Fresh Cranberry Cosmo - 4 stars

i work in the frozen fruit industry (we handle frozen berries, primarily), and we often get samples of frozen berries. i currently have a ton of frozen cranberries & blueberries in the freezer, and i'm trying to come up with good ideas for them. the first thing that always comes to my mind when i think of how to use frozen fruit is.... drinks! :-)

so i found a recipe for making a fresh cranberry granita, and then using it to make cosmopolitan martinis. the fresh cranberry granita takes the place of ice, cranberry juice and triple sec in the cosmo recipe. the granita was much easier to make than i thought it would be.

first, i simmered cranberries with water and sugar until the cranberries began to pop.



then i dumped everything from the pot into the blender and blended it for one minute. be sure to leave the plastic piece out of the top of the blender, and just cover it with a kitchen towel or pot holder instead (it will explode otherwise - fun to watch, not fun to clean up). :-)

i poured the blended mixture through a metal sieve into a glass baking dish (i was supposed to use a metal baking dish, but i don't own any), added some lime zest, stirred it around, and put it in the freezer until frozen (it's supposed to take around 6 hours).



after it seemed frozen, i scraped it with a fork to get the granita texture of shaved ice, and then made my cosmopolitan with it.

i couldn't get it to make that shaved ice texture very well though. i don't know if that had to do with using a glass dish instead of metal... or it might have been that i was too excited to wait, and it wasn't totally frozen when i scraped it with the fork. :-) i think it was only about three or four hours at that point. since it was going into a drink rather than being served as a dessert, i decided i didn't care how pretty it looked.

what a wonderful cosmo it made! it was a bit frothy, which is a first for any cosmo that i've ever made, with a perfect combo of sweet and tart. i could really taste the fresh cranberry (rather than processed cranberry juice). i didn't take a picture of the finished beverage, but i have some of the granita left, so i'll take a picture next time i make a cosmo. :-)

Ingredients

• 1-ounce vodka
• 2 1/2 ounces Cranberry Granita, recipe follows
• 1/2-ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

Directions

Place all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake until the granita melts completely. Pour into a martini glass and serve immediately.

Cranberry Granita:

• 2 cups water
• 5 1/2 ounces cranberries, approximately 1 1/2 cups, washed and sorted
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon lime zest

Place the water, cranberries and sugar into a small saucepan, set over medium-high heat and simmer until the berries begin to pop, approximately 7 minutes. Remove from the heat. Puree with a stick blender, blender or food processor, for 1 minute. Pass the mixture through a fine mesh strainer directly into a metal 13 by 9-inch pan. Do not press on the skins. Simply allow the juice to drip through the strainer. Add the zest and stir to combine. Place in the freezer until set, at least 6 hours and up to overnight. Once frozen, scrape the mixture with a fork to create a shaved ice texture. Serve immediately.

(i apologize - i cannot remember where i found this recipe - cocktailtimes.com, maybe?)