Virtual Valentine
Pomegranate and rose water, coconut and orange blossom water jelly – raspberry sorbet – mint – pistachio crumbs
This is its own post as it really does deserve it. I thought up this dish a few days before Valentine’s Day, and really did want a themed dessert. It had to be red and romance-worthy. Hence, it had to have pomegranates because I was in excess of it, and roses. I originally wanted flowers on the plate too, however after doing some research, I didn’t want to risk consuming pesticides that would be harmful from buying roses meant as Valentine’s Day gifts.
This was my final challenge since I leave Adelaide soon. It’s my most epic success yet as everything was made from scratch and done by hand. No ice cream machines, no blenders. As it actually worked, plus it’s a dessert so by default, I’ve kept an ingredient list so that one day, it can be replicated.
Jelly:
Pomegranate rose water jelly (bottom)
200mL pomegranate juice (approx 2 pomegranates)
5.8g gelatine powder
2 tablespoons (approx) rosewater
Minimal boiling water to dissolve gelatine
The pomegranate layer was prepared first. The gelatine powder was dissolved in some boiling water. I have a feeling it was supersaturated, so the rosewater was added to the gelatine mix. The pomegranate juice was moderately warmed up by the means of a water bath, just to allow everything to mix. It was then left to set overnight. I am really glad I used real pomegranate here, as it gave a beautiful, rich, crimson colour. I do wish it was less cloudy, but I preferred it over the reconstituted bottled stuff that seemed more red than crimson.
Coconut orange blossom water jelly (top)
300mL coconut water (approx 1 coconut)
9.9g gelatine powder
3 tablespoons (approx) orange blossom water
Finely chopped coconut meat (visual gauge)
Minimal boiling water to dissolve gelatine
Like the above, the gelatine was dissolved in boiling water, and the coconut water heated separately. Orange blossom water was added, and then the finely chopped coconut was added until it looked like a good mix. I actually had a coconut when I thought this recipe up, but for the sake of not having to strain out random coconut bits and to maintain clarity of jelly, I cheated and used bottled coconut water. Would have had the same result, really :P. I kept swirling the mixture in the fridge every now and again, until the solution was starting to set – once the coconut pieces suspended rather than floated, I poured it onto the pomegranate layer. This also meant that the liquid was not hot enough to melt the pomegranate layer.
Mint leaves were added at this point for an extra layer of visuals ad flavour. At this stage of jellification the mint leaves could still be pushed to the bottom of the coconut later, so they set perfectly in the middle.
Once fully set, I cut them into rough squares, so that one mint leaf was in each square. Due to the shape of the bottom of these containers, I also had to trim the uneven pomegranate bottom so that each piece was flat.
Sorbet:
Raspberry sorbet
250g raspberries, hand crushed and juice extracted
Approx. 1/2 teaspoon sugar, to taste
Appox. 50-70mL water
I actually checked online to make sure that this was possible, as I had no idea if sorbet could be made without a machine. Turns out the answer was yes, though I’m not sure why water was required. It did help with the volume and diluted the strong raspberry flavour. I just heated this till I felt I had no need to keep it on the stove – yes, I was that vague and clueless. I also went against the advice of the multiple sites I visited, and didn’t add lemon/lime juice, though if anything this was more a flavour preference as well as a preservative that I didn’t need.
Mixing was the easy part. This ended up making less than 300mL of sorbet, and I had to continuously mix every 30-45mins to ensure it didn’t form the wrong kind of crystals. I had a backup plan to turn it into granita if all else failed, but I didn’t need to. I was cutting it very close as I served it pretty much JUST as it had completed freezing. It had an excellent raspberry flavour, and I was happy that it was just sweet enough and had tang to it.
Crumbs:
Pistachio crumb
Handful of pistachios
1 teaspoon rosewater
I didn’t measure the amount of pistachios I used. They were just finely chopped, then placed on the pan with a teaspoon of rosewater mixed in. When I tasted one of the pieces, it did have a rose fragrance to it, so it succeeded!
I had originally played with the idea of making sugared pistachios, but I didn’t want to go through the effort of toffee-ing everything up. This was my next best alternative.
Sauce:
Blackberry mint sauce
125g blackberries (hand crushed and juice extracted)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Sprig of mint
I decided later on that I would need a sauce for presentation purposes. I also wanted to keep the theme of berries and red. I bought extra blackberries as they were way cheaper than raspberries (about half the price) in case I needed more juice for my sorbet. Luckily I didn’t, so I could use these for sauce. I simmered this away until it was quite thick. When it was cooled, it was almost jam – but not quite. The mint just adds to the theme and makes the sauce refreshing. This was supposed to also be sweet compared to the sorbet as it was sparse on the plate.
Once it was all prepared, it came to plating! There was a love heart squiggle in the sauce, but then I placed a jelly. It looked pretty much how I envisioned it in my mind. I also can’t believe that I pretty much managed to quenelle the sorbet AND that it held long enough that I could do a full photoshoot with it. I do admit some of this was due to also turning the aircon down to about 16 degrees, though it probably didn’t make too much difference.
Mint leaves and pomegranate arils were added as decoration, but didn’t detract as they were part of the main ingredients anyway. I also considered making candied mint leaves, but couldn’t be bothered, as it involved raw egg whites and more sugar, and I wanted this dish as sugar free as possible, as the natural flavours should be enough – and they were! The end result was restuarant-worthy, my signature dessert, and also made with love and nothing artificial or unnecessary!
