Raspberry, Lychee & Pink Moscato Granita

It's New Year's Eve! And what better way to toast the new year than with a refreshing, boozy dessert? This may be the simplest recipe I've ever posted on this blog, it's even easier than ice kacang, though a little more time intensive. But so pretty!

I have had a lot of bad luck when it comes to New Year's Eve. The one I remember the most is getting food poisoning from some dodgy chicken rice while up at Genting Highlands (a casino/theme park in Malaysia) when I was a little tween, and ended up spending the entire night and some of the morning throwing up. And then there's all the other years where epic plans have been made, only to fall apart at the last second. So in recent years I've kept it quiet, planned very little and kept my expectations low. I also don't do New Year's resolutions, they never work out well for me.

While I was trying to think of a nice dessert to make for A & I, I realised I didn't want anything fancy, or complicated, or anything that needed assembling or heating at the last minute. This is the perfect thing for a New Year's Eve party, it's so easy and only has three ingredients, but has a fabulous colour and flavour, and a little bit of booze. It's a nice refreshing way to wash down any greasy party food you might feel like eating first. Serve it in some cocktail glasses, or shot glasses if you just want to use it as a palate cleanser, or in big plastic cups with fat plastic straws if you want to serve it as a slushie! Yep, granita is just a fancy word for a slushie ;) (Unfortunately I only had my cheapo wine glasses in my apartment for the photos!)

Raspberry, Lychee & Pink Moscato Granita
400g frozen raspberries
1 can lychees in syrup
1 bottle Pink Moscato or any sweet sparkling white or rose

Place raspberries and the sugar syrup from the lychee can in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring regularly. Finely dice half the lychees and add it (plus any juices that might escape during chopping) to the saucepan. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Strain mixture into a bowl using a fine sieve or a piece of muslin.

Um...Just realising this photo looks a bit gruesome...

Pour mixture into a wide, shallow freezable tray or container (make sure you clear your freezer so it has a enough space for the container to sit flat) and add the whole bottle of wine and quickly stir together. I used pink moscato because it's that lovely girly pink and has a very sweet, floral flavour which matches well with the lychee and raspberry.

Place in the freezer and at intervals of about 30 mins or so, use a fork to mash up any large crystals of ice that form in the dish. The further apart your intervals, the coarser the texture of your granita will be.

Keep doing this until the mixture is completely frozen, and use your fork to 'fluff' up the granita. (I fell asleep before it completely froze, so my granita was very very coarse. But it still works!) Before serving, use your fork to 'fluff' up the granita once more, then serve topped with fresh fruits or more of the canned lychees. I had wanted to serve mine with fresh lychees and raspberries, but I never seem to find them when I need them.

Happy New Year!! Have a fun (but not tooooo boozy) night and I'll see you next year :)