citrus with ginger snow

this has been my favourite desert of the past few weeks - i’ve made it for several sets of friends and david and i have also enjoyed it on our own. part of the reason it’s so easy to make with great frequency is that once you have some ginger snow in the freezer, it’s just a matter of preparing the citrus fruit and sometimes (you don’t have to do it every time as often there is some left from the previous time) making the citrus syrup to go with it.

i think it’s a perfect pudding for this time of year as it’s light enough to follow even the heaviest of meals while also being full of fresh flavours to brighten your day.

diana henry’s citrus compote with ginger snow (serves 4-6)

for the ginger snow:

155g sugar

finely grated zest of two limes plus the juice of three

40g fresh ginger, peeled and grated

for the compote:

2 pink grapefruit

2 red grapefruit

2 oranges or white grapefruit

100g sugar

juice of 2 limes

to make the granite (aka ginger snow), mix the sugar, zest and ginger in a saucepan, add 600ml water and gently bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. once it’s come to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes. remove from the heat and leave to cool.

strain the cooled liquid and add the lime juice; pour into a freezer-proof shallow container (metal is ideal) and put this into the freezer. once the liquid has started to set, stir it with a fork to break up the crystals. do this three to four times during the freezing process – you should be left with a lovely mixture of glassy shards.

for the compote, cut the tops and bottoms from all fruit and, using a very sharp knife, cut the peel and pith away from each, working around the fruit and ensuring all white pith is removed. over a bowl, remove the segments by inserting a knife between the membrane surrounding each. let the segments drop into the bowl.

carefully drain off the citrus juice from the bowl into a saucepan. add 75ml water, the sugar and lime juice and heat, stirring to help the sugar dissolve. bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer very gently for five minutes. leave to cool, strain and put into the fridge until well chilled.

to serve put the fruit segments into individual bowls and pour over some syrup. serve with the granite spooned on top.