White Wine and Pomegranate Gelatin (Nigella)

Cook Like A Star, featuring Nigella Lawson comes to an end today. After a whole month of cooking and baking from Nigella's recipes, there are still many more that I've wanted to try, which I 3will, in time. There are a total of 113 entries and I would like to thank everyone who has joined Zoe, Anuja and me, as we cook and bake from The Domestic Goddess's recipes together. And also to those who has visited and left comments, which are always welcome with appreciation.

I've noticed many chocolate fans among us, as the bakes with chocolates are the most popular ones submitted. Most of Nigella's chocolate recipes are good! She is truly a domestic goddess, with her fuss-free style of preparing a meal, really relates to home cooks like us, and most of her recipes are simple and easy to put together with scrumptious and delicious results.

There are many more drafted posts, bakes and dishes that I've cooked from Nigella's recipes that I did not have enough time to post them all in one month! Well, I'll save it for the coming months!

Today is my last post for this event, and here is a delightful refreshing jelly, strictly for adults! These are made with white wine and it is so good. This recipe is taken from Nigella Christmas, and it is most suitable for Christmas and any festive occasion, but then, you do not really need any special occasion to enjoy it!

From the book, Nigella has used a gelatin mold, but I have made into two individual servings in glasses (refer Nigella's notes at the bottom), as the balance of my white wine is enough for half a recipe. Nigella recommended to serve this with a drizzling of Cointreau and heavy cream, but I had it plain with just the pomegrante seeds scattered over. I could not find the ruby-red pomegranate and have to make do with the lighter pink ones. If you are serving to guests, try to get the ruby-red ones, as they make a very attractive striking appearance.

If you have an already opened bottle of white wine around, give this a try. You would love it! Trust me!

Here's a glass of White Wine and Pomegranate Gelatin to each and everyone! Cheers!

Prosecco And Pomegranate Gelatin
(adapted from "Nigella Christmas", Nigella Lawson)
1 x 750ml bottle Prosecco or other white wine
1 cup water
1-1/2 cups superfine sugar
1 cup water
4 teaspoons unflavoured powdered gelatin
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Triple sec, plus more to serve
seeds from 1 pomegranate, or 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds from a container
flavorless oil for greasing
heavy cream to serve (optional)

Lightly grease a 1-quart gelatin mold with flavorless oil and sit it on a small tray so it's easy to convey it to the refrigerator later.
Pour the Prosecco into a saucepan, add the sugar and stir to help it dissolve (but do not stir once the pan is on the heat). At the same time, put the water into a large jug or bowl and sprinkle over the gelatin, letting it soak for 5 minutes.
Put the pan on the heat, bring to the boil and let it boil for a minute.
Add the vanilla and keep the pan bubbling gently for another minute, before taking it off the heat.
Carefully ladle about 1 cup of the wine-sugar mixture into the jug and stir well until the gelatin has dissolved completely.
Pour the jugful of liquid back into the pan (which must be still off the heat), whisk again, and tip it all back into the jug, before pouring it into the prepared gelatin mold. (This may sound a kerfuffle, but it ensures the gelatin is thoroughly dispersed).
Put the filled-to-the-brim mold, still on its tray, into the refrigerator and leave to set overnight. It has a gentle set, which is what makes it so delectable.
Just before you are ready to serve, fill a sink or plastic washing-up bowl with warm water to come about halfway up the mold, and sit the as-yet-unturned mold in the warm water for half a minute.
Take the mold out of the sink, wipe the water off the outside and place your serving plate on top. Then, with one hand on the plate and the other on the mold, tip them both over and lift off the mold to reveal the gelatin. It will look smaller than it did in the mold; that's expected.
Dribble the Cointreau (or your choice of alcohol) over the gelatin (putting the bottle on the table so people can anoint with more as they eat) and scatter with pomegranate seeds, a few on top, but most around the side. It spoils the jewel-like clarity of the gelatin, but this is out of this world with a little heavy cream poured over each portion. Put a small jugful on the table as encouragement.

Note : If you want to dispense with the worry of unmolding, simply divide the warm gelatin mixture between six stemmed glasses of under 1-cup capacity each and set in the refrigerator.

#87/100

Thank you everyone, for your support! Cook Like A Star next featured chef in September is The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. I'm sure most of you are already a fan of Ree Drummond, I am! She's funny, has a lovely sense of humor and I just love the way she writes. I'm a regular reader of her blog and she has tons of delicious recipes on her website.

The hosts for next month's Cook Like A Star featuring The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond are Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out and Mich from Piece of Cake. Be sure to join them as they cook and bake with Ree's recipes. If you do not have any of her books, here's a list of some links that you might find helpful.

The Pioneer Woman

Foodnetwork (Ree Drummond)

Foodnetwork (The Pioneer Woman)

Land O Lakes

I'm linking this post to Cook Like A Star, where the featured chef for this month is NIGELLA LAWSON. Cook Like A Star is an event organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and the co-hosts for this month are Anuja from Simple Baking and me, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. Cook or bake any of Nigella Lawson's recipes and link your posts to any of the hosts' linky which will stay open for the whole month of August. All submissions to this event must be current posts, published within the current month of this event, any older posts will be deleted. Please mention and link Cook Like A Star somewhere in your post. Do join us, everyone is welcome!