Forgive me – I *know* I said that japchae would be my next post but I’ve got a backlog of about 6 recipes that I need to blog otherwise they are going to sit FOREVER in draft form, never being presented to the world! Which, quite frankly, would be a damn shame, especially since they (like this dish) are so damn delightful in their own ways!
I am a SUCKER for panna cotta – if I go out for dinner and it’s on the menu, I can tell you that it is easily my dessert of choice. So when I spotted a new recipe for me to try in Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet, I decided, what the heck – let’s give it a try!
So I did…and I don’t know if it’s just me not having quite the palate for overly rich foods, but while the texture was utterly dreamy, my family found the dessert to be far far too rich for consumption and after having one very satisfying teaspoon each, I ended up rather unceremoniously dumping the rest in the bin. However, I did want to try it again, perhaps in a form that we’d find more palatable, so just had a little bit of a fiddle to come up with these coffee bean infused panna cottas which were divine! Of course, the cream still made it a bit rich, but a nice, sharp rasberry puree to accompany helped to cut out the richness so we could each manage just a few more teaspoons 
This is not a dessert for everyday consumption, but if you’re looking for a rather special sweet treat to serve up at the end of a spectacular dinner party, they would probably fit the bill quite well!
Coffee Infused Panna Cotta with Sweet Raspberry Puree
(Adapted from ‘Bittersweet‘ by Alice Medrich)
Coffee Infused Panna Cotta Ingredients (makes 6 serves)
1/4 cup roasted coffee beans, broken into smaller pieces
3 1/4 cups thickened cream (use double cream if you don’t mind the heart-attack richness)
2 1/2 tbsp unflavoured gelatin
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup caster sugar
pinch of salt
1. Pour the roughly chopped coffee beans and the cream into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil while constantly stirring. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat off and leave to infuse for 20 minutes, giving it the occasional stir.
2. While the cream is infusing, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold milk in a small bowl and set aside for it to soften.
3. Once the cream has steeped, strain out the nibs, pressing lightly to extract all the liquid. Discard the nibs and return the cream to the saucepan and stir in the sugar. Bring the cream to a simmer.
4. Pour simmered cream into a large heatproof bowl, then slowly add the milk while constantly stirring, then add the salt. Set the bowl of cream over a bowl of ice and stir continuously till the mixture is lukewarm and has thickened.
5. Divide evenly between six 1/2-cup ramekins, cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours.
Raspberry Puree Ingredients
2/3 cup raspberries
3-4 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 cup cold water
To make the raspberry puree:
Pour all the ingredients into a small pot and heat over a low flame till it begins to simmer. Crush the berries lightly and simmer for another 1-2 minutes or till the sugar has completely dissolved, then remove from the heat and give a good blitz in a blender (or, if you have one, with a trusty immersion/stick blender!). Run it through a strainer then leave to cool in a clean bottle till required.
Just before serving, pour a few tablespoons of this ruby red puree over the panna cotta just before serving.
[tags]panna cotta, raspberry, desserts, sweets, Alice Medrich, Bittersweet, coffee beans, recipes[/tags]
