Bringing some colour to your table has become an obsession for some people, and we do understand their aspirations. Eating with our eyes is as important as with our mouths, and seeing a beautifully decorated plate with a geometrically pleasant plated dishes is what many of us expect. But why pay extra when you can prepare a gorgeous meal by yourself? And berries might come in handy in situations like this.
Think raspberry sorbet. Sweet and tart, cool and refreshing, pleasant and light. Many people like it mixed with some kind of liqueur like the famous Italian Campari or Aperol. It will give your sorbet a pleasantly bittersweet taste and will elevate it to the next level flavorwise. All you really have to do is to combine 5 cups raspberries with 1 cup sugar, 60 ml / ¼ cup water, and 3 Tbsp Campari/Aperol. Then blend it until completely pureed, pour through a fine sieve to get rid of any small particles, drizzle with some lemon juice, sprinkle with salt and transfer your mixture to a fridge until completely cold. Then, if you are lucky owner of one, take our your ice cream maker and whip some sorbet according to instructions. But if you just raised your eyebrows and rolled your eyes in frustration, no worries! Of course ice cream makers allow you to obtain a finer texture due to the air incorporation to the mixture, but cooks have not come up with the granita recipe by chance. Granita is a frozen mixture scraped by a fork. When done, it resembles something of a shave ice – ice-based dessert popular in Hawaii. Do you have a fork? If yes, go ahead and scrape your frozen raspberry mixture with it, get a beautiful glass and put everything there. Eat as is, add some balsamic vinegar and brown sugar on top or put it on top of other desserts.
Another beautiful thing is a raspberry mousse. Light, fluffy and easy to make. It’s great because you can utilize some of the frozen berries you left behind in the freezer during the summer season. And it’s one of the preparations that will save you at the last minute, right after the “Holy Moly, I totally forgot about dessert!” cry. Put some 2-3 cups to the blender, puree them, then add 2-3 Tbsp sugar or honey and pulse to combine. Then add one egg white and blend the mixture until it significantly grows in size. That would mean your white is aerated and will hold the texture nice, making everything light and fluffy. You can add this mousse to your coffee or on top of any soda, making some kind of a float, or add to fresh berries together with cream and condensed milk, or store it up in the fridge for an hour or so until it stiffens and serve cool as a surprise appetizer with lemon ice tea.
What do you think?