Eddie's Day off Vanilla Panna Cotta with Raw Honey Plum syrup

It's been a wonderful week of from work and I've had the great opportunity to revsit a recipe I've learned from a fantastic restaurant in downtown Greenwich Manhattan call Camaje. I was given a birthday gift from my lovely wife to have private lessons with it's Chef Owner Abigail Hitchcock. It was an exciting experience to spend time with her and understand the hurdles she had to overcome to get into the industry and ultimately her own establishment.

She shared with me many wonderful recipes to which we served my wife, my brothers and sister and my nephew. All of which as some point I will share with you all  but let's start with the sweetest entree. The Vanilla Panna Cotta which was served with a mixed berry compote but I made it with a Plum Honey syrup. The Honey was found at Black Horse Farms, Athens, NY upstate by my brothers weekend house. It's a wonderful raw honey that is processed very lightly bringing you the flavors of the flowers used by the bees to make the honey. It tastes of flowers mainly lavender.

Software:
1/4 cup cold water

2 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (from 2 packages)
3 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 2 fresh vanilla beans

Hardware:
Ramekins 4-8 oz
Oven
Mixing Bowl
Pot
Knife
Baster (easier to transfer)

Syrup:
4 Tablespoons of your very best honey
2 plums skinned and diced
1 Teaspoon of lemon juice

Start by mixing the water and the gelatin and set aside to dissolve and thicken.

Next heat up the cream in a pot until a slight simmer be careful not to scorch the cream. Mix in the sugar and vanilla extract or seeded vanilla bean and pod. Simmer for about 5 - 10 minutes then remove the pod. (a wonderful tip from Abbey is that you can reuse the pod by washing it with clean water and letting it sit in sugar for vanilla sugar or in any clear alcohol like rum or vodka for vanilla extract)

Remove from heat then mix in the gelatin mixture. Mix and pour into the ramekins and set aside to room temperature. Plastic wrap and let them set in the fridge from 3 hours to 3 days. It's a great make ahead dessert.

For the syrup mix the honey, plums and lemons into a pot and slowly simmer for 5 minute then let cool and chill.

When plating set your ramekin in a hot bowl of water to loosen the sides. Towel the ramekin off and set a plate on it upside down and flip quickly. The panna cotta should transfer onto the plate. Drizzle with the syrup or your own compote or even fresh berries and you have yourself a gorgeous classy looking dessert with little effort.

Beat the heat

Mint Oreo Ice Cream

We've been having 100 degree+ weather here on the east coast and it's been pretty awful.  A while back, my wife had gotten me an ice cream maker, but I haven't really used it that much.  Ice Cream has been around forever and even without modern refridgeration techniques, people have been making this delicious treat.  Luckily we have our gadgets.

Ice cream makers consist of a insulated bowl that can keep the cream frozen while it's being made and a paddle (along with a motor) to stir the mixture.  There are some homemade versions of this type of setup, which involves putting 2 cans together with the space in between the cans filled with ice.  The way to stir it is to roll it around the floor.  This is popular with a lot of 4 - 6 year old school activities.  In the modern version, the white bowl (up top) needs to be frozen in the freezer before you use it.

I found a pretty basic recipe from a Ben & Jerry's  book.  The starter was for Vanilla ice cream.

Software:

• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I ran out of fresh vanilla beans)
• Handful of Double Mint Orea cookies

My wife and I had a debate on whether or not to heat the mixture up (like a custard), but she indicated that a chef friend of ours in London insisted that it needed to be heated up (original recipe didn't call for it.)

So in the end, I did heat up the mixture on the stove by combining all the ingredients together except for the cookies. 

Taken the mixture off the stove, I poured it into a bowl and put it into the refridgerator to cool down.  After about 3 hours, I poured the mixture into the ice cream maker and let it whirl.  I slowly crunbled up the cookes and added them while it was mixing.   My first batch earlier this week ended up a a whip cream like texture (or as my wife put, frozen whip cream).  Eddie said that when it's finished, it should have a consistency of a milk shake, not ice cream. 

After about 20 minutes, I poured it into a container for storage in the freezer.  The next morning, I had ice cream for breakfast and it was delicious!