The one with the trust issues

The plan was pretty easy, as you could read in my last post: I just had to nail appetizers, starter, main and dessert. In case you don’t know what sarcasm is, the last sentence was an example. However, as I love every single, little thing that has to do with food (especially eating it), I was looking forward to it. A whole day dedicated to the one thing I would like to define my life, who minds about the rest then?

So off I went, starting making dough for pizza appetizers and pumpkin ravioli starters. And then, dessert followed. A dessert I never made before. A dessert I always used to despise. A dessert, which for some undefinable reason, ended on the menu that night. I’m talking about panna cotta.

A creamy (like du-uh), vanilla panna cotta, with salted caramel, toasted nuts and a sprinkle of orange zest.

First things first: why did I use to despise panna cotta? Cause “it’s only cooking cream”. I know, I know, one should NEVER despise any sort of food. And then why did I decide to make it anyway on that remarkable Saturday afternoon? Two words: salted caramel.

The following happened. I started making the caramel. Some trust issues here, as I tried making it once with a friend of mine when we were 13, to put on top off our homemade popcorn. We miserably failed and ended up with some sticky sugar water. Which we poured over our popcorn anyway. Result: it was completely soggy. Trust issues doubled that afternoon, as the recipe turned out incorrect. Two things here. 1. Who the f*** needs a recipe for caramel? That would be me. 2. Should have known the recipe was wrong, as it asked for 200 grams of sugar and 6 dl of water. Sugar water it was. Now anyway, I just looked up another caramel recipe and nailed that salted caramel.

Then the second part: the actual cooked cream. Cooking cream, easypeasy. But then that gelatin had me worried. Every brand has a different weight for each gelatin sheet – WHO’S TALKING ABOUT TRUST ISSUES NOW? I just went with the flow however, looking into the fridge every 10 minutes, freaking out for about an hour, until it started setting.

Disaster averted up until then, waiting for some twisted turn of events later that evening.

The dessert was a success, however. If you can’t wait to try it as well, please read on. You won’t regret it.

Ingredients (serves 6)

Panna cotta

• 7.5 dl of cream
• Vanilla pod
• 25 grams of sugar
• 3 leaves of gelatin – about 2 grams

Salted caramel

• 200 grams of sugar
• 6 tablespoons of water
• 1 teaspoon of honey
• 1.25 dl of cream
• Sea salt

Chopped nuts

An orange

Recipe

Caramel

·         Put the ingredients for the caramel in a pan, besides the salt an the cream. Put it on medium heat.

·         Don’t stir it with a spoon or anything else. Just turn the pan every 2 minutes or so, so that all sugar is incorporated in the water.

·         Just let it bubble away, until it starts getting golden brown. Might take a while. Once it starts colouring, keep an eye on it as you don’t want it to burn.

·         When the caramel has the right colour, pour in the cream and whisk – whisk – whisk.

·         Put away for 10 min and add some sea salt.

Panna cotta

·         Put the gelatine in a bowl of cold water.

·         Add cream, sugar and vanilla pod. Bring to a boil.

·         Once boiling, take out the vanilla pod, split it in half. Scrape out the insides and add to the cream.

·         Take the pan of the heat. Add two tablespoons of caramel to the cream.

·         Wait for a bit, until it’s not completely hot anymore. Squeeze the water out of the gelatin and add it to the cream.

·         Whisk until all gelatin has been “absorbed” by the cream.

·         Pour the cream in whatever you want to serve it in and put in the fridge.

·         Wait until it has set (took about 4h).

·         Upon serving, drizzle some caramel on top, some toasted nuts and some orange zest.

Based on "Nest", Christmas issue

Et voilà, bon’ap!

How do you feel about panna cotta? Love it, or hate it?

Love,

Julie