Recipe: Black Sesame Panna Cotta

 
As mentioned previously here, Japan is not a country with grand traditions of 'the dessert', at least as we (in the decadent West) know it. Most overseas Japanese restaurants therefore seem to make do with pre-made frozen desserts and the occasional green tea ice-cream, rather than rock the boat with red-bean-paste after red-bean-paste concoctions.

A brave few decide to tread the fusion route, leading to the rather fantastic black sesame crème caramel at Dinings and the 'tropical chawan mushi' at Zuma -- the latter on par, bizarre-name-wise, with the thought of 'chocolate yorkshire pudding' or 'beef trifle' *. The Nobu dessert list mostly feigns ignorance of the East, though a few (Banana Split 3000, Rice v 6.0) appear to have been cooked up by software developers.

Speaking of fusion desserts, some even make the leap from the pudding to main menu, as the chilli ice-cream (served alongside melon, feta, and Serrano ham) at The Derby Arms in Surrey proved this week.

Panna cotta was one of those desserts that had never quite hurdled the pleasure vs pain (when my jeans won't do up) barrier for me. After all, how appetising can a lump of 'cooked cream' possibly be? One too many tasteless panna cottas at cheap formal dinners further inoculated me to idea, until a few years ago in a Japanese restaurant (not in London, sadly), where a creamy purple-tinged black-sesame panna cotta creation blew my tastebuds.

So here's the recipe for the DashiDashi Black Sesame Panna Cotta v0.1. Upgrade packs welcome.

* If either of these turn up next month at the Fat Duck, I'm claiming an ideas fee.

Recipe: Black Sesame Panna Cotta

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 300ml double cream
• 100ml milk
• 40g sugar
• 2tsp vanilla essence
• 2/3 sachet of gelatin (or enough to set 400ml liquid - see gelatin packet)
• 3tbsp black sesame powder**

** Put 4tbsp of roasted black sesame seeds in a grinder. Grind until turns to powder. (Don't leave too long, else it turns to paste.)

Heat the cream, milk, and sugar in a pan until sugar dissolves completely. Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla essence.

Dissolve gelatin in hot water (as per instructions on packet). Once gelatin is fully dissolved, add it to the panna cotta mixture. Stir well.

Wait for the panna cotta mixture to become thick/gloopy, then stir in the black sesame powder. [Waiting means that the powder will be less likely to sink straight to the bottom of the panna cotta as it sets.]

Pour panna cotta into ramekins/small bowls/wine glasses. Sprinkle with roasted black sesame seeds. Leave to set in fridge for 2+ hours.

Comments

[Michael Booth]

Thanks! As another recent panna cotta convert (thanks to Nigel Slater's rosewater version which uses yoghurt and cream to provide a nice acidity) I'm going to try this at once. Time to crack open that bag of 'too good to use' black sesame seeds which have been loitering at the back of my larder for a while now.

[JenJen]

Hi! The recipe is most definitely a v0.1, so do let me know any feedback/improvements. I want to find a way to let the black sesame "infuse" more - maybe actually letting the grinder get the seeds into a paste (instead of powder).

Let the iterations begin....

[Toav]

I prefer to use coconut milk.

You can also replace the gelatin with kuzu, for a vegan and more Japanese flavour ;-)

I reckon a version with ume (plums) would work very well.

Another option would be sweet potato (the purple ones), which I prefer to kurogoma (black sesame).

Another recipe you should try (I made it before, very good) is gomadofu (sesame tofu). It's very nice and easy to make, but a real pain to grind the seeds.

[M.]

this looks really interesting, I love panna cotta...I'm curious about sesame powder addition....I imagine it tasted great.

[The London Foodie]

Good one Jen, I wonder whether the sesame would be ground to powder or small only bits which would not be nice for panna cotta. I am sure you might be able to find it in powder already or essence from a Japanese grocery store.

Luiz @ The London Foodie

[JenJen]

Toav - coconut milk, interesting... Will have to try that in some future interation =) I bought some kuzu the other day, for no apparent reason - must get round to using it!

Luiz - I actually found a packet of sesame powder after I made the panna cotta. Haven't seen essense before though - would be interesting to try. The sesame powder (ground down from seeds) wasn't gritty at all - if anything, could have done with twice as much. =)

[Masterchef wannabe]

From my basic knowledge of pannacotta, the basic way to infuse with a flavour is to "steep" the cream and milk after it has been scalded in the pan. I've tried this with lavender and also with earl gray tea.

So its possible you'll get a better flavour by adding black sesame paste/powder to the cooked cream/milk and letting infuse whilst hot and then using a fine strainer to sieve the mixture and then adding the gelatin (pre soaked in cold water and squeezed dry) to the warm mixture and whisking through to combine.

If the mixture is too cool, you can always return a cup of the stuff to the pan, heat up gently to say 50 degrees and then add the gelatine until melted then pour the lot back into the main mixture and incorporate with 3 -4 whisks.

This way I imagine you'd achieve a perfectly smooth result and have the benefit of all the flavour with out having to worry about the bits.

One final note - sometime I find the surface of the liquid in the moulds has bubbles/froth. A quick wave of a blowtorch will eliminate these so you get a perfect restaurant set in your pud.