Ginger Plum Granita Food

GINGER PLUM GRANITA

Steps:

• In a saucepan, combine whole plums, sugar, lemon juice, and ginger. Smash plums to release their juices, and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until plums or softened and the pits and skins float freely. Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve, discarding the solids. Stir in ginger liqueur.Pour plum mixture into an 8-by-8-inch baking dish and place in the freezer for 4 hours, stirring and scraping the pan with a fork every 30 minutes to break up the larger frozen pieces and produce a snow-cone-like texture. Spoon into chilled serving dishes and top with a sliver of plum and some candied ginger for garnish.

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.

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.

WATERMELON-GINGER GRANITA

Steps:

• Puree 6 cups cubed seedless watermelon in a blender with 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon lime juice and 2 teaspoons grated peeled ginger until smooth. Pour into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and freeze, scraping with a fork every hour, until fluffy, 5 to 7 hours.

GINGER-LIME GRANITA

Steps:

• Special equipment: a meat tenderizer
• Combine 5 cups water and the turbinado sugar and ginger in a medium pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then turn off the heat and stir in the lime juice. Let cool to room temperature.
• Pour the mixture into a 9-by-13-inch metal baking pan and place in the freezer. Freeze until completely frozen, about 4 hours or up to overnight.
• Take the pan out of the freezer when it becomes a giant ice cube. Smash the frozen block with a meat tenderizer and scoop crushed granita into chilled martini glasses. Garnish with lime zest and serve immediately. Freeze any remaining granita until ready to serve.

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.

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.

PLUM GRANITA

Steps:

• Remove seeds from plum and place the plums with syrup in a blender or food processor puree the plums.
• Stir in the lemon juice and the vanilla puree the mixture,.
• Transfer the mixture to a freezer proof dish.
• Chill for eight hours or overnight.
• When your ready to serve scrape the granita with a fork to lighten the texture and serve it in chilled bowls.

PLUM GRANITA WITH SUMMER FRUIT

Steps:

• Combine water, sugar, allspice and cinnamon in heavy small saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is reduced to 3/4 cup, about 2 minutes. Cool syrup completely.
• Puree 1 1/2 pounds plums in processor. Press enough puree through sieve to measure 1 1/2 cups. Strain syrup into puree and blend well. Transfer mixture to 9x5x3-inch glass loaf dish. Freeze plum mixture until flaky crystals form, stirring every 30 minutes, about 4 hours. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover; keep frozen.)
• Spoon granita into 4 glass goblets. Top with peach, nectarine and plum slices and serve immediately.