BEFORE PEOPLE KNEW HOW TO MAKE ICE CREAM, THERE WAS GRANITA

According to Jamie Oliver, granita is the earliest form of ice cream, and is basically flavoured ice which is then ‘scratched’ up with a fork to make it all crystally. You can make granita with anything. Be creative, think pomegranate, clementine, lime...etc.

Lychee Granita

Ingredients

500g Fresh Lychee
300 ml Water
6-8 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Lime or Lemon Juice

Method

Peel the lychee and remove the pits. Blend lychee, water, sugar and lime juice until completely smooth. Press the mixture through a mesh strainer.

To freeze granita, pour the mixture into the dish and place in the freezer. Begin checking it after about 1 hour. Once it begins to freeze around the edges, take a fork and stir the mixture, breaking up the frozen parts near the edges into smaller chunks and raking them toward the center.

Return the dish to the freezer, then check the mixture every 30 minutes afterward, stirring each time and breaking up any large chunks into small pieces with a fork, until you have a beautiful, fine crystals of homemade granita. If any time the granita freezes too hard, simply leave it out at room temperature for a few minutes until it softens enough to be stirred again with a fork, and rake it back into crystals. Then return it to the freezer.