Sour Cherry and Port Granita

Ingredients

•  300gr sour cherries  in jar, quite hard to find fresh in the UK
•  1 cup of port (about 200 ml)
•  300ml sugar syrup (150gr of sugar and 150ml of water)
• 1 tablespoon of sugar 

Method

1. Drain the sour cherries  through a sieve over a bowl, reserve all the  liquid.
2. Blend the cherries . Pass the puree through a fine sieve. Using the back of a spoon, press cherries to extract the juice. Discard pulp left in the sieve.
3. Add reserved liquid from step one and ½ cup of  port to the strained juice.
4. For the sugar syrup: In a pan place 150gr of sugar and 150ml of water.
   Bring to simmer and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove the pan from heat, and let stand until cool.
5. Add cooled syrup to juice mixture, and stir until combined. Pour this mixture into a  bowl and place it in freezer until ice crystals begin to form around edges, about 1 hour. Using a fork, stir the ice crystals into the centre; return to the freezer. Stir ice crystals once an hour until all the liquid has frozen and has a grainy consistency, about 5 hours. Serve, or store in the freezer, covered, up to 2 days.
6. While in the granita cools in the freezer, make the the port syrup to drizzle on top.  Syrup: ½ cup of the port, 1 tbsp of sugar and ½ cup of water, place in a pan and stir well and let it reduce to a syrup.  Drizzle it over the granita once it has cooled down. Happy  Summer!