Painless Panna Cotta - Lemon Verbena Panna Cotta

I promised there would be Lemon Verbena recipes. So here is the first one. :)

I absolutely LOVE Panna Cotta (Cooked Cream), which is exactly WHY I don't make it very often. It is positively delicious and creamy without coating your tongue the way Crème Brûlée and Crème Carmel do. Delicious with fresh fruit or coulis as well as chocolate or caramel sauce... It is just plain awesome.

Most recipes for Panna Cotta do not contain yogurt, that is kind of my own spin (after some advice from Mario Batali), in an attempt to richen the flavor of the cream. You see the cows in Italy are different than those in the U.S.. Most of the milk here is the product of the Jersey or the Holstein. While Piemonte (where Panna Cotta hails from) has their own breed known as the Piemontese (go figure)

and their milk tastes very different than that of our American cows (Happy as the California ones may be, their milk still doesn't produce as delicious a Parmegiano as the Piemontese cows do)

Anyway, there really isn't enough yogurt to make the Panna Cotta TASTE like yogurt, the honey covers that up, but it does balance out the flavor and lend a richness to the finished product. But I am starting to ramble... as I am so prone to do.

So without further rumination of babbling... ;)

Lemon Verbena Panna Cotta

2 TB water (for gelatin)
1 1/4 tsp unflavored gelatin or 2 tsp of Agar
1 1/3 cups Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Goat milk Yogurt or Whole-Milk Yogurt (Goat Milk is better, it has a fresher taste)
10 Frozen Lemon Verbena Leaves
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup Honey (Orange Blossom if available) or 1/3 cup Sugar

Put 2 TB water in a small glass bowl or Ceramic ramekin and sprinkle gelatin over it and let stand for 10 minutes or until gelatin softens (Blooming).

In a large bowl combine 1/2 cup cream and the yogurt, whisk until smooth. (I use a large 4 cup glass measuring cup with a spout to make pouring the Panna cotta into ramekins easier.)

In a small saucepan set over medium heat, combine the remaining Heavy Cream with Honey, Vanilla and 10 Lemon Verbena Leaves; bring to a simmer while stirring.

Remove from heat, cover and let steep for 10 minutes.

Strain to remove the leaves.

Melt gelatin by placing small bowl in barely simmering water, stir until gelatin becomes clear, then remove bowl from water immediately…. (You do not want your gelatin to get to hot, or it will begin to break down.)

Add the gelatin to the warm Cream/Honey/Verbena mixture and stir well.

Pour the warm cream mixture into the cool yogurt cream mixture and whisk, just until smooth, no more than that or you will interfere with the gelling process that has started.

Quickly divide the mixture among 6 - 4 oz ramekins, or for larger servings of 6 oz use 4 tea cups.

Be careful of the shape if you plan on inverting it later. You will have to be able to run a knife around the sides to release it. (I use smooth sided conical ramekins)

Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

You can serve Panna Cotta right in the ramekins, or invert each ramekin onto a plate.

To invert Panna Cotta, set the ramekins into a pan of hot water for 1 minute.
Run a knife or a small off-set spatula around the edges of ramekins and invert them onto plates. Remove the ramekins.
Serve plain or top the Panna Cotta with a little Lemon Zest, Marsala Nut Sauce, Black Cap Raspberry Coulis (as below),

Strawberries in Black Pepper Balsamic or, as in this case, with Huckleberry sauce

Mangia!!
~~

That Venerable Lemon Verbena

This is a teaser post. ;)

Over the last couple of days, I have been attacking my brothers Lemon Verbena bush, in an attempt to harvest as many leaves as possible before the first frost. My obsession with this plant is that it doesn;t grow well in San Diego (I killed 3 over the last 13 years in San Diego), and as soon as the first frost comes, all the leaves will die and drop to the ground like so much forest humus. So in essence, I am attempting to preserve their "essence".

Lemon verbena is a tiny leaf packed with great flavoring powers. Like the lemon, it contains Citral, (that Lemon smell in the thin outer peel) but unlike lemon peel, which only contains about 2-5% Citral, the Lemon Verbena leaf contains a whopping 30-35%. This, combined with other alluring compounds such as Nerol (also contained in the Orange Blossom) and Geraniol which is found in Roses and Geraniums. This gives Lemon Verbena a sort of "Green, Lemon, Floral" smell, kind of like a Linden Blossom, that totally rocks when one is making Crème Brûlée, Caramel or even a cup of Herbal tea.

So here are my frozen leaves. After being washed, dried and simply placed in Zip-Loc freezer bags. Patiently waiting for me to make something wonderful out of them.

I am pretty sure I know what I want to do, I just need a couple more things before I proceed. In the meantime, I will be attacking my brother's plant again tomorrow... :) Stay Tuned.

Mangia!!
~~