The other day I came upon a couple of small jars of Rose Petal Jam that I had made a few seasons ago, and totally forgot.

Tasting them I found that they were still nicely fragrant, although their color had darkened somewhat. ‘Why don’t I use them, together with pomegranate juice, to make a rose-scented granita,’  I thought, and so this one was created.

You may need to add some good quality rose water, depending on the fragrance of the rose petal jam you use.

Our friends and guests loved this very fragrant granita, so here is my very simple basic recipe. You can adapt it  depending on how sweet or tangy you prefer your desserts. 

Serves 8-12

3 cups pure pomegranate juice –not sweetened or diluted 

2/3 – 1 cup rose petal jam (homemade or store-bought) or to taste, depending on how sweet you like it

1-2 tablespoons rose water (optional)

2 tablespoons gin

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, taste and adjust the sweetness with more rose petal jam. If your jam is not fragrant enough, add a little rose water, to taste.

Transfer to one or two shallow containers so that the liquid is not thicker than 2/3 inch.

Freeze until solid, probably overnight. At some point most granita recipes suggest that you scrape with a fork the solidified concoction after 2-3 hours. But if you forget about it, just leave a few minutes at room temperature to soften, before you serve it, then scrape it. 

Store in the freezer in a container with a tight fitting lid; it keeps for up to 6 months, if you manage to resist devouring it… 

Serve decorating with rose petals, if you like. 

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I love it with my Ginger & Grape Molasses cookies, which are a variation of the classic ginger snap ones that I make with grape molasses and olive oil instead of any other shortening.

Serves 8-12

5 ripe bananas (about 2 pounds/500 grams)

1  1/2 cup Lemon Curd, preferably homemade

2/3-1 cup lemon marmalade, preferably homemade 

1/2 pound/250 grams mascarpone 

4 tablespoons gin

4-6  Ginger & Grape Molasses cookies, crumbled (optional)

Coarsely chopped pistachios for serving (optional)

In the blender mash the bananas with the lemon curd, then add the jam, the mascarpone, and gin, and blend a few more seconds.

Add the cookies, if using, and work briefly in low speed, just to incorporate in the mix.

Transfer to two small cake tins lined with double plastic wrap OR make the ice cream in a round pan or in a bowl, if you like.

Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight.

Take out of the freezer 10 minutes before serving, unwrap and transfer to a plate. Sprinkle with pistachios, and cut pieces to serve.

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Serves 6

4 ripe bananas (about 2 pounds/500 grams)

1 cup diced ripe strawberries, other sweet berries, or pitted cherries (see NOTE)

2/3 cup strawberry jam, and more for serving

1/2 pound/250 grams  mascarpone 

2 tablespoons vodka, gin, or any good fruit liqueur (like Grand Marnier)

Coarsely chopped pistachios for serving (optional)

In the blender mash the bananas with the fruits, then add the jam, the mascarpone, and vodka or liqueur,  and  blend a few more seconds to incorporate everything.

Transfer to a mold lined with plastic wrap; I prefer a long cake tin but you can make the ice cream in a round pan or in a bowl, if you like.

Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight.

Take out of the freezer 10-15 minutes before serving, unwrap and transfer to a plate. Top with strawberry jam, sprinkle with pistachios, and cut pieces to serve.

NOTE: I had no fresh strawberries, and very few cherries, so I used 1/3 cup briefly hydrated dry cherries, which gave the ice cream a somewhat dull color; ‘like ZWAN canned meat,’ Costas said…

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We love the aroma of rose geranium, of which we have plenty in the garden. It is traditionally used it in the quince preserves, but also add it in our fig jam.  The pomegranate juice has plenty of flavor but no fragrance so by adding rose geranium leaves you get a great aromatic granita. Some liqueur or vodka is essential, we think, making the frozen dessert much more complex and easier to serve.

Makes 10-16 servings

6 cups pure pomegranate juice

1 ½ -2 cups simple syrup, infused with rose geranium leaves (see NOTE)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2/3 cup lemon liqueur or 1/3 cup vodka

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, taste and adjust the sweetness with more simple syrup.

Transfer to one or two shallow containers so that the liquid is not thicker than 2/3 inch.

Freeze until solid, probably overnight. At some point most granita recipes suggest that you scrape with a fork the solidified concoction after 2-3 hours. But if you forget about it, just leave a few minutes at room temperature to soften enough and then scrape it.

Serve decorating with rose geranium leaves or fresh pomegranate arils.

NOTE: 

To make Simple Syrup boil equal parts of sugar and water, until the sugar is completely dissolved. I suggest you make at least 3-4 cups, and leave the rest in a bottle or jar in the freezer, to use in cocktails or any drinks.

For Rose Geranium Syrup add about 15-20 rose geranium leaves to the simmering syrup, remove from the heat, and let infuse for about 30 minutes. Taste and see if it has a strong enough aroma to flacor your granita. If not, let the leaves infuse the liquid longer.

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Last week, some twenty years later, mastic became the talk of the world!

“Over my 54 years, I’ve pinned my hopes on my parents, my teachers, my romantic partners, God.

I’m pinning them now on a shrub.

It’s called mastic, it grows in particular abundance on the Greek island of Chios and its resin — the goo exuded when its bark is gashed — has been reputed for millenniums to have powerful curative properties,” wrote Frank Bruni in the New York Times.

Along with Oldways –that first promoted the Mediterranean Diet in the early 1990ies– I was part of the organizing committee of that lively gathering of chefs, authors, journalists, scientists, and buyers mainly from the US, but also from Europe, Turkey, and other countries.

Lesbos’ main product was olive oil and that was right down Oldways’ alley.

But Chios’ mastic –the crystallized sap of the wild pistachio shrub (Pistachia lentiscus) which grows only on the southern part of this island– was a new and somewhat esoteric flavoring. For centuries it was only exported to the Arab countries and the Middle East. Mastic was the ancient chewing gum, hence the verb ‘masticate.’To this day it is still chewed in Greece to clean and sweeten the breath while the ground crystals traditionally add their elusive licorice-pine-like aroma to many traditional breads and cookies.

An acquired taste

At the time of the Symposium the mastic producers had enlisted a young educated president for their cooperative and were eager to expand the sales of their sizeable mastic production far beyond the East, to the US and Europe. The participants tasted many traditional and creative dishes, both sweet and savory, but most were not particularly impressed with mastic’s elusive flavor and aroma which proved to be an acquired taste for non-Greeks. I clearly remember Gifford’s final remarks at the Symposium’s closing. He suggested that the mastic producers should basically focus on the healing and healthful properties of the crystals about which we had heard from various scientists.

For years, though, we were being bombarded by new ‘creative’ edible uses of the aromatic, like a mastic-scented olive oil which is now, fortunately, almost forgotten. On the other hand, shampoos, face and hair masks, and other cosmetics with mastic were quite successful all over the world as they followed ancient suggestions about the crystal’s healing and healthful properties that apparently have been tested by some modern scientists, as Frank Bruni’s piece in the New York Times attests.

Sweet Submarine

As kids we used to love mastic ypovrichio (submarine): a teaspoon of mastic-scented soft sugar candy served plunged in iced water, hence its name.

Mastic liqueur and mastic ice cream are by far the most popular edibles in Greece; our Kea Artisanal guests seem to enjoy them also.

I still remember the wonderful ice creams we used to make in summer, when I was a child, using a rented hand-cranked machine, to which we added ice and coarse salt. In those days, the cream was thickened not with eggs but with salep, a starch produced by pounding the dried tuber of a wild orchid. Ice creams thickened with salep form strands as you dip into them. Today, such wonderful eggless ice cream, called dondurma, is found only in Turkey and in some Arab countries. I love it, but it seems that it is yet one more of the foods that only we, in the Eastern Mediterranean really appreciate; Americans and Europeans prefer smooth ice creams and are not crazy about dondurmas’ texture.

Meanwhile Greek chefs have not given up and are still trying to incorporate mastic to savory foods, yet in most cases they don’t manage to come up with a flavorful, let alone memorable dish. Only Tzitzikas and Mermigas –a popular meze restaurant in downtown Athens– serves the most delicious mastihato chicken “the best ‘nouveau’ Greek dish I’ve had this year,” as a reviewer wrote on Tripadvisor. Chicken breast is served on a kadaifi, shredded phyllo pastry nest doused in a creamy mastic-scented sauce with bacon. Although I was expecting to hate it, I must agree with the reviewer that it is a really delicious dish!

RECIPE: Mastic Ice Cream

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Photo by Anders.

The recipe for this ice cream is a variation from the ice cream created by chef Jim Botsacos. You can serve it topped with sour cherry preserves, as is the custom in Greece, or simply sprinkled with pistachios.  It goes well with baked apples and quince, with the Olive-oil-yogurt Cake, and with the lemony Pandespani cake.

I still remember the wonderful ice creams we used to make in the summers, when I was a child, using a rented hand-cranked machine, to which we added ice and coarse salt. In those days, the cream was thickened not with eggs but with salep, a potent starch produced by pounding the dried tuber of a wild orchid. Ice creams thickened with salep form strands as you dip into them. Today, such wonderful egg-less ice creams seem to be an acquired taste and one can mostly taste them in Turkey.

Makes 1 quart    

1            cup whole milk

3            cups heavy cream

1            cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

2  1/2      teaspoons mastic ‘tears’ (see note)

Pinch of salt

8            large egg yolks

In a large saucepan, bring the milk, cream and 1/2 cups of the sugar to a boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside. Grind the mastic together with 1 tablespoon sugar and a pinch of salt in a mortar or spice grinder.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the mastic mixture, the rest of the sugar and the egg yolks.

Gradually pour 1 cup of the hot milk mixture over the yolks, whisking constantly until well mixed. Return the remaining milk mixture to medium-low heat, pour the yolk mixture into the pan, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens, about 3 minutes; do not let it boil. To test it, dip the back of the spoon into the mixture and run your finger across the spoon; the line should hold.

Pass the cream through a fine-mesh sieve and transfer to an ice cream machine.

Chill over ice cubes and then freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

NOTE:

Mastic tears vary in size; for this ice cream I use the small-medium kind.

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