I just get thrilled about having a dessert which has got some fruits in it. Fruits give a whole new life to a dessert, by their mere freshness. And if it has to be the King of all the fruits, it just leaves you wanting more of it. Yes I am talking about Mangoes, the gorgeous golden and super sweet flesh of mangoes added to a dessert.
Summer is upon us now in it’s full swing. You could see them everywhere, with carts loaded with them and hawkers selling them by the roadside. And I had been looking out for a dessert recipe which calls for Mangoes, because I didn’t want to miss out on this special seasonal fruit, which lasts here for around four months only.
And then I came across this wonderful Panna Cotta recipe by David Lebovitz. God…why I hadn’t stumbled upon this earlier??? Panna Cotta is basically set cream, which gets it’s body from gelatin. And I tell you that the texture of it is so luscious and smooth that resisting something like this is almost next to impossible.
David’s recipe calls for double cream. But I took the liberty on adapting it minimally by cutting down the calories by substituting half of the double cream by low fat cream and the rest half by hung yogurt {to lessen the whey}. And the result was still so creamy. I have saved the original recipe for some future special moment.
I paired my Panna Cotta with Mango coulis, which I had frozen in the serving glasses for two hours, so that the weight of Panna Cotta doesn’t make it sag into the fruit puree below it. This is the kind of dessert which you can prepare for a dinner party well in advance, stock them up in refrigerator, and I am sure your life becomes all sorted out.
Recipe adapted minimally from David Lebovitz
Ingredients
Panna Cotta:
250 ml low fat cream {i used 25 % fat}
250 ml hung curd {hung for 24 hours in refrigerator}
50 gm cane sugar
1 vanilla bean pod or 2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp gelatin powder
3 tbsp cold water
Mango Coulis:
flesh of 3 ripened mangoes
sugar adjusted to the sweetness of mangoes
1/2 cup water
Instructions
- For the coulis, Blend the mangoes and water in a liquidizer. You may skip the sugar, if mangoes are enough sweet.
- Divide the fruit among for glasses/ramekins equally and freeze them up for 2 hours.
- Mix cream, yogurt and sugar well in a saucepan.
- Scrape the seeds from vanilla bean and add to the cream mixture.
- Heat the cream mixture till the sugar gets dissolved, taking care not to boil the cream.
- In a separate bowl, sprinkle the gelatin powder over cold water and let it stand it for 5-10 minutes.
- Pour the warm cream mixture over gelatin and mix. Let it cool for some time.
- Pour the Panna Cotta mixture over the frozen fruits and let them stand in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- When serving, top them up with fresh mango cubes/nuts/mint leaves and enjoy them chilled.