Foodiva's Kitchen: Red Dragonfruit Granita

Monday, August 9, 2010

Red Dragonfruit Granita

Post Update: This made the Top 9 on Foodbuzz today.
It's my first time, so is it too silly to be excited about this? (ahh, who cares... I'll just be excited anyway!)

After my earlier post on the dragonfruit quenchers, I still had several dragonfruits left over so I thought, "Wouldn't it be pretty if I turn this gorgeous pink-red fruit into a sorbet?" I'd seen many posts on white fleshed dragonfruit sorbets (always inevitably served in it's skin shell - helloooo.... what happened to originality?), but hardly ever red dragonfruit sorbets. That was what I'd started to do when I suddenly, deflatedly remembered that I didn't have an ice-cream maker and no way was I ever going to process this mixture fine enough by hand, even if I had set up camp by the freezer for half a day!

So the next best thing? Granita. It's great to have on a hot, hot day and for this particular recipe, I decided to accentuate the not-so-flavorful dragonfruit with lime zest, grapefruit zest and fresh ginger slices steeped in sugar syrup! The smell of the hot syrup was heavenly, and I was truly tempted to just add it to some cold water, slip in some lime slices and glug it down like a thirsty desert dweller. Thank goodness my willpower won and I managed to save the syrup for the granita. ;-)

My styling for the photography kind of sucks because I was trying to shoot this extra fast before it all turned into slush. At least, the color of the fuschia bourgainvillea from my garden complemented the granita very well and hmmm... not a dragonfruit skin receptacle in sight!

These babies bleed and stain! But they wash off quite easily, don't worry

  My flavored syrup, with lime, grapefruit zest & fresh ginger

Good enough to drink!

 So refreshingly pretty!

Red Dragonfruit Granita

Ingredients:
1 Dragonfruit
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 inch fresh ginger, sliced
1/2 lime zest
1/4 grapefruit zest

Method:
1. Boil the water with the sliced ginger, lime and grapefruit zests, then sir in sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat and let the syrup cool. Once cooled, strained the bits and use the sugar syrup to make the granita.
2. Cut the dragonfruit in half and scoop out the flesh. Place in a blender and add the sugar syrup, puree until smooth.
3. Pour into a deep dish or container and place in a freezer. After an hour, mash with a fork and repeat the process for the next 3-4 hours until it becomes ice "crystals", which is the granita.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

dragonfruit... yum. I really like the vibrant colour. Have a great day. Michael

Unknown said...

So do I, Michael. I'm a sucker for vibrancy! LOL. Thanks for visiting, again. I should do a loyalty programme on this site. ;-)

Anonymous said...

What a brilliant idea! I've never known what to do with dragonfruit, but this looks gorgeous! This is an excellent blog, Maya -I love your interesting take on different produce and ingredients. Your collection of kitchen gadgets is also remarkable!

Unknown said...

Wow, I'm so honored that a celebrity chef, Chef Gerald of Bistrogerard has dropped by this site! Thank you for your kind comments on this blog, Chef. I love your mummy's recipes too, and the way you write your posts. I must say this... You are one amazing bird, Jerry (may I please call you that?)!

Chef Dennis Littley said...

I have never seen dragonfruit, it looks amazing! and your granita looks delicious! I love the colour!!

Unknown said...

Thank you, Dennis. You've got to get a dragonfruit stack going soon! I've seen the white-fleshed one sold in the US, but not the red-pink one. Love your latest creations, btw.

The Cilantropist said...

This color is amazing! I would love to find dragonfruits like those ones!

Unknown said...

Cilantropist, the color is exactly like you - Fearless! Thanks for visiting, and and I'm totally loving your honey-sage icecream flavor too.

Shirley said...

I've never seen dragonfuit before... what a beautiful color!

Indonesia Eats said...

Congrats! I haven't seen any red dragon fruit here yet. Only the white ones.

I remember the flowers on that picture, I used to play with them. What is the name? I don't remember the Indonesian name either. :(

Unknown said...

Shirley, there are actually 3 varieties of dragonfruit - red skinned with with white flesh, yellow skinned with white flesh, and red skinned with red flesh, which is what I'm using here! Keep a look out for them, they might be sold in some speciality grocery stores where you are.

Thanks, Pepy! The flowers are called bougainvillea or Bunga Kertas, kan?

FamilySpice said...

Wow! Love the color! I never heard of dragonfruit, but I will definitely look for it! I made a mango sorbet without an ice cream machine and it turned out well. Of course, now that I look at this, a granita would have been easier!! Wonderful post!

Unknown said...

Family Spice, I just had a look at your mango sorbet and it looks just divine! No ice cream machine, you said? You really did a fabulous job with it. I must try making a sorbet again (and not go for the easier route of granita!).

Indonesia Eats said...

Aha yes thank you! We call "bugenville" with a different spelling :)

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