Yogurt pannacotta (mark 3)

Yogurt pannacotta with elsanta strawberries

Mark 1 - Eventually I won the war with pannacotta. I'm not too proud to admit that the first time I made it the pannacotta was inedible. Quite an achievement considering the fact I will pretty much eat anything, drawing the line at the  “stuff” that comes out of the work canteen. To be honest I’m not too sure what went wrong last time. I’ve gone over it in my head like some broken hearted teenage girl. Maybe I neglected it? Maybe I did it all wrong?  Realistically I think it failed because I because the buttermilk that I tried to make it with was off.  It smelt acrid. Horrible stuff. Seems so obvious now.

Mark 2 – I had tried to freeze cream. It didn’t work. When I defrosted it, it was lumpy. To quote the Smiths “I was bored before I even began”. Pannacotta mark 2 was a non-starter.

Mark 3 - Third time I tried it with yogurt it seemed to work better. I wanted to keep it fresher than just set cream. Persistence paid off and I was able to bring a nice summery dessert over to a friend's for dinner. I was smug; I had won the pannacotta war.

This dish is unbelievably easy (despite my previous attempts). It took only 10 minutes to make. It needs a chum to accompany it, fresh strawberries like these “elsantas” were tasty or some roasted rhubarb would work equally well.

Yogurt pannacotta serves 4

2 ½-3 sheets of gelatine (depending how wobbly you like it)

285ml carton of double cream

300ml plain yogurt (2 yeo valley pots)

1tsp vanilla paste (or 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out)

4 slightly heaped dessertspoons caster sugar

Add the gelatine to a bowl of cold water, leave to stand for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime gently heat the cream in a pan over a medium to low heat.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

Slowly increase the heat till the cream is just about to boil and has thickened.

It should be able to coat the back of a spoon.

Take the cream off the heat, squeeze the water out of the gelatine and add to the cream.

Stir until dissolved.

Leave the mixture to cool for a minute or two.

Be patient.

Add the yogurt and vanilla, stir in.

If you are a perfectionist, put the mixture through a sieve, otherwise pour the mixture into the 4 dishes.

Leave to cool for about an hour before putting in the fridge.

Once in the fridge they will take 2-3 hours to set.

To serve, dip the bottomof the pots in hot water for a couple of seconds.

Put a butter knife around the top of the pot to loosen.

Give it a gentle shake to get the air to the bottom and turnout on a plate.

Enjoy.

1st attempt pizza

mozzarella and greek basil pizza

You may ask the question “how have you got as far as writing a food blog without having made a punny, solitary attempt at making your own pizza?” Fair question which I will counter by asking "why would I ever think of making pizza when the fantastic Franco's is just a phone call away". Last Saturday I set about making my first attempt pizza.

The pizza dough was knocked together in the bread maker. The tomato sauce was a sorry, miserly single leftover potion of 3 day old puttanesca sauce. The toppings I had already except the cheese. I impressively managed to get my ass down the shops for that. My Saturday was one of laziness personified.

I tried to do that swirly-above-the-head-thing with the dough. It didn’t work. It was more for novelty banter than any serious attempt to get the perfect crispy base. To do this I can recommend rolling the dough out with a wine bottle, it did the job. I used a little greek basil with basil olive oil on one of the pizzas and anchovies and kalamata olives on the other. 

So, in conclusion - 

1 -  it isn’t half the palaver that I thought it could be

2 - it can actually compete with Franco's 16 inches.

Anchovy and kalamata olive pizza

 

Tip top saturday lunch - duck egg, asparagus and brown shrimp

Asparagus, duck eggs and brown shrimp

This week has been one for first time adventures. 

1 - I went to the wonderful Turkish restaurant Empires, for Z's birthday. I've been meaning to go for about 3 years. I’m always tardy.

2 - I've had my cooking filmed (just weird).

3 - I cracked my duck egg virginity. Pardon the pun, genuinely sorry, couldn’t resist. 

Duck egg with asparagus and brown shrimp

The filming was for a friend of a friend so I was happy to help out but gees was it weird. I’m so used to just being an idiot in the kitchen, dancing around, singing badly, somehow I didn’t feelcomfortable doing that with someone I had just met for the first time. I wonder if that is how Delia feels when the film crew is in her home? Does she also dance to 80s tunes in her bare feet? 

On to the duck eggs. Yep I've never had one before today. It took me 3 Stockbridge deli's before Mr Bower the butcher came up trumps with the eggy gold.  If you have never had them before, they really were lovely. The egg white was meant to be denser but to be honest I never noticed any difference. My only observations were that it is slightly larger than a large hen's egg, and the yolk was more rich and buttery. Yolk was all that was needed to dress this dish. Who needs a hollandaise when you have a runny duck egg yolk?

Fried duck eggs

Duck egg with asparagus and brown shrimp - serves 2 as a light lunch

The recipe was based on a dish in Mark Hix's "British Seasonal Food"

2 duck eggs

140g asparagus spears

60g cooked brown shrimp or potted shrimp

veg oil

seasoning

Boil the asparagus in a pan of salted water for 2-3 minutes depending on the thickness. 

In the mean time heat a frying pan on a medium to low heat with a little oil and add the eggs. 

Spoon over any excess oil over the eggs, to cook the top of them.

Add the shrimp to the eggs.

Drain the asparagus and add to the eggs.

Season.

Serve and enjoy.

Tip top saturday lunch - asparagus, duck egg and brown shrimp