Kakigori
Japanese shaved ice made from frozen water blocks and shaved fine as snow, topped with a fresh strawberry syrup cooked for 5 minutes.
Photograph credit: Macha kakigori snow cone (image of kakigōri on Wikidata Q905204) by Chris 73 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Making Kakigori Ahead
Best eaten at once. The syrup keeps for 4 days in the fridge.
How to Make Kakigori
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Pour the water into a freezer-safe tub and freeze for 4 hours until solid.
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Simmer the chopped strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a small pan for 5 minutes until soft. Press through a sieve and cool.
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Stand the ice block at room temperature for 2 minutes. Shave it into 4 chilled bowls with a shaving machine or food processor.
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Spoon over the syrup and top with the whole strawberries. Serve at once.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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A Few Pointers
- Chill the bowls in the freezer first.
- Use a block of ice rather than cubes for the finest snow.
- Make the syrup ahead and keep it cold.
Some Background
Freeze the ice slowly, in a block, and shave it only at the last minute. Kakigori is shaved ice so fine that it eats like fresh snow, and the texture depends on how the ice is frozen and how cold it is when it meets the blade. Texture is everything.
Pour boiled and cooled water into a tray or tub and freeze it for four hours or overnight until solid. Boiled water freezes clearer and harder, which shaves into finer flakes. Let the block stand for two minutes at room temperature before shaving; ice straight from the freezer is brittle and breaks into chips instead of ribbons. A shaving machine does the best job, but a strong food processor will give a coarser, still pleasing snow. Make the syrup first.
The syrup is strawberries cooked with sugar and lemon juice for five minutes and pressed through a sieve, then cooled. Pile the ice high in a chilled bowl and pour the syrup over in slow circles. Eat at once, since the snow melts in minutes. Speed matters at the table.
Serving Ideas
Green tea · Fresh fruit · Matcha syrup · Mochi
Kakigori FAQ
How long does Kakigori take to make?
10 minutes of preparation and 5 minutes of cooking, plus 4 hours of Freezing, so allow 4 hours 15 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.
Kakigori Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published .
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