Coconut and lemongrass granita

This is elegant served in beautiful stemmed glasses. If you want to doll it up, add a tiny garnish of mint leaves and a scattering of blueberries, finely diced mango tossed with lime, or a sprinkle of toasted fresh coconut ribbons to each serving.

Ingredients

• 2 cups water

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 stalk lemongrass, trimmed and thinly sliced

• Pinch of salt

• One 13-1/2 or 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk, chilled

Directions
1 Bring the water, sugar, lemongrass, and salt to a full boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let steep for 15 minutes.

2 Pour the lemongrass mixture through a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium glass measure, pressing hard on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate, tightly covered, for at least 2 hours, until thoroughly chilled, or for up to 2 days.

3 Put an 8-inch square baking pan in the freezer to chill.

4 Whisk together the chilled syrup and coconut milk in a large glass measure. Pour the mixture into the cold baking pan. Cover with aluminum foil and freeze for 1 hour, or until ice crystals form around the edges. Stir the mixture well with a fork to incorporate the ice and break up any chunks. Continue to freeze, stirring every 30 minutes, for 3 hours, or until the granita has become granular but is still slightly slushy. The granita can be served now, or it can be frozen for up to 4 hours; stir once or twice to break up any large chunks of ice.

5 Serve the granita in glasses or bowls.

Serves 4-6

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Excerpted from Luscious Coconut Desserts. Published by Chronicle Books. Copyright © 2010 by Lori Longbotham. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Chronicle Books.

 

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