The Porky Gourmand

I was online a few days ago reading the “tastingmenu blog” by a professional chef & her partner, the post on perfecting panna cotta caught my attention. Panna cotta is an italian desert that consists of flavoured cream set in gelatin. Dana the chef on the blog scientifically explains the method to a perfect panna cotta. I was inspired to try the method mentioned on the blog.

I did a hack job for my panna cotta, purists might be offended by what I did. It was fun though. I started with double cream, packet of dessert jelly mix & milk. The jelly mix has the all important gelatin, ideally I should have used unflavoured gelatine sheets or granules, but I didn’t have any.

Stumbled on the outset, dessert jelly mixes contain lots of acid. I knew this might cause a problem but I foolishly went ahead. When I tried to mix the flavoured gelatin granules into hot milk. The milk seized spectacularly into curds. Luckily i had only used about a quarter of gelatin granules, I started again by heating about 200 mls of water. I dissolved the remaining gelatin granules into the hot water, then let it cool to about room temperature.

Next stage, whilst the hot water with my gelatin was cooling. I set aside about 125 mls of cream in and bowl, and placed it in the fridge to chill. When jelly mix was at room temperature, I whisked the chilled cream. Dana of the tastingmenu blog prescribes the whisking should be done until soft peaks of cream. Well, I over whisked to hard peaks…. too bad. Any way, i added about 250 mls of cool cream to the dissolved gelatin, then folded in the whisked cream. Poured into my moulds and let it set it overnight in the fridge.

For the cranberry compote, I simmered the dried cranberries in a little water for about 30 minutes, added about 1 tbsp of sugar. Reduced the liquid to a thin syrup.

How did it taste? so so….. The commercial gelatin mixes have rather harsh flavours, it was like a lime soda drink. But what I really liked in this panna cotta was the texture(using milk would have made this better). I think it had to do with adding the whisked cream. The cranberries were also great.

Next time, I will source some sheet gelatin, use milk instead of water to dissolve gelatin. Would also serve with a flavoured tuile to add some crunch texture to this dessert.