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Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly
You might think that no recipe could live up to this title. It's a reasonable presumption, but thank God, a wrong one. This is heaven on the plate: the wine-soused raspberries take on a stained glass, lucent red, their very raspberriness enhanced; the soft, translucently pale coral just-set jelly in which they sit has a heady, floral fragrance that could make a grateful eater weep.
This recipe was emailed to me from Australia from my erstwhile editor, Eugenie Boyd. I've fiddled with it a bit, but it is the best present a foodwriter could ever have. Now it's yours.
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Place the wine and berries in a bowl and allow to steep for half an hour. Strain the wine into a saucepan and keep the raspberries to one side. Heat the wine with the vanilla pod until nearly boiling and leave to steep on one side for 15 minutes.
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Soak the gelatine leaves - which you can find in the supermarket these days - in cold water for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, after removing the vanilla pod, reheat the wine and stir in the sugar until it dissolves; allow to boil if you want to lose the alcohol.
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Add a third of the hot wine to the wrung-out gelatine leaves in a measuring jug and stir to dissolve, then add this mixture back into the rest of the wine and stir well. Strain into a large jug.
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Place the raspberries, equally, into six flattish, clear glass serving bowls, and pour the strained wine over the top.
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Allow to set in the fridge for at least 3 hours, though a day would be fine if you want to make this well ahead, and take out of the fridge 15 minutes before serving.
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Serve some double cream in a jug, and let people pour this into the fragrant, tender, fruit-jewelled jelly as they eat.
If you are unable to find gelatine leaves, you can use powdered gelatine instead. For the UK, we recommend 3½ teaspoons unflavoured powdered gelatine, and for the US, 2¾ teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin. At step 2, put 3 tablespoons cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatine. Let it stand for 5 minutes to hydrate - it will swell up and become slightly translucent. At step 3, put one-third of the hot wine mixture in a jug and whisk in the gelatine until dissolved, then continue with the recipe as directed.
by Nigella. Featured in NIGELLA SUMMER
