Uses for absinthe No.74: Butterfly Jelly

Like half the nation I went to a street party today to celebrate the Royal Wedding. The hosts asked us to bring food, in particularly jelly. At the end of their instructions they added, "We're not joking about the jelly."

So I brought some jelly. But to add a twist I decided to make absinthe jelly. In the end I used a normal lime jelly cube pack, reduced the overall liquid content by about 20% and then replaced 20% of what was left with Butterfly absinthe. We poured it into a vintage domed jelly mould and left it overnight. Sadly in the morning it was clearly not firm enough to hold its shape, so I gave it a blast in the freezer before setting out. At the event the difficulty was getting it out so we left the mould on the table in the sun and checked it anxiously, wiggling it occasionally until it looked ready to come out. Well, it kept the shape of the mould for about 30 seconds before slowly collapsing into a puddle of green goo. We had brought along a flag to warn of curious children—this stuff if strong! In fact if I did it again I'd halve the amount of absinthe, partly in the hope that it would hold its shape but also because the flavour is pretty intense like this. That didn't stop certain guests wolfing it down by the spoonload. Here is a photo of the sorry mess, looking a bit like alien ectoplasm. Note the small fly that has landed on it and instantly expired…