Welcome to Nigella

Ingredients

• 300ml plus 50ml water
• 300g caster sugar
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 400ml tonic water (not slimline!)
• 250ml gin
• 25g/15 sheets of leaf gelatine
• 2 punnets whitecurrants or 3-4 punnets raspberries, optional
• 1 teaspoon icing sugar if using raspberries
• 1 1/4 litre jelly mould, lightly greased with almond or vegetable oil

Method

1. Put the water and sugar into a wide, thick-bottomed saucepan and bring to the boil. Let boil for 5 minutes, take off the heat, add the lemon zest and leave to steep for 15 minutes. Strain into a measuring jug, then add the lemon juice, the tonic water and the gin; you should have reached the 1,200ml mark; if not, add more tonic water, gin or lemon juice to taste.
2. Soak the gelatine leaves in a dish of cold water for 5 minutes to soften. Meanwhile, put 50ml of water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, squeeze out the gelatine leaves and whisk them in. Pour some of the gin and lemon syrup mixture into the saucepan and then pour everything back into the jug. Pour into the mould and, when cold, put in the fridge to set. This should take about 6 hours.
3. When you are ready to unmould, half-fill a sink with warm water and stand the jelly mould in it for 30 seconds or so. Clamp a big flat plate over the jelly and invert to unmould, shaking it as you do so. If it doesn't work, stand it in the warm water for another half-minute or so and try again. If you've used a dome mould, surround the jelly with whitecurrants (Sainsbury's sells them in summer, as do many greengrocers'), or fill the hole with them if you've used a ring mould. Raspberries are just as good, but dust these with icing sugar - it sounds poncey, but it makes the pale-jade glimmer of the jelly and the otherwise-too-vibrant red of the fruit come together on the plate. The whitecurrants should be left to glimmer, opal-like, without interference.