Roasted Cardamom Panacotta

• 300ml Double Cream
• 8 whole cardamom pods
• 2 leaves of gelatine
• 75ml full fat milk
• 40g icing sugar
• 300ml natural yoghurt

Roast the cardamom pods in a hot non-stick frying pan over high heat, keep on stirring until the pods burst open, do not let the pods catch and burn.

Place the roasted cardamom pods and the double cream in a saucepan bring to the boil over low heat, reduce the cream to 250ml and let the cream infuse for 1 hour.

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water.

Heat the milk, squeeze the gelatine leaves to remove the water and place the dissolved gelatine leaves with the hot milk, and stir to dissolve.

Pass the boiled cream through a fine sieve to remove the cardamom pods, mix the boiled cream with the dissolved gelatine.

Sieve the icing sugar over the natural yoghurt, mix and fold the yoghurt mixture in to the cream.

Pour the panacotta in to 8 x 6cm wide and 5cm high moulds let the panacotta set in the fridge while preparing the rest of the recipe.

Steve’s Granny’s Stewed Rhubarb

• 500g young forced Yorkshire rhubarb
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
• 400ml cranberry juice
• 150g unrefined caster sugar

Wash the rhubarb, remove the leaves and cut the rhubarb in 2cm long pieces, all even size.

Place the rhubarb, sugar vanilla seeds and juice in a medium saucepan, bring to the boil over high heat.Cover the saucepan with a lid and cook the rhubarb as quickly as you can for 2 minutes.

Remove all the rhubarb with a slotted spoon; lay the rhubarb on a flat tray to cool as quickly as possible.

Reduce the liquid to a thick but runny syrup.

Once the syrup has cooled, spoon a little juice over the cooked rhubarb to prevent it from drying out.

Use some juice to fill a pipette to garnish the dish.

Agar Agar Jelly Sheets

• 200ml reduced Rhubarb juice
• 2.4g agar agar powder

Select flat a flat tray or plate to set the jelly in to make your shapes.

Weigh the juice and agar agar in to a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil for 30 seconds, stir well.

Move quickly and pour the juice on to the selected trays about 1mm thick.

The mixture will set very quickly. Please read the Food Fanatics Tips on this recipe as it outlines important facts you should know about agar agar.

Do not move the jelly until completely set; it does not take long at all.

Cut the set jelly in squares, spoon the chilled stewed rhubarb on to the jelly and roll up in a cigar shape. Cut in to desired sizes and keep in the fridge until needed.

Rhubarb and Apple Sauce

• 125g young forced Yorkshire rhubarb
• 125g apples, preferably russets
• 25ml cranberry juice
• 25g butter

Peel and core the apple, wash and cut the rhubarb all the same sizes.

Place the apple, rhubarb and juice in a small saucepan, bring to the boil ,cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes .

Add the butter to the cooked apple and rhubarb mix; stir until the butter has melted.

Puree until smooth, pass the mixture through a fine sieve and cool.

To assemble the dish

Toast thin slivers of brioche heavily dusted with icing sugar until caramelised.

Pull a swipe with the Rhubarb and Apple Sauce on to the chosen plate.

Dip the set Roasted Cardamom Panacotta in hot water to turn them out on to the plate.

Arrange the Agar Jelly filled with stewed Rhubarb on to the plate.

Place the pipette and toasted brioche on the plate, garnish with pea shoots and freshly cracked black pepper.

Serves 8

Food Fanatics Tips

What you should know about agar agar:

• Agar agar is used in Japanese cookery and is better known in Japan as Kanten.
• Buy agar agar from a good healthy food store in powder form.
• Agar will tolerate heat up to 83°C.
• It will collapse if stirred, shaken or disturbed before it has set completely.
• Use the ratio of 100ml of liquid to 0.7g of powdered agar agar.
• Bring the liquid plus the agar agar to the boil for 30 seconds then set in desired shapes.
• Fruits and foods with high acidic levels will effect the agar agar and you will require more agar to set fruits such as strawberries & citrus fruits
• The following foods will not work with agar at all as they contain enzymes that do not agree with agar, these are chocolate, raw spinach, fresh raw kiwi fruit, fresh raw pineapple, fresh mango, fresh paw paw, fresh figs and fresh raw peach. You have a better chance if you cook the fruits and vegetables first.

2 Comments to “Roasted Cardamom Panacotta with Stewed Rhubarb”

1. Frances says:

   October 28, 2010 at 3:02 pm

   I am that sad person, the vegetarian who lusts after panacotta. Surely agar could be used in place of meat gelatine to set the panacotta?

2. Jeanette says:

   October 17, 2010 at 12:12 am

   I’ve never cooked rhubarb, but this sounds good and it visually, it is stunning to look at.