I posted a link about champagne on
Facebook recently. Scientists reckon that drinking between one and three
glasses of champagne a week might counteract the memory loss associated with
ageing and even help delay the onset of dementia.
There was half a bottle of
Nicholas Feuillatte in the fridge last night, the still bouncy, sparkling leftovers
from a lunch party on Sunday so I poured myself a glass and sipped it while watching
You’ve Been Framed. (People falling over to Harry Hill’s witty commentary really cheers me up.) When I sidled into the kitchen during the commercial break for a
refill, and a few slices of Wensleydale with cranberries on some fine milled
oatcakes, I forgot to take the glass back with me. Up I got again, chatted to
Tony who was making a cup of tea, then headed back to the lounge. Yep, that’s
right. I forgot it a second time.
I blew apart a decade of research
in the space of three minutes. And this morning my finger joints ached like bicycle
pedals left out in the rain for months. Is champagne trying to tell me something?
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| lemon and sugar syrup bolstered with gelatin |
So what do you do with leftover
champagne? Now there’s a question I never thought I’d ask myself; the surprises life throws at you as you get older. Google offers
me recipes for Champagne sorbets and sauces, for cake-pops and jellies. I plump
for jelly and put my trust in Delia.
After the trauma of working out
how to convert leaf gelatin into its powdered equivalent I had hopes that the
rest of the process would go smoothly. But nearly an hour and a half later my jugful of lemon
and sugar, heavily gelatin-ed syrup is about as gelatinous as water. Delia says
it should be starting to set by now, at which point I’m supposed to
add my half pint of champagne, mix gently then pour it into jelly glasses to set to a soft wobble. However, my frosted grapes are looking cute.
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| frosted grapes |
I should probably give up now.
But I’ll wait for another hour or so to see if it begins to firm up. If not, then I’ll
be forced to pour myself another couple of glasses of champagne tonight to finish the bottle while it still has a trace of fizz. If I remember.
Hungry Writing Prompts
- Write a list of things you have forgotten.
- Write about leaving something behind.
- Write about leftovers.
- Write about waiting for something to begin.
- Write about surrender.
Postscript
After adding a few more sheets of gelatin to the syrup, before I poured in the champagne, the jellies did eventually set. And very pretty they are too. I used creme fraiche on the top (rather than following Delia's idea for a syllabub) but plain double cream would be better. Or really thick vanilla custard.
I didn't manage to keep the bubbles showing in the jelly but I was using leftover champagne (albeit with some fizz left in it). I just couldn't imagine opening a new bottle of champagne JUST to make jelly. Oh no!
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