Chocolate Panna Cotta with Zero Cooperation

Chocolate Panna Cotta with Zero Cooperation

The point of this blog is for father and daughter to test recipes, cooking together in perfect harmony, laughing and giggling along the way, high on the sheer enjoyment of sharing each other’s company. Needless to say, this process requires a degree of cooperation on the part of both parties.

According, to the business dictionary, cooperation is described as a “Voluntarily arrangement in which two or more entities engage in a mutually beneficial exchange…”. In the Silly Sauces kitchen this weekend the words “mutually beneficial exchange” would not be a fair reflection of matters. In fact “two or more entities” did not engage in any cooperative activity at all as Jess watched “Disney-related material” from beginning to end, throughout the cooking process – in another room.

On a lighter note, Jess did have a small amount of involvement in the recipe selection this week. She was also highly involved in the eating/testing process at the end which she approached with a far lighter disposition than earlier in the day, in fact she was “nice as pie”. Talking of which, the recipe we went for was Chocolate panna cotta with clementine sauce by Simon Rimmer on the BBC website.

How we (I) did it:

• Jess commenced her Disney Princess watching marathon while I heated the cream, milk, sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla pod (split down the middle) on a low-to-medium heat until it was simmering – a few minutes.
• While the cream and milk mixture was coming to a simmer I soaked the 3 gelatine leaves in cold water (for about 3 minutes as per the original recipe) and then removed and squeezed the water from them. These were then added to the simmering cream and milk for about 4 minutes until fully dissolved.
• Meanwhile, Jess moved on to Cinderella, having already done a comprehensive review of Aurora and Ariel (I know them all – just ask me). I tried to entice her with Cocoa Powder – didn’t work. The full force of Walt was up on her.
• I removed the vanilla pod and divided the mixure into 4 random plastic pots that were in the kitchen (the original recipie says to use ramekins – I say plastic pots are good too!). After the mixture had cooled I placed them in the fridge for 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, moving on to the Clementine sauce, I brought the water and sugar to the boil and then reduced the mixture down by about 30% for 4 or 5 minutes. I think the final sauce may have been a bit better if reduced further in retrospect. But that’s just my amateur opinion. Sorry BBC!
• The recipe said to take the segments of 6-8 clementines. I went for 7. It seemed appropriate (I’m quite good at averages). I added the segments and the cointreau to the sugar/water mixture, stirred well and left it to cool for an hour (doesn’t need to be that long, but I was waiting for the Panna Cotta to chill anyway).
• Once cooled, the mixture was put into a food processor for a minute or so and the resultant puree was strained through a sieve and set aside.
• Finally, the Panna Cotta was tipped out of my “special” plastic pots (which worked quite well as it happens – see pictures) and served up with the Clementine Sauce drizzled around it and a little clotted cream to accompany it.

What we thought of it:

Well, first we got Joy from next door to come around – she’s one of our chief testers. With age comes experience, and we knew she’d be able to assess the quality of the Panna Cotta straight off. She delivered accordingly. “Very nice” she said. “Tastes lovely” she remarked. Jess said similar (well sort of), then went off to review Snow White. Panna Cotta 0, Walt Disney 4.