CREAMY WATERMELON GRANITA

Granita is the perfect refreshment when you're looking for an excuse to stick your face in the freezer every 30 minutes. Granita is much simpler than churned ice creams and sorbets and can be prepared with nospecial equipment. All you need to do is keep a sweetened puree in a container in the freezer, and occasionally scrape it up with a fork to form its granular to flaky consistency. This is frozen dessert at its most primitive, so the process of making it is really simple.

Granita is an Italian frozen dessert very similar to sorbet, except that it's made by hand instead of in a machine. Because of this, the texture of granita is coarser and flakier - like eating snow! It's briefly crunchy at the first spoonful and then melts deliciously in your mouth.

With all the ripe summer fruit around flooding the market, there is no shortage of possibilities that one can  try with Granitas. To make granita, you do nothing more than pour a fruity liquid into a pan, then place it in the freezer and use a spoon or fork to scrape the icy mixture as it freezes. It couldn’t be simpler, and there are so many different varieties: just make a liquid out of any fruit, pour it in a pan, and freeze it. Your Granita is ready.

I had shared a chilled melonballs salad with you the other day and I have the some leftover watermelon from that and see what I had been up to the whole week to beat the summer heat and keep myself cool. I will share the simple tricks of making this easy and quick coolers in other posts.

Coming back to Granita, I have tried the watermelon version. The gorgeous color of the watermelon shines through, and it reminds me of  the summer outside. The great thing about granita is that the light, scraped ice on top stays perfectly frozen in the freezer and  never crystallizes. It’s always light, cold, and perfect.

The exact recipe for the granita can vary depending on how ripe the fruit is, how sweet or sour it is, and how much liquid it holds. The ingredients for making granita is fruits, water and sugar. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the fruit has broken down into a pulp or alternatively, you churn the fruit in a food processor until it is pureed. Make a sugar syrup in advance and then stir it into the fruit puree.Either way, the end goal is a slightly thickened liquid with a consistency somewhere between orange juice and applesauce. To add more zing you can  add in any extra flavorings. I like to squeeze a lemon, a pinch of black salt, crushed pepper, mint leaves. You can also add chocolate chips, dry fruits and the possibilities with granite is endless.

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 10 to 12

Prep time; 5 minutes

Setting time: 4 hours

Things you need to make this Granita:

• 4 cups watermelon cubes
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/3 cup condensed milk
•  a pinch of black salt
• a pinch of crushed pepper
• 1/2 cup  raisins
• lime wedges and mint leaves for garnishing

Let's learn how to make this Granita:

• Place watermelon in container of food processor; pulse to puree watermelon. 

• Place the strainer over a bowl, pour pureed watermelon into it to strain out seeds, forcing watermelon through with back of spoon, if needed. 

• Stir  lime juice and condensed milk into pureed watermelon.

• Add salt and crushed pepper and pour into a freezer safe pan until firm.

• After half an hour, take the pan out of the freezer and scrap the granita with a fork. Put it back in the freezer. 

• Continue doing this every half an hour or so until the granita is completely frozen and resembles fresh snow. Depending on how often and how vigorously you stir the granita, the texture can be flakier (less stirring) or finer (more stirring).

• At this stage, you can either serve it up in individual bowls or lightly pack it into an air-tight container for later.

•  To serve, scrape frozen watermelon mixture with spoon to make granita. Stir in currants and serve with lime wedges and mint leaves immediately.

Enjoy Your Granita........ an easy frozen dessert that celebrates the fabulous fruit . That's really all there is to it. Watch out for this space for some amazing recipes.