The feeling of dread is twofold this summer. Not only does the beginning of March signal the end of my lazy hazy summer freedom as usual, but this March – La Trobe School of Law willing – marks the beginning of the end of my student life altogether. No longer will I stroll the hallowed halls or batten down in the library. I never did those things much in the first place, but I think I shall miss them as though I had.
I know for sure I will miss the jam doughnuts after class with Angus, the coffees and smokes with dear Phoebe, and the unity found between us all in times of utter academic madness.
For some reason, the connections I’ve made this second time around at uni as a graduate entry student have been with a bunch of people a couple of years younger than me. I’m a youth magnet. I’ll be done and dusted in three years, but it isn’t so for my younger undergraduate friends with still a couple of years to go. Quite frankly the thought of finishing uni and leaving my comrades behind to keep bonding sans Kate, gets me decidedly melancholy. I get the awful feeling that I’ll be missing out on stuff. I guess I should be really excited about the future, but I’ve always been extremely resistant to change. When I was little I thought it was sad that society was abandoning the VHS for the DVD. I just couldn’t see the need for a flashy new DVD player when we already had perfectly mediocre video technology at our disposal. The warbling worn out soundtrack on our Young Einstein video was just fine thanks very much. I came around eventually but I’m experiencing similar feelings of reluctance about the switch to blu-ray that everyone seems so keen on.
And so it is with uni. Why venture into the rest of my life when I could just fail a subject or two and maintain the status quo?
What gets me even more melancholy is the horrid thought that in a few short months the world will be made a wakeup to my dirty little secret – that I’m not at all smart enough to be a real life lawyer - and I will thus find myself still riding the Gillard greenback, only without the ‘Youth Allowance’ title to make it socially acceptable.
As always, I am finding the best approach is to completely ignore this problem. I’m sure that any day now a genie will jump out of one of the myriad bottles in my kitchen and grant me my wish for a ridiculously high paying job where I get to hang out with fully sick people and leave everyday at 2pm to go home and make cakes. In the meantime it’s away with the pile of pre-semester reading and into the kitchen to while away the holiday hours and cook my way back to happiness.
There is so much beautiful fruit around in summer and while it’s so good fresh, there are heaps of beautiful desserts you can make. Enter jelly. It is summer in a bowl. So pretty, and refreshingly cool.
It’s difficult to give specific quantities for making jelly, as everything depends on the size of your mould and the strength of the gelatine leaves you’re using. There will be instructions on the packet of gelatine leaves about how many are required for how much liquid.
Nectarine Jelly
Nectarines
Water
Sugar
Vanilla bean
Gelatine leaves
A jelly mould or pretty heatproof bowl.
Put a little knick in the base of five or six nectarines (or more, depending on the size of your mould) and sit them in a heatproof bowl. Pour over boiling water and blanch for 15-20 seconds. The skins should now slip off easily. If you’re using white nectarines, reserve the skins.
Place 3 cups water, 1 ½ cups sugar and a vanilla bean in a saucepan and bring to the boil. For a bit of piquancy you can replace some of the water with verjuice. I went for half and half.
This is a basic poaching liquid recipe. Just increase it or decrease it depending on the amount of fruit to hand and on the size of your mould. You can also add different flavours depending on the fruit. A cinnamon quill or star anise would match well with pears.
Add the nectarines and their skins to the poaching liquid to add that gorgeous pinky hue (for some reason my photo came out more orange than pink). Simmer the fruit for a few minutes till tender when tested with a skewer. Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to cool for a few minutes. Either halve the fruit or slice it, and arrange in the base of your mould. Bearing in mind that the fruit may float or move a bit once the liquid is added.
Prepare the gelatine leaves according to packet instructions. Remove the vanilla bean from the poaching liquid and add the gelatine as instructed.
Pour very gently over the fruit in the mould and deliver your pretty pink jewel to the fridge to set.
To present, sit the base of the mould in some hot water for a few seconds and invert on a plate. Serve with a drizzle of cream.
As you will see, making jelly is a fairly basic process of setting your chosen liquid. There are endless combinations to be made with different fruit and flavourings.
No comments:
Post a Comment