Amita Nene's Yummy Expressions
Layered Panna Cotta with Mango and Coconut
Cream…..
It was my dad’s 71st birthday
last week. A very active person, he continues with his career, fitness regime
and social life as actively. Even on his birthday, he was going to be out in
the first half doing client visits, and major part of the second half in a
social event. So my sister’s family n mine were left with only the fag end of
the day to plan a celebration. So we
decided to assemble late in the evening at my place as kids wanted to plan some
surprise for Grand-dad with candles and stuff!
Since dad and mom were coming over after a
gala dinner at the social event, I planned to dish out some dessert. I had to
make one was light on the tummy and hopefully the girdle as well and still
would melt in the mouth!
Panna Cotta, literally means ‘Cooked Cream’
in Italian. It’s an easy to make dessert which uses Fresh Cream as its core
ingredient. Traditionally, Panna Cotta
uses egg as its ingredient and is baked at low temperatures. However, the
no-bake eggless version is now quite popular and a small amount of gelatin is
blended in this version, to give it the soft setting just to hold it all
together. This works perfect if the dessert is being served in glasses. However, if it is being set in a mould to be
unmoulded into a dish before serving, a dash of additional gelatin would be of
help.
I squared in on making a Layered Panna
Cotta with Mango and Coconut cream to be served as a double shot helping.
To get going I needed the following to
serve about 8-10 persons,
2 cups of Fresh Cream
2 cups of Alphonso Mango puree (not in
season, I used a tin)
2 cups of thick coconut milk (Many brands
are available in 200ml cartons, however I prefer the creaminess of Dabur Hommade
for this)
4 tbsp of Gelatin
5-6 tbsp Sugar (can vary depending on the
sweetness of the puree and also the sweetness preferred for the final dessert)
2 drops vanilla essence
Take the mango puree and coconut milk in
two separate mixing bowls.
Heat the cream in a non-stick pan, add
vanilla essence and sugar and mix well till sugar has blended in well. Cool it
a little, and then add half of the mixture to the mango puree and the balance
half to the coconut milk. Stir well both the mixtures well till it is fully
blended and smooth in texture.
Take 1/4 cup of hot water in a bowl, add half
the gelation and keep stirring till completely dissolved. Slowly add half the
gelation water to the coconut cream stirring briskly so that it blends
perfectly. Add a quarter inch layer of the coconut Cream mix in the serving
glasses and refrigerate it for about 40-60 min or till loosely set.
Take the remaining gelatin and mix with ¼
cup hot water till dissolved and blend in well into the mango puree. Remove the
glasses from the fridge and lightly spoon in a quarter inch of the mango mix
taking care not to break the coconut milk layer. Refrigerate again till loosely
set. You can repeat the process depending on the number of layers you plan to
make.
Once the final layer has set, your layered
Panna Cotta is ready to serve. Drool…. Drool…. Drool!
It looks as delectable as it tastes yummy.
And the smooth creaminess just melts in the mouth. Served a double shot portion
and it was not heavy on the tummy too. Plus, the yummy expressions on faces of
everyone who dig into my dessert was like the proverbial ‘cherry’ on the Panna
Cotta!
You can make ‘n’ number of versions of
Panna Cotta by adding crushes, sauces, fresh fruit and nuts as blended into the
mix or as a topping, to give it your signature.
I plan to try out a mint flavoured version
sometime soon…. Very excited…
A simple vanilla version topped with
Chocolate fudge and chips or with Blueberry sauce just tastes out of this world
and can make your guests keep wanting more… Try it…
And keep creating…. So long!
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