Expect that nobody will believe you made this. You'll forever receive those "remember that dinner party when you made that om-azing dessert" comments. Get your Panna Cotta on and never look back.
When I began working as a chalet chef, I was no more than a good home cook (now, I’d say I’m a
better home cook, but by no means a ‘chef’). As an untrained cook, I shied away from using ingredients that weren’t familiar to me. One of these was gelatin. I had a notion that it was difficult to use, and difficult to get right. This couldn’t be further from the truth. One of my fellow chalet chef pals – a very qualified, professional guy from New Zealand passed me on this recipe for his homemade Panna Cotta.
The way to serve this is with fruit coulis (raspberry or strawberry), sauce (chocolate or caramel) or sorbet and toppings (berries, fruit, biscuit crumbs or chocolate chips). There are some great fruit and dessert sauces available from Irish company
The Big Red Kitchen. My favourite combination was coconut-infused, served with mango sorbet and Malibu cream (made by whisking cream with some icing sugar and lacing through Malibu liquor). I added cocktail umbrellas too, very 1970s!
Master this creamy dessert. Thank us later
Serves 8
Ingredients
600ml cream
150ml milk
150g caster sugar
Flavour suggestions
2 handfuls desiccated coconut or 2 teabags of a herbal or fruit tea (like earl grey, red fruits, lemon and ginger etc) – check out Irish company
Lily’s Tea Shop for some inspiration
3 sheets gelatin
8 pretty glasses to set and serve the panna cotta in. Wine glasses work too.
What you do
1. Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to boil and turn off the heat.
2. Leave for 5-10mins to infuse the coconut or tea flavour.
3. In a separate dish, soak the gelatin in cold water for several minutes. Remove from the soaking water and add to the cream mixture. Sieve the cream mixture (if used coconut) or simply remove the teabags. Pour into glasses and chill.
Elaine Lavery is a former French Alps chalet chef, and now the co-founder of Irish company Improper Food. The company’s first product, Improper Butter is a yummy range of natural garlic and herb cooking butters.
This week Elaine is our foodie Guest Blogger, highlighting some amazing Irish small food producers, she adds, "As a small food producer, I am a big advocate of buying locally. We have amazing quality produce to choose from and buying local has become really on-trend." 
