Earl Grey Panna Cotta - Video

It's amazing what you can do with so little ingredients.... Milk, cream, sugar, gelatin and a flavouring of your choice and you get yourself a scrumptious, classic Italian nursery dessert... Panna Cotta. 

This has to be one of the easiest desserts to make... In a sentence: heat the milk and cream, add sugar, the soften gelatin, pour into moulds and let it set in the fridge. That's really it. Also best thing is, you can make this in advance for a dinner party or for a sole-indulgence moment after a long day. But you should make this in advance anyway, at least for few hours for the panna cotta to set and become fridge cold. 

However, what I find really important in making "the perfect panna cotta" is the consistency. It should be soft-set but firm enough to be unmoulded without collapsing. To achieve this, you do need to follow the exact requirement for the setting agent. 

Instead of using gelatin, I use agar-agar here because it was easier to find back in Indonesia and also it's vegetarian friendly (agar-agar is extracted from seaweed after all). But whichever one you're using, make sure to follow the instructions. Gelatin sheets need to be soften first in cold water before adding it to the warm cream and milk mixture; whereas agar-agar powder reacts to heat in order for the setting to occur. 

Flavour-wise, you can do anything you want really... Vanilla is traditional but you can be as creative as you want... This time round I'm giving my panna cotta an Anglo-twist and infusing mine with Earl Grey tea which I absolutely love. It's light and fragrant with a distinctive bergamot flavour. 

I could happily have the panna cotta by itself, but the same principle that it's always good to have some greens (or some reds in this case) with your meal, I feel a scatter of berries around the panna cotta is appropriate. The strawberries are macerated in sugar and a touch of balsamic vinegar which may sound odd, but believe me and give this a go. The balsamic vinegar brings out the beautiful colour of the berries, making it glisten and truly enhances their strawberry-ness.
 

 

And guess what... This is another video recipe! Yay... Please enjoy...

Special thanks to my friend Vincent for filming and editing the video. Vincent is also a brilliant photographer and you can check out his work on Instagram @vincentwilfred.

 

 Have a delicious day!