Photo c. Dena Split, http://www.flickr.com/photos/resurrection/, used under creative commons license

Hey y’all! I took a little break from blogging since work has been so crazy the last few weeks.  Now that the clouds have parted a bit, it feels good to be back!

I didn’t take a break from cooking.  Rami and I have been plugging along through our Greenling produce, and we found some great recipes in the past couple of weeks.  There haven’t been too many exotic additions to our Greenling local box lately; lots of peaches, beans, summer staples.  This week we did get some wild grapes, though! I never imagined that I would eat locally grown, wild Texas grapes.  The grapes came in a pint container and looked like small, red grapes you might find in the supermarket.  However, they were in smaller clumps than grocery store grapes, mostly 2-3 pieces per clump.  They were incredibly tart and a little musky tasting, with seeds and thicker skin than I am used to. I considered slicing them up in a chicken salad, but ultimately decided a sweeter preparation would be best.  So, Rami and I made this delicious wild grape granita!

Wild Grape Granita
1/2 lb. wild, red Texas grapes
1/4 c. sugar*
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. white wine
juice of 1/2 lemon

Take grapes off stems and rinse. Puree grapes in blender and let sit for 20 minutes to rest.  Meanwhile, prepare a simple syrup by bringing the water and sugar to a boil, stirring constantly.  Strain grapes so skins and seeds are removed from the liquid. Add cooled simple syrup, wine, and lemon juice to grape liquids. Pour into a glass 9×11 pan and freeze.  Stir mixture every 45 minutes with a fork until it’s slushy. Granita will keep for 2 days in the freezer (if it lasts that l0ng). Serves 2-3.

*We used a 1/4 cup sugar because our grapes were really, really tart.  Adjust to taste, particularly if you’re using sweet, store bought grapes in place of the wild ones.