With apologies for the REALLY bad photo above. I had about a minute, a cellphone, and no lighting. I’ll take some nicer photos soon and replace this one.

Friend Gail called me this morning, asking for a quick and “idiot proof” dessert she could do for tonight’s Memorial Day Weekend dinner at her house. Gail’s one of the heroes who recently returned to Fort Hood from Afghanistan, and her cooking is, shall we say, challenged.

Bag in hand I raced south, hoping to get some help in before I had to be at work. Here’s what I came up with, and I figure some of you might find it of use.

Red, White, And Blue Memorial Day Dessert in a Glass

The idea here is to have a red, white, and blue layer in a glass. Since everyone involved is of age and likely to have a few brews after dinner, talking about coming home, I decided to add alcohol to this dish. Since it had to be easy to make and be done with what was at hand, I also grabbed a few jars from her pantry.

Layer One – Amaretto Strawberries

An easy layer. She had a bag of frozen strawberries from a farmers’ market in her freezer. Since they weren’t flash frozen I didn’t dare use them whole (water, when freezing, develops jagged edges that puncture delicate cell membranes and turn fruit mushy). Instead, I made a coulis, fortified with amaretto, and used that as the bottom layer.

Layer Two – Almond-Vanilla Blancmange

Blancmange is easy to make. I ground the almonds in a mortar, added three drops of kirsch to about a pound and a half of almonds, and 2 cups of warm water. I let that stand for 45 minutes (we went through her rather vast collection of lady-sized handguns, a hobby of hers, in the meantime). Strained the whole thing through a few layers of cheesecloth, pushing and squeezing hard to get all the water out.

I heated the almond milk on her stove, adding 5 grams of agar-agar (one of the visitors is Jewish and can not eat pork, else I’d have just used gelatin) and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Use the real stuff, please, not the imitation crap.

While the milk heated, I beat five cups of heavy whipping cream, adding sugar to taste. I wanted the dessert to be nice and sweet without being cloying, so I stopped just shy of that.

As the almond milk came to a simmer, I added two cups of sugar and stirred to dissolve, then took the whole thing off the heat, letting it cool down considerably (using a few handful of ice cubes in a ziptop bag submerged into the milk).

I then folded the whipped cream into the milk mixture, being careful not to collapse the cream. The resulting mixture was then filled as the second layer on top of the first.

In the fridge we went.

Layer Three – Blue Curacao and Blueberry

In the same fridge I found a bag of industrial blueberries. I cooked them briefly over medium heat with Blue Curacao, a little sea salt, and honey, then pushed them through a tamis. The resulting jelly was brought down to room temperature and added on top of the now well cooled second layer.

Now all that remained was to close the jar and to wait for the evening.

Epilogue

Gail just called me. The dessert was a huge success, with its colors, and its combinations of sweet and sour tones.

Here’s to the men and women in uniform who have for generations stood up for this country. Those who came before us, those who stood with us, and those who will come after us. Hooah!