CNY and Pandan Panna Cotta shenanigans!
Jen and I both celebrate Chinese New Year or Tet, because it usually means family, wishing everyone good health as well as prosperity. But most importantly, we associate it with the copious amounts of food, days filled with roast pork, roast duck, king prawns, springs rolls and traditional Vietnamese chè. However, on New Years Eve, we decided to contribute by making dessert; pandan panna cotta with coconut and lime granita (which turned into foam...explanation later in the post), sugar crystals and vanilla tuile!
The original recipe called for a pandan sauce but we all know coconut and pandan are a match made in heaven, no? So we decided to make a coconut granita with some lime zest and juice to add a special zzzing to all the fragrant sweet flavours.
Conveniently for those who are trying to make this, everything sets around the same time so you'll be able to put this together really quickly and serve it!
Even though this is probably going to be considered subjective, I'm just gonna say it, this dessert was delicious! The panna cotta provided the right amount of pandan flavour without being too overly sweet. Complimenting this was the coconut granita-turned-foam which was topped with sugar crystals that gave a well-needed crunch to the dessert. Atop all this lay the vanilla tuile, which we wished was a bit thinner, but it was so crispy, buttery and aromatic that we forgave ourselves in the end. We hope that you try this dessert out as well and show us that we're not delusional, and that it actually is quite good!
Pandan panna cotta (these quantities for just the panna cotta only made four servings, so feel free to double, triple, quadruple etc.)
Having both made panna cotta before, we thought combining our past knowledge to try and make something familiar with a twist would be fun! The urge to use pandan stemmed from our heritage and the association with pandan waffles was just too overwhelming to say no. Pandan is essentially long thin leaves that are important to Asian cooking as vanilla is to Western. You can grind or boil these leaves to perfume dishes such as sticky rice or even curries but we decided to cheat and use pandan extract as it's quicker and gives off the signature bright green. You can find pandan leaves or extract in any Asian supermarket really.
We put both the granita and panna cotta into the fridge to set for 4-6 hours. However, we quickly scrambled to make the vanilla tuile because we didn't realise the batter needed to set for 4 hours too!
Now here's what the little mishap was. We had a blackout for almost 2-3 hours so not only did our granita never pass the foamy stage but our panna cotta also didn't properly set. This meant no pretty coconut crystal-slush with lime zest occasionally popping up and no jiggly panna cotta on a small dessert plate. We quickly opted to keep the panna cotta inside the cups, layer it with foam while hoping that it gave a presentable height rather than just a flat liquid and we also made sugar crystals (basically just made jaw-breaking toffee and smashed it to bits) to top it off.
Conveniently for those who are trying to make this, everything sets around the same time so you'll be able to put this together really quickly and serve it!
Even though this is probably going to be considered subjective, I'm just gonna say it, this dessert was delicious! The panna cotta provided the right amount of pandan flavour without being too overly sweet. Complimenting this was the coconut granita-turned-foam which was topped with sugar crystals that gave a well-needed crunch to the dessert. Atop all this lay the vanilla tuile, which we wished was a bit thinner, but it was so crispy, buttery and aromatic that we forgave ourselves in the end. We hope that you try this dessert out as well and show us that we're not delusional, and that it actually is quite good!
Pandan panna cotta with coconut granita, sugar crystals and vanilla tuile
Note: if you find this recipe too long, then just take the bits you like and turn it into whatever you want. A recipe is only the basis anyways!
Note: if you find this recipe too long, then just take the bits you like and turn it into whatever you want. A recipe is only the basis anyways!
Ingredients:
Pandan panna cotta (these quantities for just the panna cotta only made four servings, so feel free to double, triple, quadruple etc.)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 tsp unflavoured gelatin
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp pandan extract
Coconut granita
- 100g water
- 150ml water
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 400ml coconut milk, shaken
- 2 tsp grated lime zest
Sugar crystals
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
Vanilla tuile
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large egg whites
- 117g butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
Starting with the ingredients of the panna cotta
1. In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over milk and let it stand for 10-15 minutes.
2. In a saucepan, add the cream and sugar over a medium heat. Let it simmer until sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the gelatin mixture into the pan and stir until gelatin is dissolved.
4. Strain mixture using a fine mesh strainer and add pandan extract. Stir well.
5. Pour into molds or containers, then let it cool.
6. When cool, cover each one with cling wrap and refrigerate until set (approx. 4-6 hours)
Moving onto the coconut granita ingredients (if you have leftover granita, use the excess to eat with cut up mangoes!)
7. Dissolve the sugar and water over medium heat in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally. After it is dissolved, take it off the heat and let it cool.
8. While the sugar syrup is cooling, mix together the coconut milk, lime juice and zest in a large bowl
9. Once the sugar syrup is cooled down, slowly whisk it into the coconut milk mixture.
10. Pour this into a large container and let it refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
11. After 2-3 hours, using a fork mix and scrape the mixture around to break apart ice particles and then allow for it to freeze for another hour or until ready to serve.
For the tuile
12. In a medium bowl, gently whisk together the sugar and egg whites until well combined (note: you are not beating in air and the eggs should not become foamy)
13. Add the melted butter and whisk until combined.
14. Add the flour and vanilla and whisk until incorporated and smooth. (Note:when making the batter you're sorta looking for a pancake batter consistency. When mixing it'll feel as thick as a pancake batter but when dropping it off the whisk it should easily run off the whisk, but is still not too thin in terms of consistency... try to refer to the images to get an idea!)
For the sugar crystals
15. Prepare a tray with some baking paper.
16. Stir water and sugar in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves, make sure it does not come to a boil until all the sugar is dissolved.
17. Increase the heat to high and cook until the mixture is a rich golden colour, but make sure it does not burn as there is a very fine line.
Note: to check if it is done, take some of the syrup out of the pan using a spoon and let some droplets fall into cold water. If done, the sugar should solidify.
18. Then, quickly taking the saucepan off the heat, pour the toffee onto the baking paper, making sure to spread it out as thinly as possible. After pouring it all out, you can pick up the tray and tilt it to spread it out even more thinly.
19. Let it completely cool and you can begin by crushing it up roughly hitting it with a spoon and to make it even finer, use a mortar and pestle and set aside for plating later!
16. Stir water and sugar in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves, make sure it does not come to a boil until all the sugar is dissolved.
17. Increase the heat to high and cook until the mixture is a rich golden colour, but make sure it does not burn as there is a very fine line.
Note: to check if it is done, take some of the syrup out of the pan using a spoon and let some droplets fall into cold water. If done, the sugar should solidify.
18. Then, quickly taking the saucepan off the heat, pour the toffee onto the baking paper, making sure to spread it out as thinly as possible. After pouring it all out, you can pick up the tray and tilt it to spread it out even more thinly.
19. Let it completely cool and you can begin by crushing it up roughly hitting it with a spoon and to make it even finer, use a mortar and pestle and set aside for plating later!
Finally,
20. After 4 four hours, line a sheet of baking paper over a flat tray and lightly brush with unflavoured oil.
21.. Take out the tuile mixture from the fridge and using a small spoon scoop out the mixture onto the tray and spread out as thinly as possible. Do as many as you can fit as they basically remain the same shape after baking.
22. Place tray into a preheated oven of 175 degrees Celcius and bake for 8-9 minutes or until golden brown.
23. Take them out, they are supposed to still be malleable so, being careful not to burn yourself, you can manoeuvre them into any shape you want before they cool down and become hard.
24. With all the ingredients done, gently place some granita on top of the panna cotta, sprinkle a layer of sugar crystals and place a vanilla tuile on top and it is ready to serve!
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