I’ve been thinking about making a lychee granita, I woke up thinking about it as I bought a punnet of fresh lychees yesterday.

Whilst I was removing the skins I was thinking what shame it is that the jackets are inedible because they are such a pretty colour. So I decided to add a couple of strawberries to provide a blush and a little acidity.

Then when I was peeling and taking the kernels out, Rocket was talking about what we might have for dinner and we were hoping the sun would come out as it was pretty rainy….and I thought about a slush puppy/frozen cocktail. So I popped a bottle of absolute vodka into the freezer. A dessert option or a  Lychee Cocktail. As alcohol doesn’t really freeze and I wanted some alcohol free granita, I didn’t add vodka to the main mix.

Here is how I made it:

For the granita

300g fresh lychees, peeled and de-stoned.

3 small strawberries chopped.

The juice of 1/2 a lemon.

A twist of lemon for garnish

1/2 cup caster sugar.

1/2 cup water.

Put a container into the freezer.

Put the lychees and strawberries into a saucepan and add the sugar and water.

Bring gently to a bubble, simmer unit the sugar has melted and so the fluid is clear, turn the heat right down and let everything steep for about 5/6 minutes. Don’t let the mixture boil as you donut want the sugar to caramelise, just let it turn to a syrup.

Pour the mixture into a bowl and allow it cool for a couple of minutes before blending until it is a pulp.

Next pour it through a sieve discard the pulp left in the sieve.

Add the lemon juice to the mix, and pour into your chilled container.

Freeze for a while until crystals start to form and keep going back to the freezer and beating the mixture so that it doesn’t freeze as one lump but instead forms smaller crystals.

Once you have a nice icy mix it is ready, you can serve it straight away, we added a few strips of crystallised ginger and a twist of lemon to the top.

It would make a nice palette cleanser, a small dessert or the cocktail below….

To make the frozen martini, just put some of the granita into a martini glass, add a measure or two of the chilled vodka and stir gently through.

Cheers!