The fact that you can buy wine and liquor at just about any store in California is pretty exciting, but it does not mean that you should just buy it at any store. This we found out the hard way on Friday night, coming back from the Best of the East Bay party at Jack London square. After we’d had enough of the party (and the fog started rolling in), we wanted to end the night with a bottle of wine at our apartment. So we stopped off at Bing’s on San Pablo, and picked up a bottle of something called Crane Lake Riesling. I have no idea what motivated the choice since I didn’t do the selecting, but it was not a success. In fact it was entirely undrinkable. The lesson here: if you make wine choices in the interest of budget, be sure to always have a reliable Trader Joe’s brand on hand.
In any case, we were left with a mostly full bottle of this headache-flavored syrup, and in our kitchen all things that get opened must be put to use. I deemed it too powerfully sweet for a savory application like coq au vin blanc, so instead I decided to repurpose it as a dessert. A recipe for white wine granita with rosemary and lemon was easily adapted to what I had on hand: basil and lime. I also scaled back the sugar since the wine was so sweet to begin with….and added more wine. It needed to go.
Because it requires attention at intervals spread over a considerable about of time, granita is an excellent cooking project when you have something else to occupy you in the house for most of the day. For example, a 550-page book on perception and objectivity. The somewhat crucial step is catching it when the first ice crystals start to form and scraping them into smaller ones. I was in the middle of a gripping section on Primitive Agency when this happened, so I got to it a little late. The crystal shards that I ended up with might have been a little bigger than desired, but they got fluffier and fluffier as I continued scraping, every half hour to hour.
The resulting granita was much more edible than the wine was drinkable. It was a beautiful pale jade color from the basil, and the herbal flavor and citric acidity did a good job covering up the obnoxious wine. I’m sure it would be absolutely amazing with a high quality wine, but if I had one of those, it wouldn’t get anywhere near my freezer.
Bad Wine Granita
1/3 of a cup of sugar (or less, depending on the sweetness of the wine)
250 mL water
200 mL white wine
4 large basil leaves, roughly chopped or torn
Juice of half a lime
Bring water to a boil with sugar and basil leaves; stir until sugar is dissolved, then turn off the heat and let cool, covered. When cooled, mix liquid with wine and lime juice (I discarded the basil leaves, but pressed as much liquid as I could out of them with a wooden spoon). Pour into a shallow container and put in the freezer. When the first ice crystals start to form, use a fork to break them into smaller bits and stir them into the liquid. This may happen one to two hours after placing in the freezer, depending on the dimensions of the dish. Repeat scraping process every hour to half hour afterwards, creating a light, fluffy texture.
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