Clare's Cooking Blog

So that was the question I posed to my sister when we had our post-Christmas pre-New Year’s chat, knowing that she has hosted many a dinner party with hearty game courses, presumably needing the same light touch in a dessert. And, true to form, she came up with the ideal solution - a mint flavored panna cotta, served in little ramekins, and garnished with runny honey, shaved chocolate and a fresh mint leaf. I was thinking I might use espresso cups, but Barbara has a fabulous collection of half-cup ramekins made by our favorite island potter, Marion Baker.

Here’s how, if you’re planning to serve 8-10 people:

1 packet powdered gelatin (approx 2 1/2 tsps or 3 sheets)
4 tablespoons cold water
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
20 fresh mint leaves, finely sliced
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

And for the garnish:
runny honey
Small mint leaves
Shaved dark chocolate (I like using a vegetable peeler on a bar of 70% chocolate; the peeler
creates a more shapely shaving!)

Combine the cream and milk in a heavy saucepan with the sliced mint leaves, and heat. As soon as it begins to bubble (don’t let it boil!), turn off the heat, add the vanilla extract, cover, and let sit for ten minutes to let the flavors infuse.

While you’re waiting, sprinkle the gelatin over the four tablespoons of cold water in a small cup, just to soften it.

Then pour the cream mixture through a fine sieve (to remove the mint) into a bowl (preferably one that’s easy to pour from). Add the gelatin, and stir or whisk until it’s thoroughly dissolved.
HINT: if it won’t fully dissolve, reheat the mixture, gently whisking as you do, just until it does dissolve.

Pour the mixture into the ramekins. It’s easiest to manage the rest of the preparation if you arrange them on a baking tray, or just a small tray. When they are cool enough not to be warming 
up your fridge, put the tray in the fridge to allow the panna cotta to gel. This requires at least four to five hours, but you could actually leave them at this stage for two or three days. I covered the tray with foil to make sure they did’t pick up any weird flavors from the fridge.

Before serving, drizzle a little runny honey over each ramekin, pile a little heap of chocolate shavings in the center of each, and add a small mint leaf as a final touch. WARNING: don’t do the garnishing too far in advance or the chocolate will melt into the honey and you’ll have a blob instead of an artsy pile!

BLUEBERRY CRISP (Serves 9 - except that it will disappear no matter how few you are serving)

• 6 cups wild blueberries
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• juice of one lemon

Arrange the blueberries in a large shallow baking dish.  Sprinkle the sugar and squeeze the lemon juice over them.

• 3/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise

Mix all the dry ingredients, and then add the mayonnaise.  No kidding.  I know you’re going to think that’s a really bad idea, but when I found the recipe online there were endless rave reviews from people who had the same skepticism going in ….  Why does it work?  I guess because the major ingredients are oil and egg yolk - which would anyway be in a lot of pastry recipes.  Otherwise it’s just a little lemon juice or vinegar and salt, which just cut the fat in a way that helps rather than hurts.  

Crumble the topping mixture over the blueberries, and bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes or so.  Serve warm.  We just had a jug of cream to pour for anyone who wanted, but whipped cream or vanilla icecream would be just as good.

The only sad reality is that this dish would not be the same with cultivated blueberries.  But you could mix cultivated blueberries with fresh peaches and have something well worth eating.  Or wait for the first apples and make an apple crisp instead.

OK - so right after a post about the perils of sugar, I’m writing up a recipe for a cake with a whole cup of it ….

BUT - the cake has NO white flour.  Grated carrots and ground almonds, along with eggs, are the main ingredients.  The lack of flour made it my favorite Passover dessert contribution for many years of family Passover gatherings.  And since there’s also no dairy (unless you choose to adorn it with whipped cream) it’s also a perfect non-gluten non-dairy treat.  And treat it is - moist, full of flavor, and lasts well in the fridge for many days.

Beat together until thick:

• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar

Add:

• 1 cup finely grated carrots (really fine)
• 1/2 lb blanched ground almonds (or Bob’s Red Mill almond flour)

Fold in:

• Six stiffly beaten egg whites (unlike cream, which should be really cold for whipping, egg whites work best at room temperature.  A little pinch of cream of tartar, if you have it, helps them ‘gel.’)

Add and fold in:

• 1 tablespoon dry sherry

Line the bottoms of two round 9-inch pans with wax paper or parchment.  Pour batter equally into pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Allow to cool on a rack still in the pans.  Then carefully lift one round out of its pan, peel off the wax paper, lay the round on a platter with the bottom side up, and spread generously with raspberry jelly or jam.  (You could use a sugar free version if you wanted, but personally I like Bon Maman for the flavor.)  Life the other round from its pan, peel off its paper, and lay it gently on top.

You can refrigerate the cake until you are ready to serve it, and decorate it as you like before bringing it to the table.  You could cover it with stiffly whipped cream, or not, and then use fresh raspberries and sliced almonds.  If you’re not going with the cream, perhaps little dots of raspberry jam would help the fresh raspberries stick!  You could even use little fresh mint leaves with the raspberries instead of almonds ….  Over to you!

I’m on my way to California for a week to hang out with Adam, Teresa and baby Ella. Adam doesn’t do well with lactose (we think the genes come straight from his paternal grandfather, since they clearly don’t come from my side of the family - I suspect my ancestors must have been dairy farmers going back centuries, given how blissfully I relate to anything with milk in it).

Since one the things I like to do with my visits is cook, I’ve been thinking about a dairy-free dessert I could make for them.  What comes to mind is Pavlova.  Named for the ballerina Anna Pavlova, it’s a mounded meringue base (like her tutu!), covered with berries in syrup, and yes, if you weren’t lactose intolerant, some whipped cream as well. Granted, it’s not exactly berry season, but just sometimes I think January calls for a reminder of sunnier times - and it’s supposed to rain all next week in Berkeley, so that reminder might be just the thing.

I hesitate to even say this, because for me Pavlova cries out for berries, but you CAN use other fruits.  Some people like it with tropical fruit, especially mango, papaya, but even melon - I just don’t find myself enthusiastic!  Sliced peaches or nectarines, or really ripe plums, I will grudgingly admit could be delicious (probably best to remove their skins)….

The trick with the meringue is not to have it dry and flaky throughout, but to have the outside crunch and the middle be just a little gooey.  That’s why, especially if you let the berries develop a nice syrup, you don’t REALLY need the whipped cream.

It was my mom, whom my sons know as Oma, who taught me this recipe.  It’s been a favorite party dessert for a long time in our family.

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This one has been an absolute family favorite.  It has seasonal variations, and the most favorite is the summer version, with fresh blueberries and/or peaches or nectarines.  But the fall and winter versions have their fans too - and I myself am a devoted fan of the winter version, which features sour cherries ….

The basic recipe comes from a cookbook given to me by my late mother-in-law, Mildred Reich, the ELEGANT BUT EASY COOKBOOK, by Marian Fox Burros and Lois Levine. It was first published in 1984, and that’s the edition I have, but there’s a newer version as well, which I haven’t checked out.

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