By Bill Daley
Chicago Tribune
There’s good scary and bad scary. Good: Rollercoaster rides, 3-D horror movies, costumed trick-or-treaters. Bad: Close calls, things that go bump in the night, a tax audit.
Then there are items that can be good or bad, like jellied foods.
Used to be, the only good jelly was smeared on sandwich bread with peanut butter. For most of us, jellied foods are a fading nightmare stocked with visions of shimmering, quivering domes of Day-Glo aspic into which fruit, vegetables, meat and fish seemed to have been swallowed whole. It seemed every mother had her own version of the “Green Stuff,” an opaque acid-green creation made with lime gelatin, cottage cheese and non-dairy whipped topping.
Talk about Halloween-size horror.
Yet today’s moms and dads are certainly open to making something gelatin as a smart alternative to candy this Halloween. The folks at Jell-O, the flavored gelatin product produced by Kraft Foods of Northfield, report the consumption of favorite Halloween flavors (orange, grape and berry blue) have spiked by 30 to 40 percent during the holiday week compared to the previous weeks in October 2004 and 2005.
Folks are beginning to wake up to the fact that gelatin is not only fun stuff but also can pack a big flavor punch for relatively few calories.
Long slimed at the table of public opinion as either silly kid food or frightfully fussy, gelatin is starting to shine as butter, cream and starchy thickeners are increasingly demonized by weight-watching consumers.
Lisa Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Kraft, which makes Jell-O and Knox gelatins, said that there was an 8 percent increase in the serving of gelatins and puddings at restaurants to 2005 from 2004.
Indeed, chefs are responding with light, elegant dishes that are a far cry from the creations served up at business buffets and society lunches or published in the back of old cookbooks and magazines.
“They were the grossest stuff, like tuna fish with lime Jell-O,” said Heather Terhune, executive chef of Chicago’s Atwood Cafe and South Water Kitchen, with a laugh.
For many consumers, gelatin and Jell-O are practically synonymous.
This 109-year-old brand is more than dessert; it’s a cultural icon.
Jellied dishes have possibilities far beyond brightly colored cubes topped with a squirt of whipped cream.
Savory aspics have long been part of classic French cuisine, whether served as first courses and salads or used as a glittering glaze for cold meats, fish or other foods.
Today’s chefs are being creative with jellies, whether their style is sleekly high-tech or cozily homey.
Chef Susan Maddox, co-owner of Le Titi de Paris in Arlington Heights, serves a vegetable and aspic terrine studded with mushrooms, artichokes or asparagus and has a jellied fruit pate on the menu.
“Everyone is pushing the envelope and bringing the fun back,” she said.
Other chefs playing around with jellied food include such top names as Grant Achatz at Alinea and Jean Joho at Everest.
“Gelatin is a sophisticated tool in creating flavor,” said Joho, who serves a “mosaic” of seafood in gelee and prefaces dessert with a cold jellied “soup.” It acts, he said, as a palate cleanser.
Important, too, are texture and visual appeal.
With its slippery, jiggly coolness, gelatin is intrinsically fun.
Not only can gelatins be tricked out in all sorts of flavors and colors, but there also are practically no limits on what can be dropped into it. (Fresh pineapple is a big no-no, however; enzymes in the fruit prevent the gelatin from jelling.)
Gelatin can be shaped into whatever form you fancy. Mixing bowls and cake pans work. Molds range from basic domes and rings to elaborately faceted towers.
There are plenty of novelty molds out there, such as half of a human brain (order on-line from Archie McPhee, a novelty company, at mcphee.com) and the “Eat Your Face” kit (available online at specialeffectscookbook.com). Both are certainly appropriate for Halloween.
There are other Halloween touches besides funny shapes. Consider studding a gelatin dessert with candy corn or miniature marzipan pumpkins or even “eyes” made of melon balls set with tiny blueberries. Terhune suggested garnishing a “vampire” blood-orange gelee with tuile cookies shaped like bat wings.
Whatever you make, raid the holiday section of the local supermarket, card shop or craft store for plastic spiders, toy skeletons and witches to decorate either the plate or the gelatin itself – which should, if at all possible, be served gloriously unmolded.
“I love the texture of gelatin, how it wiggles on the plate,” Terhune said.
WIGGLY RECIPES:
VAMPIRE BLOOD-ORANGE GELATIN
Preparation time: 1 minute
Cooking time: 3 minutes
Chilling time: 10 hours
Yield: 12 servings
Executive chef Heather Terhune of Atwood Cafe and South Water Kitchen developed this recipe. Use one large mold or individual 8-ounce ramekins.
Ingredients
3 cups water
2 cups sugar
7 envelopes (1/4 ounce each) unflavored gelatin
4 1/4 cups blood orange or regular orange juice
2 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur
Directions
Combine 2 cups of the water and the sugar in a medium saucepan; sprinkle with gelatin. Set aside 1 minute to soften gelatin. Cook, stirring, over medium heat, until sugar and gelatin dissolve, about 3 minutes. Stir in orange juice, liqueur and remaining 1 cup of water.
Pour into a lightly oiled 10-cup mold; cover. Refrigerate until firm, at least 10 hours.
To unmold, dip mold briefly in hot water; invert a plate over gelatin. Flip gelatin onto the plate. Decorate with plastic spiders or other Halloween-like creatures.
Nutrition information per serving:
194 calories, 1 percent of calories from fat, 0.2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 47 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 20 mg sodium, 0.2 g fiber
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MELON BALL ‘MARTINI’
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 3 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
This would make a chilling finale to a Halloween dinner. From New York’s Artisanal restaurant and found in “The New York Times Dessert Cookbook,” this recipe can be made with any type of ripe melon except watermelon. If you like, use a smaller melon baller to scoop small holes into the melon balls; insert fresh berries to create “eyeballs.”
Ingredients
1 teaspoon plain gelatin
1 tablespoon cold water
2 cups Sauternes, white dessert wine or white grape juice
1/4 cup lime juice
8 cups small melon balls from 2 melons
2 tablespoons crystallized ginger, slivered, see note
1 teaspoon lime zest
Directions
Soften gelatin in the cold water. Heat Sauternes and lime juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat to a simmer; remove from heat.
Whisk in gelatin; refrigerate until mixture begins to jell, about 25 minutes. Whisk the mixture until frothy; refrigerate 2 hours.
To serve, place a tablespoon of the gelatin mixture in each of 6 martini glasses. Divide melon among glasses; spoon on remaining jelly.
Top each with lime zest and ginger slivers.
Note: Crystallized ginger is available in the supermarket spice section.
Nutrition information per serving:
161 calories, 3 percent of calories from fat, 1 g fat, 0.2 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 39 g carbohydrates, 3 g protein, 81 mg sodium, 2 g fiber
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JELLIED VEGETABLES AND SEAFOOD
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Chilling time: 8 hours
Yield: 8 servings
We made this recipe, from Machiko Chiba’s “Japanese Dishes for Wine Lovers,” in the test kitchen with both dashi broth (a Japanese-style broth) and canned vegetable broth. Make dashi broth with a 4-inch piece of kombu seaweed simmered in 4 cups water. (We purchased a package of kombu at Whole Foods Market with a recipe for dashi on the package. You may also find it at Asian specialty markets.)
Ingredients
1 small zucchini, diced
1/2 cup diced red, yellow, orange bell pepper pieces
10 small shell-on shrimp
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) chicken or vegetable broth or 2 cups prepared dashi broth
2 teaspoons each: gelatin, soy sauce
1 teaspoon mirin
1 okra pod, sliced crosswise
Directions
Heat a medium saucepan of water to a boil over high heat; add zucchini and peppers. Cook to blanch vegetables, 3 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl with a slotted spoon; set aside.
Add shrimp to the boiling water; cook until shrimp turn pink, about 2 minutes. Drain; set aside to cool 2 minutes. Shell and devein shrimp; cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Slice the okra crosswise; set shrimp and okra aside.
Heat the broth and gelatin in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring to dissolve the gelatin. Stir in the soy sauce and mirin.
Raise heat to high; heat to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer; cook 3 minutes. Set aside to cool, about 2 minutes.
Place the broth mixture, peppers, zucchini, shrimp and okra in a lightly greased 2-cup mold or small loaf pan. Mix well; refrigerate until set, at least 8 hours. To serve, dip mold into very hot water 3-4 seconds. Invert a plate or platter over the mold; flip and unmold.
Nutrition information per serving:
17 calories, 5 percent of calories from fat, 0.1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 7 mg cholesterol, 2 g carbohydrates, 2 g protein, 365 mg sodium, 0.4 g fiber
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JIGGLING FRUIT MOLD WITH BERRY COMPOTE
Preparation time: 50 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Cooling time: 1 hour
Chilling time: 6 hours
Yield: 4 servings
This recipe from “The New York Times Dessert Cookbook” hails from Fifty-Seven Fifty-Seven, the now-closed restaurant in New York City’s Four Seasons Hotel. The unmolded jellied fruit syrup sits atop the berry compote and is garnished with whipped cream.
Ingredients
4 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
2 3/4 cups water
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 envelope (1/4 ounce) plain gelatin
1 1/2 pints mixed berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries)
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped, or non-dairy whipped topping, optional
Small chocolate chips, for garnish, optional
Directions
Combine raspberries, 2 cups of the water, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt in a large saucepan over high heat. Heat to a boil, stirring; reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, 4 minutes. Remove from heat; set aside to cool 1 hour.
Line a fine-meshed sieve with a double layer of cheesecloth; add the cooked raspberries.
Press down gently to strain; discard the pulp.
(There should be 2 cups of raspberry juice.) Transfer to a medium saucepan; set aside.
Soften the gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water in a small bowl; set aside 5 minutes. Add to the raspberry juice. Cook, stirring, over low heat until gelatin dissolves, about 2 minutes.
Fill four 1/2-cup lightly oiled ramekins with raspberry mixture; cover. Refrigerate 6 hours.
Meanwhile, combine the mixed berries, remaining 1/2 cup of the water, remaining 1/2 cup of the sugar, orange zest and remaining 1/4 teaspoon of the salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Heat to a simmer; cook, stirring, until the fruit is syrupy and has almost dissolved, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; transfer to a bowl.
Cool; refrigerate, covered, 6 hours.
To serve, spoon mixed berry compote onto four plates. Dip the bottom of each mold into water; unmold onto compote. Spoon whipped cream on top of each, or pipe whipped cream into ghost shapes through a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip; press in mini chocolate chips for eyes.
Nutrition information per serving:
313 calories, 1 percent of calories from fat, 0.4 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 83 g carbohydrates, 3 g protein, 441 mg sodium, 3 g fiber
ARTISTRY IN MOTION
Wielding a syringe loaded with colored gelatin, Veronica C. Miramontes turns dessert into edible if wiggly art. She creates intricately shaped, realistic flowers inside domes of clear, flavored gelatin. The result looks like a classic paperweight but tastes like, well, bubble gum.
Miramontes is co-owner of DelecToGo, a new bakery, catering and takeout food purveyor in Skokie, along with Mark Kwasigroch, a pastry arts instructor at Kendall College, and April Gelber. Miramontes works fast to create her gelatin flowers inside a larger piece of flavored gelatin. First she injects brown lines to replicate a flower’s stamens and then she begins creating the petals one by one until the flower is fully formed. A small flower is completed in about 5 minutes.
Her floral trompe l’oeil desserts are so realistic you hesitate to wield a spoon for fear of ruining the look. And when you do muster the courage, there’s a weird sensation when said spoon glides effortlessly through the flower, for it’s gelatin in gelatin with nary a change in texture.
“People will think it is a real flower and ask, ‘What’s that? Can we eat it?’ ” she said.
Miramontes, a native of Mexico City, said gelatin desserts are very popular in Mexico and are a must-have at parties alongside the cake.
These gelantinas can range from simple flavored gelatin to intricately molded assemblies studded with fruits or nuts.
Taken by gelatin flower desserts seen on television, Miramontes went home to Mexico determined to learn how to make them. She hooked up with a family friend who knew the method.
After two days of intense practice, she had it down.
She makes her floral gelatin desserts in eight flavors: banana, bubble gum, apple, pineapple, amaretto, peach, tropical punch and tutti-frutti. Small gelatin desserts are $5 and are available at the store. She hopes to expand the line with new Mexican flavors early in 2007.
DelecToGo is located at 3455A W. Dempster St., Skokie, Ill.; 847-675-0500, or delectogo.com. The shop is open Monday through Saturday.
ALL SHOOK UP: A ROLL CALL
Don’t get yourself all a-quiver when it comes to gelatin and related products. Here’s a handy glossary.
AGAR: Made from seaweed and used in Japan for centuries, agar (or agar-agar) is vegetarian, unlike gelatin. Agar also sets harder and sets at room temperature; gelatin must be cooled.
ASPIC: A savory jelly made from stock and gelatin. Besides being served on their own (tomato aspic is a classic example), aspics are sometimes used to glaze cold foods.
CARRAGEENAN: Made from a dried seaweed called carrageen. Used as a thickener, emulsifier and stabilizer.
GELATIN: Odorless, colorless and tasteless, gelatin is naturally found in bones. Granulated gelatin is the most popular form of commercially available unsweetened gelatin and must be soaked in cold liquid to soften the granules. The softened gelatin is then heated until it dissolves; it thickens when cooled. Sheet or leaf gelatin also is available and often is used by professional cooks. Four leaves of sheet gelatin equal one package of powdered gelatin. Sheet gelatin must be soaked longer than granulated.
JELL-O: Trademarked brand name for a line of flavored gelatin, puddings and other food items produced by Kraft Foods. Jell-O gelatin was given its name by May Wait, wife of inventor Pearle B. Wait.
PECTIN: Found in some fruits and vegetables. Used to thicken jams, jellies and preserves when the fruit used hasn’t enough natural pectin to jell.
Sources: The New Food Lover’s Companion; Kraft Foods
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(c) 2006, Chicago Tribune.
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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PHOTO (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): wiggly
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