Bloody Mary en Gelée

[menon1971]

I was lying around the house with my ladyfriend having a discussion about things one might have been served on a mid-twentieth century continental style cruise ship and the subject of gelatin dishes came up. She immediately thought of my long deceased paternal grandmother’s tomato aspic that my mother trots out every Thanksgiving and Xmas (I personally love the stuff, but I grew up eating it). That’s when it hit me: what if one were to make it into a gelatinous bloody mary. A savory and nutritious jello shooter (chunder), half cocktail, half appetizer.

Has anyone tried such a thing? Is it good? Does this sound appealing to anyone? Are some of you feeling a bit queasy?

Here is my grandmother’s recipe with modifications noted in brackets:

Essie's Tomato Aspic/Bloody Mary en Gelée

4 cups tomato juice [or V-8]

1/3 cup chopped sweet onion

a few celery leaves

2 TBSP. Brown Sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 bay leaves

4 whole cloves

a dash Worcestershire sauce

[1 tsp. Hot sauce]

[1 TBSP. Prepared horseradish]

3 TBSP. lemon juice

3 [4 if with vodka] envelopes gelatin

[1 cup vodka]

Simmer first 7 [8] ingredients for 10 minutes.

Add lemon juice. Soften the gelatin in 1/4

cup of cold water and add to hot juice mixture.

Stir thoroughly. Strain and mold.

Edited January 26, 2007 by menon1971 (log)

[suzilightning]

leave the celery out and you can make that for me anyday...

what about as a shot for an amuse?

[shellfishfiend]

Leave the cloves out and I would love it. I can also see it with the addition of shrimp or oysters. Spicy, cold, salty=delicious.

Let us know how it turns out if you try it.

[dockhl]

I would ABSOLUTELY eat/drink it ! Sounds yummy as is---the cloves remind me of an awesome

TOMATO BURGUNDY SOUP

that I love.

Let us know !

[JAZ]

In one of my cookbooks (Hot Hotter Hottest, I think), there's a reciope for a kind of Bloody Mary course -- tomato aspic made with horseradish, molded into an individual savarin mold (think donut shaped), and served with an iced shot of vodka in the middle of the aspic. I've never tried it, but it seemed like it would be a nice course for a brunch. I'd think your idea would work just as well, in a different way.

[Shalmanese]

I was lying around the house with my ladyfriend having a discussion about things one might have been served on a mid-twentieth century continental style cruise ship and the subject of gelatin dishes came up. She immediately thought of my long deceased paternal grandmother’s tomato aspic that my mother trots out every Thanksgiving and Xmas (I personally love the stuff, but I grew up eating it). That’s when it hit me: what if one were to make it into a gelatinous bloody mary. A savory and nutritious jello shooter (chunder), half cocktail, half appetizer.

Has anyone tried such a thing? Is it good? Does this sound appealing to anyone? Are some of you feeling a bit queasy?

Here is my grandmother’s recipe with modifications noted in brackets:

Essie's Tomato Aspic/Bloody Mary en Gelée

4 cups tomato juice [or V-8]

1/3 cup chopped sweet onion

a few celery leaves

2 TBSP. Brown Sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 bay leaves

4 whole cloves

a dash Worcestershire sauce

[1 tsp. Hot sauce]

[1 TBSP. Prepared horseradish]

3 TBSP. lemon juice

3 [4 if with vodka] envelopes gelatin

[1 cup vodka]

Simmer first 7 [8] ingredients for 10 minutes.

Add lemon juice.  Soften the gelatin in 1/4

cup of cold water and add to hot juice mixture.

Stir thoroughly.  Strain and mold.

←

I think it would work better if there was some textural contrast. Maybe if you very thinly sliced the celery instead of pureeing it and you served it with an oyster.

I also think gelatin is not the best thickener for this, maybe agar would give a better flavour release.

[menon1971]

Here she is: Essie's Bloody Mary Gelée prototype one.

My ladyfriend persuaded me to try this by convincing me that I really should not post something this specific not attempted. So last evening I decided to make a quarter batch using V-8 juice as a base. However, I made some modifications from the original post. I used a few pieces of celery rather than the leaves, minced the onions instead of chopping it and realized that I was out of bay leaves so those were obviously omitted. I simmered everything but the lemon juice, vodka (Smirnoff red lab - I am with the NY Times on this one) and gelatin (plain old Knox in this case) for ten minutes. I then let the juice cool for 10 minutes, reason being to reduce the evaporation of the alcohol once everything was blended. I then added the gelatin to the warm juice, blended and poured through a wire, helping it along with the back of a spoon. The lemon juice and vodka were then mixed in and the lot was poured into a small bowl which served as a mold.

The concoction was left to set over night. Mid afternoon the trial began. Our initial reaction was not one of horror as if I had sinned against nature, but an overall, “not bad.” She suggested (as others on eG did) that it might be good served as part of a canape with shrimp perhaps. Upon reflection I portend a thinly sliced piece of toasted bread with slivers of the gelée shrimp and guacamole, or sour cream/creme fraiche/crema fresca with caviar (not sturgeon - I work for the state). We both agreed that to offset the over-pronounced flavor of the alcohol there needed to be more lemon juice and more sugar, so the next time I try this it will be with an additional tablespoon of both. We also came to the conclusion that tomato juice would have given this a cleaner flavor. Here is the modified version as it stands at the moment:

Essie's Bloody Mary en Gelée

4 cups tomato juice

1/3 cup chopped sweet onion

1 chopped stalk of celery

3 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 bay leaves

4 whole cloves

a dash Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. Hot sauce

1 Tbsp. Prepared horseradish

4 TBSP. lemon juice

4 if with vodka envelopes gelatin

1 cup vodka

Simmer first 10 ingredients for 10 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and then blend in gelatin. Strain and add lemon juice and vodka. Stir thoroughly and mold. Allow to set in refrigerator for 8 hours.

[KatieLoeb]

Perhaps serving a melon balled scoop of the gelatinous mixture atop a freshly shucked oyster could be attractive and tasty?

I like the idea of maybe having shrimp cocktail or a blob of jumbo lump crabmeat with this mixture as well. It might serve better if it were poured into a shallow square pan and then cut into little cubes. It would be easier to spoon up out of an attractive vessel (martini glass, perhaps?) and serve other ingredients atop or on the side.

[shellfishfiend]

Menon1971,

So glad you tried it. It looks really good. I am saving the recipe as I think it would be a great party dish.

If you try it again with the seafood, let us know about it.

Thanks.

Edited January 28, 2007 by shellfishfiend (log)