Quick Asian Recipes

Gin & Tonic Jelly Recipe

To try and get my cooking mojo back I decided to play around with an ingredient I’ve never used before, gelatin. Of course I’ve made jelly from the well known Rowntree blocks, but never from scratch. First challenge was finding leaf gelatin as the recipe I had was insistent that it had to be leaf gelatin and not the powdered form. I’m also not sure if it would work with vegegel. Most of the supermarkets near me are geared towards people who’s idea of cooking is putting a ready-meal in the microwave for 3 min, so sourcing certain ingredients can be a challenge. A good friend came to the rescue when she noticed some for sale in the supermarket she uses.

I was told about this particular Nigella recipe a few months back and have been wanting to give it a try. Gin & tonic is one of my favorite alcoholic drinks, and the fact it can be made into a dessert is even better! The original recipe serves 8. I halved the recipe or Hubby may never make it to work tomorrow due to a hangover. I don’t own any fancy jelly molds so served it in tall glasses instead. Because of the alcohol content it takes a great deal longer to set than normal non-alcoholic jelly.

It had a lovely refreshing taste with a pleasing G&T kick. I believe a proper G&T should have lime and not lemon in it so next time may replace the 1 lemon for 3 limes. It would be a perfect BBQ dessert for adults. I’m thinking of using the same technique to make a Pimms jelly with the traditional Pimms fruit suspended in it for my Birthday get together at the weekend.

Makes around 650ml of jelly (serves 2-4)

Ingredients:

  • 150ml plus 25ml water
  • 150g caster sugar
  • juice and zest of 1 lemon
  • 200ml tonic water (don’t use slimline, it won’t work)
  • 125ml gin
  • 4 sheets of leaf gelatin
See also >>  20 Easy Homemade Eggless Cake Recipes

Instructions:

1) Put 150ml of the water and the sugar in a saucepan. Boil for 5 min, take off the heat, add lemon zest and allow in infuse for 15 min.

2) Strain into a measuring jug. Add lemon juice, gin and tonic. It should reach the 600ml mark. If not top up with either more lemon juice, gin or tonic.

3) Soak the leaf gelatin in a bowl of cold water for 5 min. Squeeze out the water from the gelatin, then whisk gelatin into 25ml of boiling water. Add a small amount of the lemon syrup to the gelatin then pour this back into the jug of lemon syrup. Stir to ensure it is well combined.

4) Pour into glasses or lightly greased jelly mold. Put in fridge and allow to set for 6 hours.

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