Posts Tagged ‘spring’

Do you have empty PET bottles at home? Don’t discard them! Instead, use their bottom parts as a mold for pretty gelatin or agar agar based desserts: the shape looks like a flower!
Since spring is blossoming at the moment, I suggest trying this easy recipe for delicious d strawberry panna cotta. Panna cotta is a popular Northern Italian sweet that literally translates to “cooked cream”. mycentraljersey.com It’s served chilled and is therefore a perfect dessert for warmer seasons. The classic flavouring is cream and vanilla, but in this rendition I opted for coconut milk and strawberry instead.

Recipe for Strawberry Coconut Panna Cotta in a PET Bottle Mold (serves 6)

• 6 empty 500ml PET bottles with a flower shaped bottom, for example Schweppes
• 250ml coconut milk (Not to be confused with coconut water! Can be substituted with cream and vanilla essence to get a more classic panna cotta.)
• 4 Tbs sugar
• 9g sheet gelatin = 5 sheets
• 1 cup finely pureed strawberries, sieved
• optional: milk

1. First, prepare the molds. Cut away the bottom part of the bottles and wash them thoroughly.



2. Heat coconut milk and sugar in a pan and stir.



3. Meanwhile, soak the gelatin sheets in a bowl with cold water for 3-5 minutes.



4. When the sugar has dissolved, turn off the stove and add the drained gelatin. Stir until it melts down.





5. Add the mixture to the pureed strawberries and whisk together until it’s well incorporated.



6. Pour the liquid  into the prepared PET bottle molds. Cover the molds and let the panna cotta set in the refrigerator overnight.





7. To unmold, loosen the edges with a knife and then dip the mold in a bowl with warm water for a few seconds. Be careful not to dip in for too long, the panna cotta melts easily.





8. Turn the mold over and place it on the serving plate. Shake gently until the panna cotta releases.





9. Panna cotta is commonly served with fruit coulis, but since this version is already quite sweet in itself I decided to add plain cold milk. It complements the flavour and acts as a nice colour contrast.

Buon appetito!

A neat snack for your spring theme party or Easter celebration: mozzarella chicks marinated in curry and cherry tomatoes on a stick. Easy to make and it will sure impress kids or grown-up lovers of cute food. You can serve these skewers as a party snack, garnish salads with it, take them to a picnic or put them in a lunchbox.

I prepared these skewers before Easter but didn’t find time to post it until now, sorry :-P

There’s this gorgeous food blog called L’exquisit where I’ve seen these neat Italian lollies made with mini-mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. I really like the presentation and wanted to make something similar. In the end, it turned out to look quite different but oh well, the ingredients are still alike.

How to make Mozzarella Chicks & Cherry Tomato Skewers

• mini-mozzarella (if you can’t get your hands on this, you can probably replace it by scooping out balls from other cheeses like gouda, etc. Cube-shaped pieces might be nice as well. Or smash and mix feta with cream cheese to form little balls.)
• curry powder
• carrot
• black sesame
• cherry tomatoes (must be oval-shaped if you want to make hearts)

1. Marinate the mozzarella in a 1:3 curry-water mixture for about an hour, then rinse gently with cold water. Pierce mozzarella and cherry tomatoes with a skewer.









2. Cut out a triangle from a carrot like shown in the picture and then slice it thinly with a knife or mandolin slicer.







3. Slit the mozzarella a little and place 2 carrot triangles inside.





4. Pierce 2 holes with a toothpick and stick in 2 black sesame seed.





5. For making heart-shaped cherry tomatoes, refer to this post: http://eyecandy.nanakaze.net/?p=128

I suggest serving the skewers with an olive oil-based dip. Any suggestions?