Mandarin 'Caviar'

A while back I made a dessert for guests and for dessert I had made a mandarin & white chocolate cheesecake. I wanted an impressive topping, and not being much of an artist I needed something that worked for me.

This mandarin 'caviar' is a nice little touch to desserts and any fruit juice can be used. In this one I used freshly squeezed mandarin juice (in fact the juice from a tin of fruit works too!)

For this recipe you need to locate a pipette (chemist) or a squeezy bottle with a small tip or even a syringe.

Mandarin Caviar

Ingredients:

2-3 cups vegetable oil
3 cups juice
4 teaspoons powdered gelatine
3 tbsp. cold water
sugar (to taste) or a squeezy bottle with a small tip or even a syringe.

Method:

Put the vegetable oil into a jug and put in the fridge over night or in the freezer for half an hour.

Mix the gelatine with the 3 tbsp. cold water to dissolve. Put the juice and sugar into a small saucepan and heat till boiling. Boil the juice, reducing the quantity by about half. Taste and add more sugar if necessary. You want the caviar balls to 'pop' with flavour so it needs to be concentrated and strong/sweet flavoured. Add the juice to the gelatine and leave to get to room temperature.

Remove the oil from the fridge or freezer and with the pipette, squeeze small droplets on the surface of the juice into the cold oil. Little balls of caviar will settle down into the bottom of the jug. You may need to stop halfway to re chill the oil. When you have used up all the juice, strain the balls into a sieve and put into an air tight container and chill.

Don't wash the oil off it can crush the balls and you can't taste it anyway. These keep in the fridge for a 7-10 days.