Monday, May 23, 2005

Roasted Grapes

Still reeling from my success with gelatin in the last IMBB, I tried my had at another gelatin dessert. I found Cardamom Yogurt Pudding on Epicurious. It looked so simple that I had to try it.
As always, I read the reviews first. The feedback from other cooks is usually very helpful. I noted that several of them mentioned that they had to increase the amount of gelatin. I decided to add vanilla paste to the yogurt instead of flavoring it with cardamom. I increased the amount of gelatin without considering that I was also using greek style yogurt, which is much thicker than regular whole milk yogurt. This resulted in a pudding that was tasty, but too firm. Fortunately, I had roasted some grapes to accompany it and their heat caused the pudding to melt a bit. Everything turned out deliciously, even it it wan't the texture I was hoping for. Next time the pudding will turn out better, but I couldn't have hoped for better results on the grapes, which were amazing. Divide the grapes into small bunches - they look gorgeous.

Roasted Grapes
several bunches of grapes, stems attached
Preheat your oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper and lightly coat it with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Arrange grapes in a single layer and spritz them with cooking spray. Bake for 15 minutes.
Serve with ice cream, panna cotta, pudding or any other chilled dessert.