Fresh Ginger Granita Food

CITRUS-GINGER GRANITA

Steps:

• Stir water, sugar, ginger, lemon zest, and lime zest together in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is bubbling, 5 to 10 minutes; cool slightly.
• Stir the ginger mixture an orange juice together in a pitcher; pour into a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Place dish in the freezer; scrape and stir orange juice mixture with a fork once every hour until granita is evenly frozen and crystallized, about 6 hours.

BLUEBERRY GINGER GRANITA

Steps:

• Finely grind ginger with sugar in a food processor. Add blueberries and purée until smooth. Force purée through a fine sieve into an 8- to 9-inch baking pan, pressing hard on solids (discard solids). Stir in water and lime juice.
• Freeze, stirring and crushing lumps with a fork every hour, until evenly frozen, about 4 hours total. Scrape with a fork to lighten texture, crushing any lumps.
• Serve immediately or freeze, covered, up to 3 days (rescrape to lighten texture again if necessary).

WATERMELON GRANITA WITH GINGERED STRAWBERRIES

Steps:

• Puree melon, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and pinch of salt in blender; pour into 8-inch square pan. Freeze 1 hour; whisk. Freeze until solid, 3 hours. With fork, scrape into icy flakes. Cover; keep frozen.
• Stir 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and ginger in pan over low heat until sugar melts; cool. Mix in berries. Layer berries with syrup and granita in glasses.

GREEN TEA AND GINGER GRANITA

Steps:

• Bring a tea kettle, with 3 cups of water, to a boil over medium heat.
• In a heatproof bowl add the sugar, ginger and tea bags. Pour in 3 cups of boiling water. Stir to dissolve the sugar and let the tea bags steep until the liquid is cool. Strain and pour into an 8 by 8-inch metal cake pan and put it into the freezer. Check it after 45 minutes to 1 hour (depending on your freezer). Stir with a fork breaking up any ice crystals that have formed. Put the pan back into the freezer and continue checking and forking every 45 minutes to 1 hour until you have a container of ice shards.
• To make orange cups, slice the oranges in half and carefully remove the flesh with a spoon, making sure to keep the rinds intact. In a small bowl, muddle the orange flesh to get out the juice, then strain and reserve it for the "Rising Sun" cocktail recipe. Slice a bit of the bottom of each orange half so that it can stand upright. Put the orange rinds into the freezer.
• Once the granita is completely frozen, divide it evenly among the 4 orange halves and serve immediately.

FRESH GINGER GRANITA

Steps:

• In a blender or food processor, purée the ginger with 1 cup of water. Combine the ginger purée, sugar and the remaining water in a saucepan. Bring to a bare simmer over high heat, not allowing the mixture to boil.
• Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer and add the lemon juice. Pour into a prechilled, non-reactive baking pan. Place in the freezer.
• Stir the granita every 15-20 minutes until it is evenly frozen with large crystals, about 2 hours.
• Or, let it freeze without stirring until solid, about 4 hours. When solid, use a metal spoon to scrape it into a light, granular texture or place broken pieces into a food processor and chop to desired texture.

GRAPEFRUIT GRANITA

Steps:

• Combine juice, water and sugar in bowl and whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Pour liquid into a 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Freeze until hard, about 3 to 4 hours.
• To serve, scrape with a fork and spoon the scrapings into small chilled martini glasses or small glass bowls. Garnish with small sprigs of fresh mint.

CLEMENTINE-GINGER GRANITA

Steps:

• Slice top 1/2 inch off 12 clementines; reserve. Cut around flesh and scoop out into a sieve set over a bowl; reserve skins, being careful not to tear them. Press flesh to extract juice. Squeeze in juice from tops. (You'll have about 1 cup.) Halve and juice remaining clementines (to yield 2 cups).
• Bring 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, and ginger to a boil in a pan, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; let stand 30 minutes. Discard ginger. Stir in clementine and lemon juices; transfer to a nonreactive 8-inch square baking dish. Freeze until solid, about 3 hours.
• Meanwhile, brush clementine skins with water. Roll in remaining 1/4 cup sugar to coat. Freeze until solid, about 2 hours.
• Scrape granita with a fork to fluff. Spoon granita into clementine "cups." Freeze 10 minutes before serving.

HONEY-DEW AND SAKE GRANITA

Steps:

• To make the granita:
• In a small saucepan combine the sugar and 3-1/2 cups water and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring. In a blender purée the ginger with the syrup, the wine, and the food coloring, chill the mixture until is cold, and stir it. Transfer the mixture to 2 metal ice-cube trays without the dividers or to a shallow metal pan and freeze it, stirring and crushing the lumps with a fork every 30 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours, or until it is firm but not frozen solid. The granita may be made 2 days in advance and kept covered and frozen. Scrape the granita with a fork to lighten the texture.
• On each of 4 plates arrange 2 of the honeydew slices and top 1 of the slices on each plate with a scoop of the honeydew and sake granita. Top the other slices with a scoop of the pickled ginger and plum-wine granita.

JEFES GRAND GRANITA

Steps:

• In a small saucepan, bring water, sugar, orange zest & mint to the boil. Reduce heat immediately and simmer until sugar dissolves (It's important to make sure the sugar dissolves completely, otherwise it's a disaster).
• Strain to remove the mint, then put the syrup back into the pan.
• Add apples & cook until the apples are soft and pulpy. Take saucepan off heat and allow to cool (you can cheat & put this in the fridge if you like to speed the process up)
• Put orange juice, lemon juice, and orange-flavored liqueur or Grand Marnier (if you're using them) into a blender along with the apple-mint syrup. Blend until smooth.
• Food Processor Method - Pour the granita mixture into a freezer proof dish, cover with plastic wrap and allow to freeze solid - for best results overnight.
• Remove from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving - this allows it to soften slightly - then either process the granita in a food processor or use a fork scrape it into fine crystals.
• Alternative method - Place plastic wrap over pan and place pan in freezer. After 45 min or when ice-crystals have begun to form around edges of pan, use a fork to scrape up frozen chunks and mix into the rest of the frozen mixture. Return to freezer and continue to "rake" granita every 30 to 45 minutes until there isn't any liquid left in the granita.
• To serve spoon granita into dishes or glasses and garnish with mint. Serves 4 - 6.

FRESH GINGER AND CITRUS SORBET

Steps:

• Combine 5 cups water, sugar and ginger in heavy large saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Strain liquid into large bowl; discard solids.
• Return liquid to same saucepan. Add lemon and lime peels. Boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in lemon and lime juices. Cool completely. Pour mixture into 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Cover and freeze until solid, about 6 hours or overnight.
• Transfer mixture to processor and puree until smooth. Return to same glass dish; cover and freeze until solid, at least 3 hours or overnight. (Can be prepared 3 days ahead. Keep frozen.) Scoop sorbet into glasses or bowls. Garnish with mint.

GRANNY SMITH, GINGER, AND BASIL GRANITA

Steps:

• Slice apples and process enough slices in juicer, skimming and discarding any foam, to measure 3 1/2 cups juice, then transfer juice to a large bowl and stir in vitamin C and lemon juice. Process ginger in juicer, then stir 1 tablespoon ginger juice into apple juice.
• Pulse together sugar and basil in a blender until sugar is bright green and basil is finely ground, then stir into apple juice until sugar is dissolved. Let stand 5 minutes, then pour through a fine-mesh sieve into an 8- to 9-inch metal baking pan.
• Freeze, stirring and crushing lumps with a fork every hour, until evenly frozen, 3 to 4 hours. Scrape with a fork to lighten texture, crushing any lumps.

PLUM-GINGER GRANITA

Steps:

• Pulse ginger in a food processor until finely chopped. Transfer ginger to a large saucepan. Add plums, sugar, salt, and 5 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved and plums have broken down, about 15 minutes.
• Pour plum mixture through a fine sieve into a 9-by-13-inch shallow nonreactive dish; discard solids. Stir in vanilla. Chill in freezer until edges are frozen, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove from freezer; scrape with fork tines, pulling from edges into center. Return to freezer. Repeat process every 30 minutes until mixture is the texture of shaved ice, about 4 1/2hours. Spoon into serving bowls, and garnish with plums.

CRANBERRY GRANITA

Steps:

• Add all the ingredients to a saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring just until the sugar dissolves.
• Decrease heat and simmer until the berries have softened, about 10 minutes.
• Cover and cool off the heat for 30 minutes.
• Pour the contents of the pan into a large blender; puree until smooth.
• Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a 13x9 inch baking pan, pushing the solids against the mesh with the back of a wooden spoon.
• Freeze the mixture in the pan on the floor of the freezer for about 3 hours, stirring about every 20 minutes with a fork to break up the ice crystals and distribute them evenly throughout the pan.
• After the mixture has frozen but is not yet fully firm, cover it tightly with plastic wrap; the granita will keep this way for up to 3 weeks.
• Scrape the surface of the granita with a fork to produces lots of shaved ice crystals, scoop these into individual cups or glasses for serving.
• *Spiced Cranberry Granita: add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ t. ground mace, and ¼ t. grated nutmeg to the pan before you set the mixture aside to cool for 20 minutes; proceed as directed.