Jelled coconut, anyone?
Posted by Marit on June 20, 2008
Well, I don’t know. It was suppose to be a panna cotta – but as I haven’t managed to prepare a proper panna cotta yet (as you can read from here), I don’t even know how a proper panna cotta should look and taste like. This time I ended up with something in between a jelly and a panna cotta, maybe because I changed the original recipe quite a bit… But I liked it though. As for J, this was apparently not his cup of tea. So I don’t know. Should do it again one day and serve it to more than two persons to get their opinion.
For two big or four small panna cottas you will need:
# In a dry heavy saucepan cook sugar over moderately low heat, stirring slowly with a fork (to help sugar melt evenly), until melted and pale golden. Cook caramel, without stirring, until deep golden.
# Coat bottoms of 2 big or 4 small molds or ramekins with caramel. Set aside.
# Place gelatin sheets into cold water to soften.
# In a large saucepan bring coconut milk just to a boil, stirring. Add sugar – a few tablespoons (I added 2), until the mix is sweet enough for you (keep in mind that the caramel sauce will give you extra sweetness). Remove pan from heat.
# Remove excess water from the gelatin sheets and add it to the hot coconut milk, stirring until dissolved. Also stir in rum extract.
# Whip the cream until stiff. Carefully stir into the coconut milk and let cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes up to 2 hours. Why – read more at the bottom of this post.
# When cooled, stir the mixture well and divide among molds or ramekins which you coated with caramel. Chill desserts until firm, at least 4 hours, and up to 2 days.
# To unmold panna cottas, dip molds or ramekins, 1 at a time, into a bowl of hot water for 3 seconds. Run a thin knife around edges and invert desserts onto a platter. The caramel has been liquefied and will give you a nice sweet syrupy sauce.
I suggest to hold some crushed caramel at hand to sprinkle it on top for a garnish with nice texture.
So there you go. I liked that it was very light and that there was no need to start preparing extra sauce – everything was done in one go. But maybe I would use less gelatin the next time, so that it would be a bit less firm and more like a real panna cotta.
All in all, I was happy with it and a bonus was that I was able to use up the leftover coconut milk which I had from preparing curry for dinner.
Im getting all excited about different foodblog events…already found a second one to participate – Suganya is currently hosting fruit of the month and – you guessed it - this lucky fruit is…coconut!
