This week in Sydney, it has been quite warm, and Roy was really looking forward to a nice, cool dessert. With Christmas and New Year just passed though, Roy really wanted something which would be cool and refreshing, easy and most of all, healthy. This ruled out most icecream, iceblocks and sorbets, so Roy needed to try something else. Then, he remembered his Uncle making a granita and thought perhaps he could invent his own recipe without the sugar which is usually involved. The results were not only very easy to make, they tasted great - in fact they were a bit like a pineapple snow cone. So this week, Roy Creates Pineapple and Mint Granita.
You Will Need:
- 3 cups of pineapple Juice. Roy likes to use the pineapple juice with no added flavours or sugars.
- 2 sprigs of mint leaves (a large handful worth)
Method:
- Pour the pineapple juice into a small saucepan.
- Tear the mint leaves roughly and drop them into the juice.
- Heat the pineapple juice and mint until the liquid is hot. You don't need to bring the mix to the boil, you just want to warm the liquid so that the mint will infuse.
- Cool the pineapple juice and mint leaves slowly. The longer you let the mint leaves steep in the warm water, the stronger the mint flavour will be, so you don't want to cool it too fast.
- Strain the liquid into a lamington tray (one which will be OK in the freezer) to remove the pieces of mint leaves. They will probably have gone brown and disgusting looking, but that is ok.
- Put the tray into a freezer. Careful when carrying the liquid as it gets up a bit of a wave!
- After 2 hours use a fork to stir the granita. This is breaking up all the ice crystals so that it freezes into a smooth and delicious dessert.
- Break up the ice crystals again an hour later, and once more 1 hour after that.
- When you are ready to serve, use a fork to scrape up the ice into little tiny shards and scoop them into a bowl or cup. Delicious!