Sunday 7 July 2013

Lemon & Thyme Granita

I was trying to figure out the most horrible thing about festivals.

Rain? You kind of expect it and should prepare for it

Toilets? Shudder.

Mud? Some will get on you. Get over it.

Hangovers? Bad when you're at home. Worse when you're in a tent.

"Over enthusiastic" people (normally in jester hats)? Proper annoying but not the worst.

Sweaty wellington trench foot? I pack enough socks to kit an army. We're safe.

Cash point/bar/toilet queues? Oh, honey. We're British. We invented the queue.

Sunburn? I've seen some people who would give lobsters a run for their money in the redness stakes.

Sitting through a terrible act and you want a good seat for the next act? Six words I do not ever want to hear in the same breath - "Nick. Cave. And. The. Bad. Seeds." Please. Never again. Ever. *nervous eye twitch*

Flags? View blockers. Asshats.

But there can be only one.

Warm drinks.

Warm beer. Warm cider. Warm Diet Coke.

I came back and after shaking the dirty clothes out of my bag into a pile in front of the washing machine and having a shower, went straight for the freezer. Ice. Precious ice.

I'm entering these into Kavey Eats Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream herbs challenge. You can read all about BSFIC and how to enter on Kavey's blog.

Makes 2 large servings

Ingredients

400ml water
70gr sugar
Zest and juice of half a lemon
1tsp fresh thyme leaves
Thyme flowers for garnish

Method

1, In a small saucepan, over a medium heat, dissolve the sugar into the wafer and add in the lemon zest and juice.
2, Bring up to a gentle simmer and then remove from the heat. Stir through the fresh thyme and pour into a freezer safe container. Leave to cool completely.
3, Put the unfrozen granita into the freezer and leave for an hour. You'll need to break up the ice crystals and then also periodically after that with a fork. It's really up to you as to the consistency of the granita. Some like it almost slushy and some like hard shards of ice. I hover in the middle.
4, Check the granita every half an hour after that'll break up the ice. Mine took just over two hours as my freezer is quite new and has a super fast freeze option. When you've got to to the desired consistency. Serve immediately.
5, If you're making it in advance, after step four above, leave in the freezer. Remove from the freezer five to ten minutes before it's due to be served so you can break it back down.

4 comments:

  1. Oh you make festivals sound so lovely. I really can't think why I've had such a negative view of them for so many years. Lovely ice, though. I tend to be the slushy preference (I'm talking ices again). I hope you haven't made Mr Cave any more depressed than usual.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Phil - I'm sure there are twice as many good points to them. I like mine like snow, kind of fluffy. I don't think its actually possible to make him any more depressed than he already is...

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  2. Ha, so I saw this and thought, oh my god, that's the flavour combo I'm doing, I must change what I'm doing, but I decided to go ahead because yours is a granita with beautiful flower garnish and mine's an alco-pop version with limoncello added! Great minds! I finally got the post up last night! x

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  3. Definitely great minds! Love a boozy addition (to anything!), will pop over now!

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