Citrus-Fruit Soup with Dates and Mint

Name: Citrus-Fruit Soup with Dates and Mint
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients: 4 tangerines; 1 grapefruit; 4 blood or other oranges; 1 cup orange juice; 2 to 4 tablespoons sugar; 6 dried dates or figs, roughly chopped; 1 pint lemon or tangerine sorbet; 6 tablespoons orange-blossom water; 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin; 6 mint leaves, cut in chiffonade; 1/4 cup shelled and peeled pistachio nuts, roughly chopped; 1/4 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

December 9, 2011

When I interviewed Gilles Choukroun, one of the darlings of a new generation of French chefs who are injecting playfulness into French food, he had just opened the Mini Palais, a beautiful restaurant in Paris’s newly renovated Grand Palais exhibition hall, across from Les Invalides. In addition to his nascent restaurant empire, Gilles is also the father of Generation C, which stands for “Cuisines et Culture,” a group of chefs who teach cooking to the disadvantaged in Paris. Gilles, whose father is a Jew from Algeria, experiments with the spices and flavors of North Africa to accent his French food. One of his signature desserts is this refreshing citrus-fruit soup. It makes the perfect ending to a North African meal, especially with cookies on the side.

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