Turkish Delight Panna Cotta with Pistachio Ice Cream

I have a bit of a 'thing' for panna cotta. Not so much a desire to eat one when I see it on the menu (that would be a creme brulee), but more to make the perfect one. Knowing this, a friend sent me a recipe she had seen in her local newspaper. A reader's request for the panna cotta at the Azafran restaurant was printed, and knowing my desire to create perfection she sent it on to me.

Turkish Delight Panna Cotta

The recipe for the panna cotta was followed to the letter. Even ringing the restaurant and talking to the chef via his wife (he had a sore throat) to check on some details.

Turkish delight melting into the cream

Azafran's Turkish Delight Panna Cotta
Serves 6
300ml thickened cream
1/2tsp vanilla bean paste
160gm rose Turkish Delight
30gm caster sugar
40ml milk
2 sheets titanium strength gelatine
15ml rose water
300ml cream whipped to soft peaks

Put the 300ml cream, vanilla paste, sugar, turkish delight and rose water in a stainless steel pot.
Over a medium/low heat whisk mixture to help it break down.
Soak gelatine sheets in water and set aside.
Once all the turkish delight has dissolved into the cream mix and it has just come to the boil, remove from heat and whisk in gelatine and milk.
Allow to cool at room temp (do not let mix go cold as it will set).
Pass the mixture through a fine strainer to remove any lumps.
Fold mix through the whipped cream. Place into 120ml dariole moulds or similar and set in the fridge for minimum four hours.
Just before serving, dip the mould into hot water for about four seconds but take care not to get the panna cotta wet. Run a small knife around the edge and turn the panna cotta out on to the plate.
Serve with pistachio ice cream, crushed pistachios and saffron fairy floss (available at good delis).

The above recipe was printed in a Brisbane newspaper but I have made a slight change, I soaked the gelatine in water and added it to the cream mixture with the milk.

The finished dessert was very rich with the sweet and subtle hint of roses. Of course I had to play around with it, and with apologies to the Azafran chef, here is my version.

I took what was left of the panna cottas out of their moulds and gently melted half of them and added a few drops of red food colouring. I then whipped in the remaining panna cotta and poured it into two glasses. Once this had set, I topped it with some pistachio praline and the pistachio ice cream, finishing off with saffron fairy floss and a shard of pistachio toffee.

Pistachio Ice Cream

500ml pure cream
40g (1/4 cup) pistachio kernels, coarsely chopped
4 egg yolks
155g (3/4 cups) caster sugar
2-3 drops green liquid food colouring

Combine the cream and the pistachios in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Remove from heat.
Use an electric beater to whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar in a heatproof bowl until thick and pale.
Gradually stir the cream mixture into the egg mixture.
Transfer to a clean saucepan and place over low heat.
Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 10 minutes or until custard coats the back of the spoon.
Set aside for 1 hour to develop the flavours.
Add the food colouring and stir until combined.
Churn in an ice cream churn as per manufacturer’s instructions.

Azafran Restaurant

97 Ekibin Rd

Annerley

(07) 3892 1776

Lentil Lasagne

Many, many years ago I told my husband that we needed to eat less meat and more 'beans and things'. Not really being very familiar with this style of cooking, I looked around for a recipe as I knew if I did it off the top of my head I would have no idea what I was doing and it wouldn't be edible. So appeared the Lentil Lasagne.

That night my husband arrived home from work and I told him what was for tea. I said all we had to do was try it and if we didn't like it I would put it in the bin and we could have pizza. So, in a household of confirmed carnivores, this is now our most favourite meal.

Lentil Lasagne

Fry an onion and garlic in a slosh of oil. Add a sprinkle of Italian herbs and a tin of drained rinsed brown lentils. Add a tin of crushed tomatoes and either a tin of tomato soup or some tomato paste and water. Let this simmer gently while you make the white sauce.

Layer the lentil sauce and the white sauce as you would a meat lasagne. Bake 180C for about an hour until bubbling around the sides. Rest about 15 mins and serve, or cool and freeze.

If you know some folks with lentil phobia, you can add some mince. This makes the lentils less noticable and makes a small amount of mince go a long way. I cook it at lunch time for an hour and then reheat at tea time. This helps the pasta absorb the sauce and lasagne cuts nicely, and you are less likely to have a sloppy mess.

I like to use an egg in the white sauce that is going on the top layer. The egg makes the top layer puff up and stay firm.

Just delicious, and even better reheated the next day.

Some Photos To Keep You Entertained.

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. For some reason or other the days are whizzing by and I can't keep up.
Here are some photos that won't have their own post, but are just nice to look at.

Proscuitto wrapped asparagus, barbequed, served with garlic and herb butter and parmesan.

The Poached Egg Competition. My husband made me Sunday breakfast, complete with a poached egg, in response to my near perfect egg the morning before.

My near on perfect poached egg.

At last, I thnk I have made a macaron. Given that I have never seen or tasted one in real life, this is as close as I will get. Yes, I know they look like a cheese burger. They are cinnamon macarons with a pumpkin and nutmeg cream cheese filling. They were good and didn't last long.

Some new oranges on the market. A cross between a blood orange and a navel. Sweet, juicy and pink. Compare to the navel with them.

The Coode St Cafe

The Coode St Cafe in Mount Lawley, WA is open for breakfast and lunch seven days. We visited on a weekday for lunch.

The Club Sandwich ($12) was layers of bacon, chicken, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and, unusually, chopped boiled egg. I always associate Club Sandwiches with hotel room service. A toasted triple decker sandwich held together with skewers and serve with lots of hot chips or sometimes a handful of potato chips (crisps). The egg made this one rather unusual, and while it was filling it wasn't wow.

The Pumpkin and Fetta Tart ($12) was served with the salad of the day. This was my mother's choice and she was very happy with it.

The Coode St Cafe have some serious juices available on their breakfast menu. Some real kick starters and recovery juices. This is a Zinger Juice ($6.50). For an extra $1 it is served with a Beroca! This juice did have a real 'zing' to it; apple, lemon and ginger.

There was some serious dessert sampling to follow. The very friendly staff were happy to tell me that some of the cakes are brought in and others are made on site. This very unusual Citrus Tart had a pastry base, and a very citrusy filling that was not a custard as one expects but a heavy almond filling, and a layer or thick white icing. Being a bit fan of anything almond and having a very sweet tooth that loves thick icing, I found this to be the perfect end to the meal.

The black cherry muffin was served warm with butter, something I find very strange as I associate a muffin with a cake rather than a bread. It was very nice and tasted quite healthy and brany.

The chocolate chip brownie is hard to comment on. When you make a good one yourself, it is hard to find another that measures up.

The Coode St Cafe was a great lunch venue. It has a varied menu, with specials on the blackboard inside, water freely available and tables outside in the sun. Friendly staff made no complaint about making a plain toasted cheese sandwich for the kids.

Need A Quick Dessert?

Looking for a quick idea for dessert or needing something sweet in a hurry? Try these pastries.
I was looking for a way to use up some ricotta cheese and came up with this strawberry danish.

Puff pastry was spread with fresh ricotta cheese, or you could use ground almond meal. I had scoured a line around the pastry and filled the space inside with the ricotta.

Slices of strawberry were layed across the ricotta in staggered lines, sprinkled generously with sugar and the edges of the pastry brushed with egg.

The pastries were then baked for about 20mins at 200C. I let them cool for about 5 minutes- that was as long as we could wait, then sprinkled them with icing sugar and served with ice cream. Home made of course.

Asparagus

Sifting through the fridge for some lunch the other day, I decided to use some asparagus to create the traditional asparagus and poached egg dish. I'd never got around to making it, always meant to and now have had it twice. It makes a quick and easy, but filling lunch.

Asparagus has been used from very early times as a vegetable and medicine, owing to its delicate flavour and diuretic properties. There is a recipe for cooking asparagus in the oldest surviving book of recipes, Apicius’s third century AD De re coquinaria, Book III. It was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who were thought to eat it fresh when in season and dried the vegetable for use in winter. It lost its popularity in the Middle Ages but returned to favour in the seventeenth century. (Wikipedia)

Asparagus, egg, mustard and dill mayonnaise and fresh bread crumbs

Poach an egg to your liking.

Trim the asparagus and drop them into some boiling water for a few minutes.

Toast the breadcrumbs in a little oil until they are brown and crunchy.

Place the egg on the asparagus, dollop on some sauce, sprinkle with salt and pepper and then the breadcrumbs.
Absolutely delicious.

Kakulas Brothers

My shopping spree at Kakulas Brothers in Perth was one of the highlights of my recent visit.
From the outside it looks like a dusty old grocery store, but step up and through the wooden doors and it is like stepping into Aladdin's Cave for foodies. It even smelt wonderful, predominantly of cumin and mixtures of other curry like spices. By the door, an old man in a grocer's apron stood behind a long timber counter, fronted with the decorative lead panels that you see in the ceilings of old Australian homes. The floor is all timber and the shelves lines with products from Europe and Asia. I didn't get a good look at all the items on the shelves, but I did snatch up some Morello Cherry jam from Poland.
All the dried fruits, herbs, spices, grains, rice, everything you can think of, are laid out in big bags, grouped together with similar products. It was heaven to wander through the store wishing I lived closer so I could try a little bit of everything regularly, rather than remembering whatever I bought had to be packed in a suitcase.
I bought some onion flakes and garlic flakes. These have been put to use in a jar of oil with char grilled capsicum.
I was out of star anise at home and there in front of me was the biggest bag of them I had ever seen. No small supermarket plastic containers here. Two large handfuls, that managed to send their wonderful fragrance through most of my luggage cost $1.19 ($7.99/kg)
I managed to fill my basket with steel cut oats, dusting polenta, nigella seeds, black sesame seeds, all sorts of soy and rice chips and fruit balls for the kids. Cinnamon came by the bundle

Goji Berries $2.25 ($7.50/kg).

A product of Asia, goji, or wolfberries are have long played important roles in traditional Chinese medicine where they are believed to enhance immune system function, improve eyesight, protect the liver, boost sperm production and improve circulation, among other effects. In traditional Chinese medicine terms, wolfberries are sweet in taste and neutral in nature. They act on the liver, lungs, and kidneys and enrich yin. They can be eaten raw, consumed as juice or wine, brewed into an herbal tea or prepared as a tincture.

In the West, dried wolfberries are also eaten as a snack, like sultanas or other dried fruit. Their taste has an accent of tomato and is similar to that of dates, dried cranberries or raisins, though drier, more tart, less sweet and with an herbal scent. Dried wolfberries are also used frequently in raw food diets These dried Ruby Blood Plums are great for eating just as they are.
These dried strawberries, although they make a great snack, are for a cake or some muffins. These cost 84c. ($22.50/kg)

There is a similar store in Fremantle, Kakulas Sisters. The story goes that the daughters were not permitted to work in the family business, so they decided to set up their own store. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to visit - you go girls!

Kakulas Bros.

183 Williams St

Northbridge