LIME COCONUT PANNA COTTA & GINGER FLORENTINES 

Here are three facts about my first attempt at making panna cotta:
1. I enjoyed the process and experimenting with flavours, but had some problems along the way.
2. Neither the taste nor look was what I had envisioned.
3. It was delicious ­­– which makes facts 1 and 2 irrelevant.

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Here's the original recipe in pdf. For all the fantastic pictures from other Daring Bakers, go to The Daring Kitchen.

A cool dessert ­­– now that's what you want when you live in a hot, humid country, and panna cotta and jelly is perfect.

Mallory apologises for the enormous amount of fat in this panna cotta. So it has a lot of cream in it. Well, add rich, thick coconut milk (instead of plain milk) to that, as I have, and anyone with even the slightest issue with their heart or cholesterol level should stay away from it. This is TO BE EATEN ONLY IN MODERATION! (Apologies for shouting out this warning with the capital letters and exclamation point.)

Agar-agar strips and kaffir lime leaves

In attempt No.1, kaffir lime leaves were steeped in the coconut milk for flavour. The coconut milk came out of a box. Instead of gelatin (which is available here), I used agar-agar (I can't really say how much; just eye-balled it), and used palm sugar instead of white sugar. I also made a gelée from fresh coconut water. The panna cotta is made in a rose-shaped silicone mould.

The citrus taste wasn't as strong as I would have liked it to be, but the panna cotta was creamy and still delicious.

For the florentines, instead of instant oats, I used rolled oats which I processed for a bit. In terms of shape and "lacy-ness", they came out perfect. But they were a little too sweet. I also added a bit of minced crystallised ginger.

Attempt No. 2: Moulded (left) and layered in a glass

In the second attempt, I squeezed milk from grated fresh coconut and left the kaffir lime leaves in the coconut milk overnight and a stronger flavour came through. I had to stop myself from drinking the mixture on its own! The gelée was layered on top of the panna cotta so that the rose shape was more defined. Before processing the rolled oats, I toasted them first and that made the florentines taste better, but they didn't come out lacy. However, I liked the taste better than the first attempt.

The middle layer in the glass is plain jelly with Kahlúa added to it. It goes very well with the rest of the flavours.

CHICKEN VESUVIO. 

The first recipe in America's Test Kitchen Cooking for Two 2010 magazine is for Chicken Vesuvio, a specialty of Chicago. The picture, while small, stopped me on that page and I read the whole story and recipe before moving on. Actually every page of this magazine has something interesting. What a good deal I got when I found this in the bargain bin at one of the magazine stores close to where I live.


As this post appears, I am in India. Obviously, I wrote this before I left to visit a huge handicraft fair in New Delhi and write about it for my newspaper. I didn't want to have a gap in my publishing schedule, and that's why this post is out. Today, according to the programme, I will be in Agra, at the Taj Mahal. I will probably be tearing a little in awe at the majesty of the structure.

I'm sure I would already have gorged on lovely Indian vegetarian food and will be looking forward to some more until I leave in a few days. I know I'll be taking pictures of all the dishes I tried.

For now, here's a dish I made some time ago; it is really good, so those of you who like chicken, this is a good recipe to have (the picture doesn't do justice to the dish, though, so please don't judge it by that). Enjoy!

CHICKEN VESUVIO
From Cooking for Two 2010
Serves 2

¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 (170-225g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts (please use free-range), trimmed and pounded 1¼cm thick
Salt and pepper
5 teaspoons olive oil
340g red potatoes (about 3), cut into 2½cm chunks
1 garlic clove, minced
⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano or ¼ teaspoon dried
½ teaspoon minced fresh rosemary or ⅛ teaspoon dried
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
¼ cup dry white wine
½ cup frozen peas, thawed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

• Place the flour in a shallow dish. Pat the chicken breast dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Working with 1 breast at a time, dredge in the flour, shaking off the excess.
• Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 25cm nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Carefully lay the chicken in the skillet and cook until lightly browned on both sides, 6-8 minutes, flipping the breasts halfway through. Transfer chicken to a plate.
• Wipe out the skillet with paper towels. heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until simmering. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Stir in the garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano, rosemary and ⅛ teaspoon salt and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the broth and wine, scrapping up any browned bits. Nestle the chicken, along with any accumulated juice, into the potatoes and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook until the chicken is cooked, 12-18 minutes, flipping the chicken halfway through.
• Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and tent loosely with foil to keep warm. Increase the heat to medium and continue to cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender and the sauce is thickened slightly, 5-7 minutes longer. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the potatoes to the platter with the chicken. Off the heat, stir in the peas, butter and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over the chicken and potatoes and serve.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

A BUN FOR (ALMOST) EVERY MORNING OF THE WEEK. 

Breakfast should be quick to make and easy to eat. Making toast from a thick slice of homemade loaf and spreading it with butter and jam is easy enough, but sometimes even that seems too much work for me. Terrible.

So I thought that if I just baked different flavours into a batch of dough, I could avoid using the knife, getting the toaster out and cleaning up afterwards. The usual amount of dough I make is enough for six rolls, so I looked through the fridge and  found enough items to do that: 1 dough, 6 ways!

Here's a different roll for breakfast every work day and an extra one for whenever. The pictures show the ones I made recently, and the flavours are easy to adapt with whatever you have at hand.

Top row, from left: Sambal pasty; jam twist; chocolate crescent.

Bottom row: Cinnamon-apple pocket; sausage roll; cheese windmill. 

CHEESE WINDMILL

• Roll dough into a square; place a little square of hard cheese in the centre. With scissors or sharp knife, cut diagonally through dough from each corner until the edge of the cheese. Fold alternate points of square to centre to form a windmill, overlapping and pinching gently to seal in the centre. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with grated cheese.

CHOCOLATE CRESCENT

• Shape the dough into a long triangle; make a small snip in the short end. Place a square of chocolate or some chips in the centre and roll up from the snipped end.

SAMBAL PASTY

• Roll or press the dough into a circle; put a heaped tablespoon of any sambal (I used ikan bilis or anchovy) on one side and fold the other side over to enclose and form a half moon. Pinch the seam into a ruffle. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

SAUSAGE ROLL

• Roll the dough into a long strip and wrap along the length of a cooked sausage, overlapping the edges slightly. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with grated cheese. 

JAM TWIST

• Roll out the dough into a wide strip; spread with jam and fold lengthways, with the seam facing upwards. Twist into a spiral, like a snail shell.

CINNAMON-APPLE POCKET 

• The apple is finely diced and mixed with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough into a square. Place apple filling in the centre and bring up the corners into the centre to form an envelop. brush with melted butter and sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.