My father always describes our family as “cold-weather people. We can’t deal with heat”. Truer words were never spoken. I apologize to every guest who ever visits The Good Earth and has to watch the beads of sweat roll down my brow as I wax rhapsodic about our delicious wines, but I am just not built for heat and humidity.
So it will surprise no one that I love ice cream, gelato, sorbet and all manner of icy treats. “Ice Cream Dinner” happens more often in my life than I should be willing to admit, as does, frankly, “Wine Dinner”. This past week, while standing in our retail space, admiring our new shelving and neatly arranged rows of wine bottles, it occurred to me that combining these two things might be the best thing to happen to me this summer.
I hemmed and hawed about which Good Earth wine to use to make some sort of slushy for grownups and finally decided on our 2009 Chardonnay. Even though it’s pretty darn light on the oak, it’s no shrinking violet and definitely has enough oomph to hold up to freezing temps.
Wine chosen, it was time to find a recipe. What I was looking for was an Adult Sno-Cone kind of experience. I picked a recipe for White Wine Granita and enlisted Hanna, who loves making ice cream as much as I do, from The Good Earth Bistro kitchen to help. She dutifully blended the specified amounts of unsweetened apple juice, sugar, water and wine, placed the liquid in a stainless steel insert and popped it in the freezer. An hour later we checked on it, fork in hand to scrape the ice crystals and make slush, and were dismayed to find it was still 100% liquid! Two hours later? Still liquid. We figured the alcohol level was too high and ended up pouring the mixture into the trusty ice cream maker, which resulted in a delicious slush, but much, MUCH too finely crystallized, plus I wanted a recipe that didn’t require an extra appliance.
Back to the drawing board, which in this case, was my favourite food website of all time, the wonderful www.food52.com (if you don’t know about food52.com, check it out NOW!). Below, please find a variation of food52.com member Robynmichellelee’s “Herb and White Wine Granita”. It’s a deliciously refreshing and boozy granular treat, perfect for a hot night on the front porch, watching fireflies and telling tall tales.
Chardonnay & Lemon Balm Granita
Adapted from www.food52.com “Herb and White Wine Granita” by Robynmichellelee
Serves 2
250 ml water
1/3 cup white sugar
handful of lemon balm (or lemon verbena)*
150 ml Good Earth 2009 Chardonnay
Bring water, sugar and lemon balm to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let stand. When cool, strain out the lemon balm, and stir in the Chardonnay. Pour in a 9×13 glass or ceramic baking dish and put in the freezer for at least 3 hours, raking often with a fork to break up the ice crystals as it solidifies. Serve in the prettiest little glasses you have, garnished with a bit of lemon balm or mint.
*you can skip the lemon balm entirely and just have a chardonnay slush. Equally delicious.