Pomegranate buttermilk panna cotta

So I've got this huge case of free pomegranate juice, and I really need to find a good use for it soon. It's pasteurized, not sterilized, so it needs to be refrigerated, and has a limited shelf life.  (As a recap:  I've been bought.  The lovely folks at Pomwonderful have given me a case of free pomegranate juice, and I've been playing with it.  It's tasty).

Alright, so I thought a lovely pomegranate panna cotta would hit the spot, so I tweaked a panna cotta recipe that I've used several times in the past:

1 ¼ cup pomegranate juice
1 ¼ cups well-shaken buttermilk
2 ¾ teaspoons unflavored gelatin (from two ¼-oz envelopes)
¼ cup water
1 ½ cups heavy cream
⅔ cup sugar

Mix the pomegranate juice and buttermilk.  Run through a blender until smooth.  Meanwhile, mix the gelatin in the water, and leave to hydrate.  Heat the cream and sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.

Take the cream off the heat, and add the hydrated gelatin.  Stir until it dissolves completely.  This is the only tricky part, you want to make sure there are no little granules of gelatin in there, as that will make the final texture less than awesome.  And this dessert deserves to be awesome.  If the gelatin won't go into solution, heat the cream gently over low heat, stirring, until the gelatin dissolves.

Immediately remove from the heat, and pour into molds.  Cover and chill for at least six hours.

Shortly before serving, make the sauce.

½ cup cassis
½ cup pomegranate juice
1 tbsp sugar
1 pinch cinnamon
juice of 1 lime

Mix all of the ingredients, boil for ten minutes, or until it reduces into a syrup.  Remove from heat.

I really need to get photos of this next segment, but it tends to happen too fast to get photos.  Run a knife around the outside of the panna cotta, to loosen the edge from the mold.  Then briefly set the base of the panna cotta in a bowl of hot water, to melt the gelatin at the bottom of the mold.  Lift out the mold, and place your serving plate over top of the mold.  Invert the mold.  Shake the mold gently to loosen it from the mold, onto the plate.

Drizzle sauce around the panna cotta.  Repeat with the other panna cottas, serving one for each guest.



Enjoy. This panna cotta was a hit. Perfect consistency, fruity, and the sauce brings a nice hit of acid to the dish. Wonderful, serve this one today.

Korean rice beverage

In Korea, I discovered some interesting things in the vending machine.  First, it appears Jolt Cola's Gatorade's campaign of world domination has been successful:



Second, Koreans have all kinds of exciting beverages.  Try this one, canned sikhye, according to Dr. Ricky:



Mild flavoured, it tastes a lot like Thai sticky rice.  One would assume, then, that it is sweetened with palm sugar.  It's a lot less sweet than many American vending machine beverages.  It's really quite tasty.  Not something to relieve the heat and humidity of a June day in Korea, but it really is quite nice.

It might take me a while to get used to the chunks on bottom, though.

Oh, and it's 116,000 calories.



Yum.

Grilled cauliflower

I talk about meat alot here.  That's not to say we don't eat our veggies, but we often serve vegetables pretty simply.  Take cauliflower.  Break it into florets.  Boil for 2 minutes.  Immediately plunge into cold water.

Toss on the grill while your meat is resting.  Brown the outside, and serve.

Wordless Wednesday: Vereneke