Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Autumn on a plate - Cinnamon jelly with grilled plums


I don't know about you but whenever I buy a special ingredient for a recipe I always wonder what other recipe I can use it in. Like the Muscat wine in the brownies. Other than drinking it of course I thought, maybe a jelly could work. You could use a sweet dessert wine like mosscato for example, which would give the jelly a much lighter colour and I think a more honey like taste. The muscat and the cinnamon however gave the jelly such a sweet, spicy earthiness and the grilled plum was just the icing on the cake. This is definately another one for the grown up palette.

Place 3 cinnamon sticks, 1 cup of sweet dessert wine, 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of sugar (I used caster sugar) in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 5 mins. Place 1 tablespoon of gelatine in a small bowl and pour over 1/4 cup of cold water. No need to stir it, just put it aside for 5 mins. Discard the cinnamon sticks after 5 mins, take off the heat but don't turn it off. Add the gelatine mix to the cinnamon syrup and put it back over the heat. Bring it to the boil and boil for 2 mins to completely dissolve the gelatine. Pour into moulds and refridgerate for at least 3 hours or until set.

To serve: halve plums, sprinkle cut side with raw sugar and place under a hot grill on high. Keep checking them every few minutes until done. Unmould your jelly's or serve in the mould with the grilled plum half. Enjoy. This jelly has quite a strong flavour but is really delicious. You could make 6 small ones rather than 4 bigger ones.

The moulds: I really wanted to unmould the jelly but alas I wasn't liberal enough with the oil! So if you do want to unmould it onto a plate, grease up the insides of the moulds and it is probably easiest if you fill the mould to the top.

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