Pure Camomile Granita
Fork scraped pure camomile granita with Yorkshire forced rhubarb, stem ginger and a half lemon lift.
This is the fork scraped freezer version of a camomile cup: brewed strong with eight Loyd Pure Camomile bags, folded into a forced rhubarb and stem ginger syrup, and frozen flat in a shallow tray until it turns into a pink gold drift of floral ice. The flower does the aromatic work, the rhubarb brings a tart pink fruit edge, and the stem ginger puts a slow warming hum underneath the cold.
Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for the Pure Camomile Granita recipe. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/recipes/camomile tea/pure camomile granita/
One thing worth knowing: freezing dulls flavour, so the lemon juice is not just for taste, it keeps the granita bright on the spoon rather than flat. Forced rhubarb is at its best from January to March, when the early Yorkshire stems are pinkest, which is what you want here for colour as much as flavour. Reckon on about twenty five minutes of hands on work, then a few hours in the freezer with a fork scrape every half hour. More camomile ideas: a camomile and honey latte or an iced camomile with peach.
You'll need
- 8 Loyd Pure Camomile pyramid bags
- 400ml just boiled water
- 300g Yorkshire forced rhubarb, trimmed and chopped into 2cm pieces
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 1 ball stem ginger from the jar, finely chopped, plus 1 tbsp of its syrup
- Juice of half a small lemon
- A few thin curls of crystallised ginger to garnish
Method
- Drop the eight camomile bags into a small jug or teapot and pour over the 400ml just boiled water. Leave to steep for ten full minutes, then lift the bags out and set the brew aside to cool to room temperature.
- Tip the chopped forced rhubarb into a small heavy based saucepan with the caster sugar, the finely chopped stem ginger, the tablespoon of ginger syrup and 50ml of water. Bring to a gentle simmer over a medium heat.
- Simmer for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then, until the rhubarb collapses into a soft puree and the colour turns a clear bright pink. Pull the pan off the heat.
- Tip the rhubarb into a fine sieve set over a bowl and press it through with the back of a spoon, working all the syrup out and discarding the dry pulp left behind.
- Stir the strained rhubarb syrup, the cooled camomile brew and the lemon juice together in a measuring jug until the colour is even, then pour it all into a shallow 20cm by 30cm freezer safe tray.
- Slide the tray onto a flat freezer shelf. After thirty minutes, drag a fork through the icy edges to break them up and pull them into the middle, then return it to the freezer.
- Keep fork scraping every thirty minutes for around three hours, always working the ice from the outside towards the centre, until the whole lot is a mass of light pink gold flakes with no liquid left.
- Serve straight from the freezer, fork piled into chilled coupes or small glasses, with a thin curl of crystallised ginger laid across the top.
Want the background, not just the brew?
Brewed with: Loyd Pure Camomile, 40 Tea Bags 56g
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