Panna Cotta with Blueberry Sauce

Panna cotta is an eggless custard. There are a variety of ways to make it, but the key ingredient is heavy cream or creme fraiche. Sometimes plain yogurt is blended in so that it has a lighter flavor to it. The dessert is also not for those skimping on calories because heavy cream is heavy with calories (1 cup heavy cream = 400 calories), and this is before a fruit compote, sauce or chocolate is added. It's a minimum of 200 calories per serving.

I first had this at Tutta Bella's in Seattle and it was served up with a mixed berry pureé on top. Tutta Bella adds milk to the cream for their rendition of it, which is probably more accurate than the ingredient ratio below. Mine came out rather heavy texture, whereas a professional chef would have made it to have a delicate texture. Nonetheless, it all tastes pretty good to me.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. organic heavy cream
2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cold water
1 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve gelatin in cold water. I use Knox unflavored gelatin because it is readily available here in the US.

2. In a small saucepan, heat the cream, sugar, and vanilla extract until boiling. Add the gelatin and stir for two minutes. Remove from heat and pour into serving bowls or short juice glasses.

3. Let chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, or until the panna cotta has set.

4. Add the blueberry sauce to the top of the panna cotta and serve.

Makes 3 half-cup servings.

Blueberry Sauce

I made this to pair with the panna cotta and I must say that it came out really well. It's very tasty and not too sweet. There is just enough sweetness to bring back the full flavor of the summer picked blueberries.

This is not the right way to make a simple sugar syrup, but doing so balances out the sweetness pretty nicely. Real simple syrups are normally equal parts water and sugar.

Ingredients

1/2 c. water
1/4 c. unbleached granulated sugar
1 tbsp raw honey
2 1/2 c. blueberries, thawed and drained

Directions

1. In a food prep, coarsely chop the 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries. Set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine water, sugar, and honey and boil until the water has been reduced by  half. Add the chopped and whole blueberries.

3. Blueberries are mostly water, so expect there to be a lot more liquid in the saucepan when the berries cook down. Let this cook over medium-low heat for about 20-30 minutes or until it has an almost jam consistency...which is saucy, but not watery.

4. Pour into a glass bowl, cover, and let it cool until ready to use.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I thought I would try out buttermilk in a recipe using real buttermilk before creating any of the adulterous substitutions (e.g., adding 1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk) to see what it does with pancakes. And it's not just the extra fat in the recipe that makes these pancakes very fluffy indeed, but the slightly sour taste of the buttermilk gives a bit of an edge to them as well.

While my basic pancake recipe is based on Alton Brown's, this ingredient ratio is from Martha Stewart's recipe site. I thawed about a cup of frozen blueberries in warm water and drained them before adding them to the pancakes. What makes this recipe a success goes beyond the basic ingredients and is really due to the order of operations.

I'll be eating blueberries for a while longer with more than four quarts of them in the freezer. Only five more months until they are in peak season again. I might have gone a little bit overboard picking them last summer at a local farm. I couldn't resist how inexpensive and locally grown they were.

Ingredients

1 1/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 c. cultured buttermilk
1/2 c. whole milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 c. frozen blueberries, thawed and drained

Directions

1. In a bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs together, then whisk in the buttermilk, whole milk, and melted butter. If the dairy is too cold, the butter will firm up again.

3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk until combined. Take care to not over-mix the batter.

4. Heat a nonstick griddle or cast iron pan and melt half a pat of butter in it before adding the first pancake. Use a ladle or soup serving spoon to spoon the batter into the pan. Add some blueberries to the pancake. When bubbles form around the edges, gently flip the pancake and cook its other side.

Flour Tortillas

I'm surprised by how easy and effortless this recipe is. The secret is to use fresh lard, IMHO. And, the quickest way to make lard is to fry a couple slices of bacon and use the leftover oil. You get a tasty bacon snack while you are making the tortillas. Two slices of average bacon will yield about two tablespoons of lard.

Makes 12 five-inch tortillas. Good for soft tacos, quesadillas, everyday nibbling, etc.

TheFoodening Blog - Fresh Flour Tortillas

Ingredients

2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
3/4 c. water
1 tbsp bacon lard
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Drizzle in bacon lard and work it into the flour using a rubber spatula. Gradually add in the water and stir until a large sticky mass of dough forms. You might not need all of the water, especially on a rainy and/or cold humid day.

2. Knead the dough on a lightly-floured surface until it is elastic and not as sticky.

3. Divide dough into 12 equal portions (if making 4-5 inch tortillas), or into 8 equal portions if making larger sized tortillas. I have an 8" cast iron skillet pan and couldn't make them any larger.

Shape each portion into a ball, then roll it out with a floured rolling pin on a lightly-floured surface.

4. Let the cast iron pan warm up on medium heat before adding the first tortilla. If your pan is well-seasoned, it shouldn't need any oil to fry the tortillas.

5. Each tortilla cooks pretty quickly. When the top of the tortilla starts to form air bubbles, flip it over and cook the other side.

6. Let the cooked tortillas rest in a clean kitchen towel inside a one-gallon plastic bag. This will keep the tortillas warm and from drying out.

Almond Shortbread Cookies

What's to not like about shortbread? While it's packed with butter, it has a light, crispy texture and doesn't feel like it's ladened with fat at all. I should also add that this is a cookie that doesn't take kindly to fat substitutions. This ingredient ratio is a spin on the classical shortbread cookie, with the addition of almond meal and almond extract.

When I lived in Los Angeles, I never had to worry about how cold it was in the kitchen to be able to cream butter and sugar together. Here in the NW, with a six-month rainy season, it is both damp and cold indoors during the winter so I wasn't able to cream the butter after allowing it to sit at room temperature. Instead, what I did was use a pastry blender and cut the butter into the brown sugar, then added the dry ingredients and mixed until strudel-like crumbs formed.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1 c. unsalted butter (two sticks; 8 oz), cut into small pieces
3/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. almond meal (ground almonds)
1/4 c. cornstarch
pinch of salt

3 tbsp cold water + 1 tsp almond extract (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. [where possible] Cream butter and brown sugar together with a stand or handheld mixer. Add in flour, almond meal, salt, and cornstarch, and mix until coarse crumbs form. If the cookie dough doesn't come together, add a little bit of water so that it does.

2. Gather the dough into a ball, square, or large mound and let rest on a plate, baking sheet, or on parchment paper and let it rest for a few minutes in the refrigerator.

3. Between a sheet of parchment paper and wax paper, roll out dough until it is 1/8" thick. Peel back the wax paper and cut dough into rectangles, squares, odd shapes. You could even use cookie cutters, but you'll need to either use chilled metal cookie cutters or lightly floured cookie cutters so they don't stick to the cookie when lifted off the parchment paper.

It is important to keep this dough chilled before it goes into the oven. This is to help the cookies retain the shape they were cut into, and so that the butter doesn't melt faster than how the cookie bakes. 

(optional) You can also press the dough into a tart pan (with a removable bottom) and bake for 15-20 minutes until the surface is lightly golden brown. 

4. Space cookies about an inch apart and prick each cookie with the tines of a fork. The cookies will expand slightly when baking. Bake cookies on a parchment-lined baking tray for 10-15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack before serving.

Note: If you are making almond meal (also, almond flour) from scratch, do not over-pulse the raw whole unblanched almonds in the nut grinder, spice mill, or coffee grinder or you'll be making almond butter instead. The almond meal should be able to pass through a flour sifter. The larger bits can be put through the grinder again.