What better way to welcome in 2018 than with an exquisite iced drink of cava and lemon to toast the New Year - after we have eaten the traditional 12 grapes, one for each of the chimes of midnight, as Catalans do on New Year's Eve.
Our confectioner, Rocio Parejo, shows us how to prepare this easy iced drink, with a sorbet which we also prepare. What do we need? Lemon juice, water, sugar, an egg white and, absolutely essential, a good cava - that's Catalonia's famous sparkling wine (although if you can't get cava, champagne will probably do!). There's one key point to keep in mind: when you have the egg whites all beaten up like powder snow, you have to mix in the crushed iced very gradually (having left it at room temperature a while so that is not completely frozen and it is easier to work with). That's how you get a nice soft texture.
Our chef, Romain Fornell, and his team wish you all the best for the New Year!
Ingredients for the cava iced drink:
150ml (2/3cup) water
150g (2/3cup) sugar
250 ml (1 and a 1/2 cups) cava
Ingredients for the lemon syrup:
250 ml (1 and a 1/2 cups) water
150 g (2/3cup) sugar
100 ml (1/2 cup) lemon juice
1 egg white
Recipe:
For the frozen cava ice:
1. Mix the water and sugar in a saucepan and boil for 5 minutes.
2. Add the cava and freeze for 3 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.
For the lemon sorbet:
1. MIx some of the syrup in the lemon juice and also freeze separately, stirring from time to time.
2. When frozen, break up the ice mass into snow.
3. Beat an egg white, and when nearly beaten, add the sugar.
4. Then mix the lemon sorbet very gradually into the beaten egg white.
Finally, in a glass put first the crushed cava ice and then the lemon sorbet on top.