Gale Gand

 Lychee and Lime Granita Martini


For the Lime Granita

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup fresh lime juice



In a sauce pan combine the water and sugar and bring to a boil. Let cool slightly then stir in the lime juice. Pour into a pan (metal preferred) and freeze over night. The next day using a large metal spoon, scrap the frozen ice to shave it. Place the shaved ice in a frozen container and keep till ready to use.





For the Martini

2 ounces Gin

1 ounce St. Germain 

1 ounce liquid from a can of lychees

1 lychee

6 ice cubes




Place Gin, St. Germain, lychee liquid and lychee in a shaker. Add ice cubes and shake 15 seconds. Strain into a Martini glass. Add a spoonful of granita in the center of the glass and serve.

Additional recipe from Executive Pastry Chef Gale Gand:

Hand Formed Blueberry-Almond Tartlets 


Makes 4 tartlets
 


1 sheet frozen all butter puff pastry, thawed

4 tablespoons almond paste (canned)

4 teaspoons sour cream
1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cups blueberries
 


Place a sheet of parchment paper on a sheet pan. Divide the sheet of puff pastry into 4 squares. Take 1 tablespoon of almond paste and roll it into a ball then flatten it and place it in the center of the puff pastry. In a bowl, toss together the sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon, then stir in the sour cream. Add the berries and fold together to coat them.

Spoon 1/4 of the berries in the center of the almond paste lined puff pastry. Repeat with other puff pastry squares. Using your hands gather the puff pastry up around the blueberries and press it onto the berries to bundle then snugly in the dough. It won't look so petty now but will look beautiful once it bakes up and puffs. Bake at 425 degrees till golden brown on the edges, about 25-30 minutes. Let cool before serving.

PROFILE

Gale Gand is the executive pastry chef and partner of the renowned four-star Mobil, five-diamond AAA, Relais & Chateaux Relais-Gourmand restaurant Tru in Chicago with culinary partner Rick Tramonto. She was recognized in 2001 as Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year by The James Beard Foundation and Bon Appetite magazine and in 1994 as one of Food & Wine’s Top Ten Best New Chefs. Gand has a BFA from RIT and attended culinary school at La Varenne in Paris before opening Trio, Brasserie T and later Tru, which celebrated it’s 10th anniversary in 2009. An accomplished cookbook author with seven titles to her credit, including her most recent “Gale Gand’s Brunch”, released in 2009. 

Gand is the host of the long running Food Network’s “Sweet Dreams,” and has two shows currently in production, “The Heirloom Recipe Project” for PBS and “The Answered Chef”, an online educational cooking series at www.AnswersTV.com .  She has appeared on “Martha Stewart”, “Oprah”, “Iron Chef America” and judged the 2008 season of Bravo's hit series "Top Chef". She has her own root beer company, Gale’s producing a cinnamon-ginger-vanilla flavored rootbeer made with cane sugar. In the summer of 2008 two of Gand’s desserts were featured at the USA House at the Beijing Olympics.

A supporter of sustainable agriculture, eating locally and the environmental movement, Gand is a member of the National Restaurant Association's Conserve Initiative Action Council and forages annually for local ramps and mushrooms with her son for her restaurants. She is involved in many community causes, including Chicago’s Green City Market, Art Smith’s foundation, Common Threads, which teaches children racial and cultural diversity through the culinary arts and she is teaches pastry and baking after school to children at her son's middle school and daughters’ Montessori School. 

Most recently she consulted on and opened an upscale cupcake bakery, MORE, in Chicago.  Gale is married to an environmentalist, Jimmy Seidita, has a 12 year old son, Gio and 4 year old twins, Ella and Ruby.  For more information on Gand, visit www.galegand.com and www.trurestaurant.com.