Pea Panna Cotta
I’ve started having a ladies only dinner parties, which I’ve not very imaginatively called Dinner Ladies, and this is the first starter dish I chose for the group of amazing women who came along chat about the world, let loose the stress of their lives, find a group of supportive women and of course, eat good food.
But there’s no need to wait for a special occasion to make this Pea Panna Cotta.
It’s so easy it’s worth making it for a Saturday night in front of the telly.
Make sure to read the Tip Box at the end of the recipe before making it, not because the dish is difficult to make, but because there are a lot of little things in there that will make why I’ve done some things, a little clearer.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Serves 4/5 – Depending on the size of your serving dishes
What You Need
300g Frozen Peas – See Tip Box
240ml Hot Vegetable stock – from 2 stock cubes
240ml Double Cream
120ml Whole Milk
100g Shallots – Small Diced
15g Butter
To Decorate - Optional
Fresh Prawns to decorate – Optional – See Tip Box
Fresh Peas in pods to decorate – Option – See Tip Box
Dill Fronds – Optional – See Tip Box
1 Vegetable Stock Cube – Optional
Don’t over cook the peas.
How It’s Done
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the finely diced shallots, along with a pinch of sea salt and a pinch of fresh ground black pepper.
Give it a mix up and cook on a low heat until the shallots are translucent and soft. Mix them around a few times as they cook. – It’s important to keep an eye on the shallots as you don’t want to have any colour on them at all – See Tip Box
Add the frozen peas and the hot stock to the pan, and bring it to a gentle simmer.
Cook the pea mixture for a couple of minutes, so the peas are only just cooked and they are soft – See Tip Box
Transfer the pea mixture to a blender and let it whizz until it becomes smooth – Don’t rush this
Put a small holed sieve over a bowl and pour the pea mixture in.
Use the back of a spatula to push the pea mixture through the sieve, making sure that you scrape the bottom of the sieve to not waste any of that smooth puree. – See Tip Box
Pour the pea puree into a clean saucepan – See Tip Box
Whisk in the double cream and the milk and bring up the mixture to a gentle simmer.
Make sure the mixture is put back into a clean saucepan.
Whisking constantly, sprinkle the gelatine powder over the pea mixture.
Keep whisking, so the gelatine doesn’t form clumps, while the mixture is on a very gently simmer.
The mixture should begin to thicken while being heated and whisked – Be patient, this will take around 5 minutes.
Give it a taste to see if any more salt or pepper needs to be added – but be very careful, you don’t want to lose any of the pea flavour.
Once the mixture begins to thicken, remove it from the heat and transfer it to a jug
Let the mixture cool down a little - for around 5 minutes
Carefully pour the panna cotta into serving dishes and transfer them to the fridge to set – See Tip Box
Leave the panna cotta uncovered in the fridge to set – See Tip Box
Decorate or dob’t, it’s up to you.
When ready to serve – Optional
Put 1 vegetable stock cube in a pan along with 300ml of water and let it come to a boil so that the stock cube dissolves – mixing it as you go to give it a helping hand.
Place the whole unopened pea pods into the vegetable stock and let it boil until the pea pod is soft to bite.
Once they are ready, drain them and transfer them to a piece of kitchen paper to drain.
Chop some of the cooked fresh prawns into rough pieces and set aside on a piece of kitchen paper to so that they drain.
Break off a few fronds of the dill and set them aside.
Once ready to serve, very gently open the pea pod and cut off one side.
Lay the pea pod on top of the panna cotta, along with some of the chopped prawns and a frond of the dill
Serve at room temperature.
Tip Box
Frozen peas – 1) No need for fresh peas. Frozen peas are very underrated and hold a lot of flavour.
2) No need to defrost the peas, it really important to hold on to the flavour of the peas, and get them cooked at rapidly as possible. Using them from frozen, weirdly helps with this.
3) Overcooking – Only just cook the peas, so they are soft. This should only take a couple of minutes. If the peas are over cooked, they will lose the pea flavour and the end result of the pea panna cotta will look lovely but will have very little pea flavour.
Shallots – It’s important not to have any colour on the shallots when they are cooking. Caramelising anything, in this case the shallots, (getting colour on them) changes the flavour of what you’re cooking. So, to caramelise the shallots, will add a different flavour which could override the subtle flavour of the peas.
Pea Puree – At this stage, after the pea mixture has passed through the sieve, it can be used as a stand-alone pea puree. Have the pea puree alongside a lamb chop.
Using a clean saucepan – It’s important to transfer the pea puree into a clean pot. The end result needs to have a clear pea flavour and if using the same pot, the pea mixture was originally cooked in, the pot will have residue flavour of the previous cooking.
Setting the panna cotta – 1) I like to leave my panna cotta to set in the fridge overnight.
2) Don’t cover the panna cotta with anything while setting in the fridge. Covering the panna cotta will cause condensation to form and this will settle on the top making it watery and, just not nice.
Eat at room temperature
