For starters, can we take a moment to appreciate how absolutely stunning this fruit is? The rich, gem-like shimmering red interior of the pomelo is beautifully contrasted by its light green, waxy rind and spongy baby pink pith. And my, the taste is the perfect combination of tart, crisp and sweet. The Pomelo is definitely one of the most glorious citrus fruits in existence.
I grew up calling it a grapefruit in English and Chakkote Hannu in Kannada. The inside of the fruit appeared in hues ranging from pale pink to dusky orange, and it always tasted lovely mixed with salt and pepper. Now, as we discovered in my Candied Lemon blog post, the citrus family is a hot mess, so I’m a little unsure if what I remember eating all those years belonged to the same species as this one wonderful specimen I used to make this refreshing dessert.
What I am sure of, however, is that this particular fruit is a Pomelo – more specifically a Devanahalli Pomelo. I know this because of a quiz I attended back in 2018. This quiz was about food and one of the questions was about the local name for a fruit from Devanahalli. I don’t remember how it was framed exactly, but it mentioned the town of Devanahalli in Karnataka, Pomelo, and that the fruit was protected under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act (GI Act) 1999 of the Government of India.
The question passed around to all the teams and finally when it came to us, my teammate just looked at me and said, “I don’t know man, Devanahalli means some Kannada word it’ll be – guess something,”
With no expectations whatsoever, I just tentatively blurted the first thing that came to mind, “Chakkote Hannu?” and turns out I was right! Fascinated, I read more about the fruit and found that the Devanahalli Pomelo is a unique variety of pomelo that is exclusively grown around the Devanahalli Taluk region near North Bangalore.
The pomelo shares ancestry with grapefruit, but the Devanahalli Pomelo is famous for its sweet taste, in comparison to other local varieties which tend to have a more bitter taste and not quite as vivid a colour. What also stands out in the Devanahalli Pomelo is how distinct each juice vesicle – yes, that’s what each individual, membranous part of a citrus fruit is called – is.
Coming to the dessert, the first time I heard the word granita, it was on MasterChef Australia perhaps back in 2011, during one of the fancy dessert challenges. They made it look so complicated on the show, but in reality it is one of the easiest frozen desserts to make, because it requires no special machinery.
Granita originated in Sicily, Italy and is a semi-frozen dessert that is made from sugar, water and flavouring. It is related to sorbet, but has a more coarse and crystalline texture, and is not compacted as much as a sorbet. It is very commonly made with citrus fruits, and it was the perfect dessert to make with pomelo.
It is essentially fruit juice (or flavouring) mixed with a sugar syrup and frozen. But the mixture is agitated at regular intervals during the initial freezing time to prevent the end product from becoming a frozen chunk of juice. As a result, the frozen mixture can be scraped or shaved easily to produce ice crystals.
It is a light, refreshing dessert that is very easy to put together and only takes a little bit of patience!
POMELO GRANITA
Serves: 6
Equipment: Shallow Metal or Glass container*
Ingredients:
Sugar – 3/8 cup
Water – 3/8 cup
Pomelo zest* – 1tsp
Fresh pomelo juice* – ¾ cup
Method:
In a small saucepan, mix the sugar, pomelo zest and water and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling steadily and all the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat. Pour into a bowl and let cool.
Once cool, refrigerate for at least an hour until the syrup is very cold.
Mix the sugar syrup with the fresh pomelo juice and pour into a shallow metal or glass container. Place in freezer.
Every 30 minutes, take the container out of the freezer and whisk with a fork. Do this for 3 hours, i.e. 6 times.
After that, cover and freeze without stirring for a minimum 8 hours, up to 24 hours.
At least 1 hour before serving, place your serving bowls or glasses in the freezer. This will prevent the granita from melting too quickly.
To serve, use a fork and scrape the surface of the granita into fine ice crystals. Scoop into the frozen bowls or glasses and enjoy immediately!
*Notes:
Before mixing the syrup and juice together, you can strain the syrup to remove the zest. Press on the zest against the sieve using the back of the spoon to extract maximum flavour. This is optional, I chose not to because I like the extra flavour and texture the zest contributes.
Use fresh squeezed pomelo juice. You can strain the juice to get only clear liquid, if you prefer, but I like the added texture that comes with a little of the pulp.
If you use a metal pan to freeze the granita, cover it with plastic wrap for the final freezing duration. I did not want to use plastic wrap, so I froze the granita in a glass container that had a lid.
Do not forget to stir the granita mixture regularly for the first 3 hours. Failing to do this will result in a big chunk of frozen pomelo juice!
This recipe can be made with any large sweet, citrus fruit. The proportions work well for grapefruit or even orange.
Make sure you try this wonderfully refreshing treat! As always, don't forget to send me a photo on Instagram @mosmusingsblog. Like and share this post if you like the recipe, and leave a comment below letting me know what you think!
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