great tastes. great stories.
Panna cotta made with eastern Mediterranean flavours: Lebanese saffron and rose water, with a hint of cardamom. Infusing milk and cream with this trio is infinitely more interesting than using vanilla. It’s a bit like milk jelly for grown ups. If you have time and the inclination, a quick “coulis” alongside some autumn berries will reward you with plenty of smiles around the table.
The flavours of the spices and rose water are subtle, just enough to get you wondering what they are. Saffron, cardamom and rose water have huge presence, but here they are toned down by the richness of the cream and the sharpness of the fruit. This isn’t a bruiser of a pudding. Using just a pinch of the Lebanese saffron gives a hint of its sometimes “inky” presence, a description coined by Mark Diacono. The saffron we import from Lebanon has an amazing aroma, so not much is needed. Rather than turning the panna cotta bright yellow, the mixture looks rather like crème fraîche.
Gather a mouthful of panna cotta in your spoon, dip it into the splodge of “coulis” and push a few raspberries on board. Enjoy the multitude of flavours. While any soft berries would do, the lemony taste of raspberries goes well with the rose water. It didn’t take long to heat some redcurrants with a tablespoon of sugar to make a “coulis”. Remember to pass it through a sieve to ensure that the panna cotta experience is a smooth as the jelly-like pudding.
makes enough for 5
250ml double cream
250ml full fat milk
1 tbsp caster sugar
a pinch of Zejd saffron , crushed
seeds from 5 cardamom pods, crushed
1 tbsp rose water (Lebanese if you can find one)
3 leaves of gelatine
Serve alongside some berries. A coulis is nice too, not obligatory, but easy to make if you have an abundance of summer fruit.
