar levels and has proved to significantly reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

You sorbet makers out there may be thinking, “Alcohol in a sorbet. No way.”

It’s true that alcohol lowers the freezing point of a sorbet, making it less stable. Too much of it and a sorbet won’t freeze.

But Helen’s recipe works. Her sorbet freezes well, isn’t full of icy crystals, and is soft and easy to scoop. Do as she suggests, though, and put your dessert glasses in the freezer beforehand.

If you must have chocolate, make her recipe for “Chocolate-Dipped Grapefruit Peel” to accompany the sorbet. Personally, I love spooning up Helen’s sorbet with a few “Grapefruit-Fennel Shortbread Cookies” decorated with candied grapefruit peel.

The love affair continues…

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Ottonlenghi, Yotam; with Helen Goh & Tara Wigley. Sweet. California: Ten Speed Press, 2017. New York Times bestseller.  Finalist for the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Awards for “Baking and Desserts” and “Photography” categories. Finalist for the 2018 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Cookbook Award for “Baking” category.

Tishgart, Sierra. “How Helen Goh Became Yotam Ottolenghi’s Go-to Baker.” Grub Street: New York Magazine.October 25, 2017.

Valent, Dani. “Goh, you good thing.” Medium: Dec 10, 2017.