“Hot Gruyere “Panna Cotta”, Pepper and Carraway Housecured Bacon,
Butter “Vinaigrette”, and Peppercress”
So after playing with the agar gels the other day I really got my mind going. One thing that I thought of is to make a “panna cotta”. So what is a panna cotta, in Italian it really means cooked cream. When I think of panna cotta in my mind I think very smooth creamy and usually holding its own shape. Well with these thoughts in mind this “panna cotta” that I have made has cooked cream, is very smooth, and is holding its own shape. It is just not cold. I have made several savory panna cottas before tarragon, vanilla, bell pepper, but they were all cold.
It took some tweaking but I had the recipe down by service which was welll…just in time. The bacon with pepper and carraway accented the cheese beutifully and the richness of the whole dish was cut with the vinegar, cayanne, and leek in the in the “vinaigrette”. The overall flavor finish was the fresh peppercress toss with just a love touch of white truffle oil.
Sounds delicious. whats the texture like though? agar tends to shear and be brittle when cut into. well done!
It was pretty darn smooth. I do not have a lot of experience with agar so what you say is probably very true but I think that since there was very small percentage of agar and the base had a lot of fat (heavy cream and cheese), this made the smooth texture. If I do this again I will probably use a really soft smooth cheese like tallegio or something. Oh yeah and when it was cold it was pretty hard but after heating it very slowly under the heat lamp, this is when it became really soft and smooth. Maybe the heat slowly broke down the agar because it was pretty hot.
Hey…it looks great, but in my dealings with agar it tends to have a brittle mouth feel (like that of canned yams.) Even at less than .006% it still has the same feel. If you made it, then pureed it in a blender the feel would be more like pudding, but the flavor and texture would be silky and pure. You could use carrageenan, but again, if you use too much of the firmer gelling carrageenan you will have the same problem. Iota, a soft gelling carrageenan will give you a great texture, but does not hold up well when heated. There is a soft gelling carrageenan that is designed for warm dairy applications. Try that, and you may just have what you are looking for. Thanks for listening…Brian
yah at that time i had not worked with carrageeenan yet and did not have it on hand. i now know exactly what you are talking about with iota being great for soft custards when cold especially with heavy cream try .09% i have not tried to make a hot panna cotta since but you can make a warm gellan puree and do a quenelle. well im just talkin thanks for the comment.
cheers
Very cool. It seems to me that not unlike technology people cannot deny that all of this “food science” will become main stream. I really started getting into it when I learned of Grant Achatz and Alinea. I have been in contact with the co- owner of Alinea Nick Kokonus (through email.) He and Grant both seem really cool.
So, to get back to the Iota conversation. If I increase the Iota to .009% of the total weight of the base what can I expect? Will it hold it’s integrity when heated? I am also concerned about the texture. Will it still be as custard like or will it start to be more like Kappa, which is like the agar agar texture. My whole thing is about having a soft gel and purity. I do know that the Iota will not behave like Agar when put into a blender. That breaking down only works with Agar. I did figure that if you used Iota at .006% and once set and re heated it can be spooned out (if you are not looking for a shape that stands alone by itself.) If you are looking for just a free formed custard it will do the trick. I do a dish of “Scallops with Corn 3 ways.” It’s pretty cool actually.
Well, it’s late and sunrise isn’t kind to anyone so I will chat again soon. Thanks, Brian
will you share some of these recipies with us. this is my first time getting into this website and i cannot find recipies.
thanks