STRAWBERRY PANNA COTTA

I first made this back in South Africa with strawberries from the freezer that were excess from the garden when in abundance in early summer. I find in Spain we often have some strawberries that we don’t get to eat so I put them into a freezer bag and use them in desserts or smoothies. With a tweak by adding the mint and biscotti, it became a favourite in the restaurant on our farm.

Ingredients:

4 fresh strawberries

250ml milk

750ml cream

140g Castor sugar

200g frozen strawberries

4 gold gelatine leaves

Dehydrated strawberries

Biscotti crumbs

Mint leaves

Heat the oven to 100 deg C

The first step of this recipe is to prep all the little bits we add. Slice the fresh strawberries as thinly as you can get them. They don’t have to be paper thin as the dehydration process tends to thin them out. Place these on a silicone mat or silicone baking paper and place in the oven. We usually dry them out over 2 to 3 hours.

For the Panna Cotta, heat the milk and cream with the sugar and frozen strawberries. Infuse the strawberries until the sugar has dissolved. Be careful not to boil the mixture as this tends to separate the fats in the cream and changes the texture of the Panna Cotta. Strain your mixture through a fine sieve. Don’t worry if the strawberry seeds go through it, they add to the look.