BASIL AND GOAT'S CHEESE LOLLIES

This is a crazy recipe. It comes from  Juan Mari Arzak who is truly outstanding Spanish chef. One of the very best-est  - not just in Spain, but in the world. These lollies are not the kind of thing that you would like to be served every day for lunch, but children like experimenting in the kitchen and trying novelty ingredients makes the cooking look a bit more like chemistry, which they enjoy. Arzak does this with parsley, but we tried with basil.
You need:
- 400 gr goat's cheese (cut into thick slices)
- 300 gr basil
- water
- skewers
-4 gr kappa  (Kappa is a natural vegetable ingredient that 'jellydifies' extremely quickly. You can buy 250 gr of kappa for &10.95 at http://www.amazon.co.uk/CARRAGEENAN-KAPPA-PREMIUM-QUALITY-POWDER/dp/B00G0RVEOI  It has a shelf-life of two years)

Blend the basil until it becomes liquid and add water until you get 200 ml of  'basil liquid'. Mix it with the 4 gr of kappa, put it in a pan, bring it to boil and as soon as it boils take it off the heat and let it cool down for 4 minutes. While it is getting cold, pierce  each piece of goat's cheese round with a skewer (as in the picture). When the kappa is cold, coat the cheese with the basil and kappa mixture. It really is magic: it solidifies in seconds. By the time you put the skewer on top of the table it would have already become solid.

The kappa coating  has a bit of a weird texture (but there again I do not like jelly). In any case, the flavour is good and it is fun to make. We'll try a sweet red version next with strawberries, cream cheese …  and the 246 gr of kappa that we have left!