Saturday, December 31, 2011

Rose Water Panna Cotta With Apple Compote

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One more post before the end of 2011. Do you, like me, find that each year goes faster than the year before? Maybe time seems to fly the older you get because one day for an older person is one day over thousands of days compared to, say, a one-year old whose one day is one day over 365. I read that in some magazine years ago and I liked that explanation.

Panna cotta ("cooked cream") is super easy to make and super yummy too. Yes, believe it or not, there is such a dessert. Just set dairy cream with gelatine (overnight so you have plenty of time the next day) and serve it very cold with a caramel syrup and seasonal fruits. The Brits try to complicate everything the dessert by making a fruit compote but even so it's still much easier to make than say an apple crumble or a bread pudding.

I can't get rose water here so I used rose essence for the flavor and grenadine for the color. The rose flavor gave the dessert a subtle but wonderful flavor. I was lucky to have dried blueberries and cranberries. I didn't have dried cherries so I used fresh ones. The original recipe was from London: Authentic Recipes Celebrating The Foods Of The World but I made the panna cotta according to my long-trusted recipe. I also simplified the apple compote. That just means I made do without ingredients I don't have, such as Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, a sweet white dessert wine.

Happy New Year All!

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Rose Water Panna Cotta With Apple Compote
The panna cotta:
1000 ml fresh dairy cream*
6 pieces gelatine sheets**
1 1/2 t rose essence or 2 t rose water
6 T castor sugar

* increase to about 1200 ml in cold weather or if you want a wobbly panna cotta
** from cake ingredients shops

1. Put the cream into a small pot, add the gelatine sheets which have been briefly soaked in cold water (15 sec or until just turning soft). Heat and stir the cream until the gelatine is thoroughly melted and pour into individual molds, preferably metal molds which are easier to ease out. For big parties, I make a huge mold for guests to help themselves with.

The Apple Compote
3 apples, peeled, cored and diced
3 T dried cranberries
3 T dried blueberries
2 T dried cherries
3 T lemon juice
finely grated zest from 1 large lemon
7 T caste sugar (to taste)
1 t rose water (or 1 t rose essence + 1/4 cup grenadine syrup)

2. Put the sugar, zest and 2/3 cup water into a sauce pot and cook, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is slightly syrupy. Add the remaining ingredients except for the lemon juice and let the mixture simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until the apples are tender and sauce is reduced and thickened. Add the lemon juice and remove from heat. Cool.

3. Run a blade around the sides of the panna cotta, hold a serving plate over the mould and invert. Cover the mould with a hot towel, leave for a few seconds and shake the mould to ease the panna cotta out. Spoon the compote on and around the panna cotta and chill thoroughly before serving.



7 comments:

Michelle Chin said...

12 x 30?? hmm, trying to work the math out for that one bit of info there...

yolly said...

Happy and healthy New Year 2012 to you and family. Called you but nobody pick up the phone. I am working on X'mas and New Year and chinese N.Y.

RUNNING BROOK said...

Happy New Year Terri!

Laura said...

Hi Terri!
I like making Panna Cotta, too!
I usually make a strawberry-cream to eat with it!
...I'll try your way to put it out of the mould, it is always so difficult!
Happy New Year!!
Lau

terri@adailyobsession said...

Mich: what i meant was the time perception for a younger person is diff from tt of an older person . E.g. one day over one year is 1/365= 0.0027 compared to say a 50 year old, which would be 1/50x365=0.000055, so an older person wpuld feel tt one day passes faster!

Yolly: r u in london yet?it's gonna be very painful to leave A there....but you can always fly there every month. Btw, if she finds tt the heat tech top is good, i have another one here.

Happy newyear!

Runningbrook: happy new year to you n fam!!!

Laura: hey laura, is it correct to eat panettone with vin santo? I made panettone butdidn't know tt i haveto hang it upside b down like a chiffon cake so it collapsed in the middle. But am going to try again.

Laura said...

Terri!
I've never baked Panettone, but I know it needs lot of patience.
We don't usually eat it with Vin Santo. We eat it with Spumante.
We dip "Biscotti di Prato" (=Cantuccini) in Vin Santo!!

Unknown said...

Totally beautiful photo!!!

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