DIY Recipe: Panna Cotta

Chef Lou has been trying new things lately. Her newest is Panna Cotta.

Literally "cooked cream" in Italian, this dessert is very simple and extremely pleasing to the taste buds. There are many varieties of flavors out there but we've 

decided to share our Mint Panna Cotta Recipe with you.

Mint Panna Cotta

Lou Crandall, Savory Catering

makes approx 9 4oz servings.

Ingredients 

1 cup (8oz) whole milk

1 packet Knox unflavored gelatin

3 cups (24oz) heavy cream

2/3 cup (4.7oz) sugar

1/8 tsp salt

2 drops mint flavoring oil

3 drops green food coloring

Directions

Pour milk into metal saucepan, and then sprinkle dry gelatin on top. Stir to make sure all the gelatin gets wet. Let this sit for 10 minutes to "bloom" the gelatin.

Next, add the heavy crea, sugar, and salt to the saucepan. Heat this mixture up to 120 degrees F, about 2 minutes or stirring longer if the sugar is still grainy.

Next, add the mint flavoring oil and green food coloring. Stir until incorporated.

Pour into glasses, ramekins or dessert bowls and chill about 4 hours.

Presentation
Top with whipped cream, chocolate shavings, chocolate drizzles, or an Andes Mint.   

Vintage Bridal Shower

Recently we catered a vintage-themed bridal shower.

 On the buffet we had vintage suitcases, weathered boxes, colored mason jars, milk bottles, and accented with pink and yellow flowers.

 Warm and tasty Beef and Sausage sliders

Creamy Asparagus soup shooters with a parmesan and sesame seed crisp

 

Congratulations to the happy couple and best wishes!

The Art of Plating

At Savory we abide by the 3 P's of culinary arts:

Preparation

Palatte

Presentation

Of course, the preparation and palatte are important but mostly it's the presentation that entices the taste buds.

Here are some pictures of a recent event we did with 7 courses of food!

 

As the guests were arriving and miling about we served them an original specialty drink: a Sparkling Blood Orange Pomtini with a glitter sugar rimmer. The perfect fancy drink for a fancy party!

 

The table setting is also very important. We brought out our best china, silverware and water goblets for this elegant dinner.  We reused old Perrier sparkling water bottles as candle holders, and had a color scheme of whites, light browns and varying shades of green.

One of our Amuse Bouche (literally "mouth amuser" in French) was a Watermelon Gazpacho- a Spanish soup traditionally served cold. These were served in 

white ramekins with a cucumber star cutout.

 Our second amuse bouche was a Prickly Pear sorbet garnished with a sugar shard and a wedge of dragon fruit.

 One of our biggest hits of the night was our newest Buttery Pinyon appetizer: Sauteed pine nuts, spinach and golden raisins atop toasted herbed bread rounds and garnished with Asiago cheese.

 Each salad was arranged by one our employees and served in a coconut shell. The salad was tossed with our original coconut dressing with persimmons, blackberries, and pineapple.

We had a choice of four desserts! A salted caramel gelato in a chocolate cup, fresh berries and cream with a florentine shard, mini killer chocolate cake rounds, and a festive mint panna cotta

Cooking Classes for the New Year

Announcing cooking classes starting January 2013!

Here is a description of the classes offered:

January 22 “Asian New Year ” - Warm up with food that’s slightly spicy and very tasty!  This will be a nice change from all the heavy holiday foods we have been consuming. We will be making Thai yellow coconut curry with rice, crab wontons with hot chili sauce, veggie tempura, finishing it off with mango coconut sticky rice for dessert.

January 29 "Superbowl Palooza" - Learn recipes sure to put you in the party-throwing hall of fame! We will be learning twice-baked potato bites, lasagne cups, white pizza dip, coconut-lime crab cakes, raspberry-cheesecake cookies, and mini mint chocolate chip panna cottas.

February 5 "Valentines Dinner for your Sweetie" - Practice before the big day! We will be learning how to make breast of chicken florentine, Israeli cous cous with confetti, from-scratch french bread with a compound butter, and a pear-frangipan galette with a salted caramel gelato.

February 12 "Comfort Food Night" - Featuring garlicky beef with sage whipped cream, gouda cheese and apple soup with parmesan crisps, caesar salad with hand-made caesar dressing, and triple chocolate bavarians. 

You can sign up for any combination of the classes offered. Don't wait to sign up for this wonderful opportunity- come have fun with us!

Don't forget, you get to eat what you cook!

What's On Your Menu?

Does Your Thanksgiving Menu include Salted Caramel Gelato?

Mmmmm.... sooo good.