Love for Food

One rainy Saturday while watching Food Network, I saw Daisy make a coconut panna cotta. It was the first I have ever heard of it. I was mesmerized by how it looked it when it came out. It was so pretty and the texture looked wonderfully smooth. After the show I forgot all about panna cotta.
Yesterday, I was finally on the upper west side around the new Columbus Square shops. This new shopping area is great. There is a huuuuuuuuge Whole Foods (with wine store), Michael's, Sephora, Model's, and TJ Maxx.
For a couple of months, I wanted to go to TJ Maxx to get some ramekins. Ramekins look so cute and would make for a nice serving dish. Several of my recipes in my to try file called for them. TJ Maxx usually has a lot of kitchen stuff but this week they were low. My OCD and keen scavenger hunt skills paid off, and twenty minutes later I found a couple boxes of white ramekins for only $4.00.
I got home, unpacked and placed those suckers in my cabinet. An hour later, I heard them calling my name. I had to use them for something that night. But what? Panna cotta pooped in my head. Panna cotta is an Italian desert and is extremely versatile. Basically it's a cooked cream - buttermilk, yogurt, milk, or heavy cream will all do. Once you have a good base you can add any sort of flavoring/topping to it. I decided to follow a recipe from David Lebovitz, because in his blog he wrote that if this recipe takes you more than five minutes to prepare, you are doing something wrong.
I didn't add anything because I never had panna cotta before. I wanted to see how it would taste as is. Next time I make it, I think I am going to use regular milk and seep some Earl Grey tea into the milk after heating. I think it would be great topped off with a nice drizzle of honey.
The result was a milk flavored jello. It was a nice, light, dessert. I think it looks pretty cool, and is impressive for a dinner party. The best part about panna cotta is how cheap it is (.56 per serving) and how fast it can be prepared (5 minutes). The most expensive ingredient that was used was the vanilla extract. I could hear my mom's voice in the back of my head. My mom always said you don't mess around with vanilla extract you always buy the best, especially when you have a dish with only a few ingredients. This dish HAS to be prepared in advance, so no worries about a last minute sunken chocolate souffle. The versatility is also fun. You could try a lemon for spring or a pumpkin flavor for fall. Let me know if you have any flavor suggestions!
Ingredients: Serves Four
2 cups milk (heavy cream, half and half, milk, evaporated milk) I used fat free evaporated milk.
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 packet of gelatin

Method:

• Place three tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle one packet of gelatin in it. Let sit five minutes.
• Heat milk and sugar in a pan on medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
• Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.
• Slowly add the milk mixture to the gelatin mixture.
• Place mixture into four greased ramekins. Put ramekins in fridge and allow to cool for two to four hours.