King of bonkers cooking, Heston Blumenthal, conjured up a luminous absinthe jelly as part of his Victorian feast and it looked bloody good fun. We might not have Heston’s wizardry but 4Food knows how to throw a wobbly, so we tried our hand at making our own.
Armed with some fine leaf gelatine (premium grade, apparently), some ready made lime jelly cubes, sugar, tonic, water and a bottle of the legendary liquor we were determined to go where many artists have gone before.
Most jelly concoctions are made up of gelatine, sugar and water so we followed this thinking with our first batch of fun. After boiling 250ml of water with a sneaky nip of lemon juice we stirred in 200g of sugar and stirred until dissolved. Having softened five leaves of gelatine we added these to the mix along with 150ml of absinthe and 200ml of Indian tonic.
As anyone who’s supped a G&T dans le discotheque will know tonic water glows in the dark so we were hoping a dash of Schweppes would do the same job for our jelly. We poured the mixture into a mould but unlike Heston’s luminous flapping phallus we were left with a milky mix of minty slop.
When all else fails, go to what you know; so we turned to the trusty ready made cubes. After blasting 135g of lime flavoured cubes and 100ml of water in the microwave for a minute we stirred in 200ml of cold water and 170ml of eye-watering absinthe. Hey presto, luminous looking liquor in a matter of minutes.
Fresh out of phallic moulds we popped the concoction into plastic water cooler cones and left it to chill for 5-6 hours. It didn’t have Heston’s luminous edge but it was lime green and pretty darned luscious to boot.
Absinthe jelly recipe
Serves 4 – 6
Ingredients
135g lime flavour jelly
300ml – 400ml water (see below)
170ml absinthe
Method: How to make absinthe jelly
1. Break jelly into cubes and place into a microwaveable jug. Pour over 100ml of cold water and microwave on full power (750 watt) for 1 minute. Alternatively, if you don’t have a microwave, add 200ml of boiling water and stir until jelly is dissolved.
2. Add 200ml cold water and 170ml absinthe and give it a quick stir.
3. Pour into 4 individual jelly moulds or one large one and place in fridge to set for 5 to 6 hours.
Absinthe should only be consumed in small quantities and never by those under the age of 18.
Comments
I just watched this episode on Channel 4. As far as I am aware, the hallucinogenic effects of drinking Absinthe came from opium within the sugar cube. Infact the ritual of dosing the opium onto the sugar cube before disolving it has appeared in several films in the past.
I have made absinthe jellys for years all my mates love them even though I dont remove the foul taste of the anaside!!!
just watched Heston’s victorian feast & thought the absinthe jelly would be a fantastic party piece! so I’m here for the recipe… I will let you know my verdict afte Ive made my 1st tester batch of jelly.
[...] the end of the show, the anouncer told us that we could visit the C4 website to find out how to make some of Heston’s recipes. Here’s a picture of my attempt at [...]
Shouldn’t that be Mock Absinthe Jelly? Absinthe thesesdays has hardly any of the psycoactive thujone of yore! The wormwood is replaced with an overwhelming anise (licorice) flavour which Heston did not like.
I love absinthe so the jelly equivalent sounds lovely
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