Cooking Fear: Vanilla Pannacotta

Do you have cooking fears? Those recipes that seem impossible or that ingredient that just seems to tricky. I had this with panna cotta.  It seems that my fear was unwarranted, this was possibly one of the easiest things I have ever made. I was inspired to go out of my comfort zone as this was the dessert for my boyfriend and I going away. That's right we will be departing Adelaide, Australia, a little town known as the city of churches, Farmers Union Ice coffee, Frucchocs and the Malls Balls to the bustling streets of Hanoi, Vietnam where we will be over landing through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Bali for 6 weeks! This will mean that posts will for a short time will not be any of my recipes but all the interesting and yummy food that we will be eating. 

Anyway, back to the food; the panna cotta was everything I wanted it to be creamy, silky and had a beautiful vanilla taste, it tasted incredibly refreshing and not heavy, despite being 99% cream. I paired it with cherries that I got at my local farmers market that morning. 

I trusted the recipe of the fantastic David Lebovitz

INGREDIENTS

4 cups of Heavy cream

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla paste/essence

4 1/2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin

6 tables spoons of cold water

Grab a saucepan and combine the sugar and cream. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. I kept stirring throughout to not let the cream burn on the bottom of the saucepan. To check if the sugar was dissolved I stopped stirring for 30 seconds (to let the sugar settle) once I started stirring again I listened for any crunchy noises. If there wasn't then all your sugar is probably dissolved!

Stir in vanilla paste, sit mixture aside. 

In  a medium bowl pour cold water in and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. I also kept stirring my cream mixture during this time to avoid a skin from developing. 

There are two different ways of presenting the panna cotta. If you want to take the easy route which I totally did,  pour the cream mixture in pretty glasses and let it set (This can be left in the fridge for up to two days, or will set in about 2 hours). 

Now, if you want to be fancy: Spray the moulds with oil (non-tasting), then pour mixture in. When trying to get the panna cotta's out, run a knife around the edge of your mould, and slowly place the panna cotta on your plate. 

I served them with de-pitted cherries which I soaked in lemon juice and honey for an hour. 

Meat-bean Balls

Hands up if you have cravings. Most people crave the beautiful creaminess of chocolate or a sugar hit. I am not most people, I am a weirdo. Give me a plate of garlic sauce with hints of a yiros contents and I am a very happy woman. Give me some bacon, or cheese or anything that will had to my cholesterol level and I will have a fork, devouring it. Currently I'm on a serious sour cream hit. People I am not pregnant just designed to be fat. 

So what does a person do when you love garlic sauce but have less than a month to get into a bikini for a trip around Asia do. You make it healthy. Oh baby that sounds sacrilegious-  I mean this is so healthy that even personal trainers will shake their head and go OH NO YOU DIDN'T! Yes, yes I did.

You know what it still tastes freaking delicious, maybe even better than the fat one.

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic

500g of lamb mince

1 handful of parsely

1 tablespoon of oregano

pinch of salt and pepper

1 tin of butter beans (can be chickpeas)

Recipe

Blender, Blender how I love thee, you make my life so much easier. Shh, I have been in exam study so I'm allowed to blabber.

Anyway, Drain your butter beans and dump them in the blender/food processor with the garlic and parsley. Combine the meat and the butter bean mixture (It will hold with no egg). Roll into little balls or even patties. Place in the refrigerator till chilled (about 30 minutes). Heat up pan with some oil, and fry in batches. The great thing about these is that they freeze very well. 

Enjoy and bask in the healthiness!

Oreo Brownies

I swear Mr. Personal trainer I do not generally eat so many oreos! I swear. I promise this is a one off, I had left over oreos from my brother's engagement. I promise these are left overs, there will be no more oreo recipes. My waistline will not expand anymore!

I have recently started to realise that I am growing up. Decisions are being made that will afect my life. After having 2 very bad days of rejections, decision and waistline issues. I decided to throw in the towel so to speak and make these for my leaving hospitality forever party. That's right, no more smelling like food or being nice to arrogant customers (Thankyou Mr for telling me I walk to loudly!). I will miss the nice ones though, like the lovely couple from the isle of White in merry olde England, the business men who were constantly asking about my degree, or even the little kiddies that used to give me kisses.

But, I need to move on. Also go to Asia in the mean time (future blog will explain).

I give you Oreo Brownies to solve your sorrows and to put a smile on your dile. Growing up ain't so bad as long as there is chocolate, I swear i'll run tomorrow.

RECIPE

Curtesy of the Nestle tin

150g melted butter

1 c baking cocoa

4 eggs

2 c brown sugar

1 tsp of vanilla essence

3/4 c plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

20 whole oreo

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Grease with butter and line tin with baking paper. I used a 27cm x 18 cm tin.

Melt the butter fully and stir in cocoa. Let it cool down for ten minutes (when im really lazy I just skip this bit- but its worth it). Stir in the brown sugar and vanilla. 

Sift in the flour and baking powder together. Stir, until combined. 

Pour half the mixture in the tin and spread it to the edges. This is the delicious part, make sure that there are extra oreo's for this bit. Take the oreo's and place them on top of the mixture, you can either be neat or just chuck them in the middle. I used the neat method as it meant that every slice I cut got an Oreo.

Put the other half of the mixture on top of the oreo's, spreading the mixture and making sure to cover the oreo's with the batter.

Pop it in the oven for 35minute for undercooked fudgy brownies, 40-45 for cooked but still delicious brownies.

Wait until cooled to slice. 

Slap your boyfriend hand's when he tries to steal them.