The kitchen is coming together surely but very slowly.  Funny how somethings always take longer than anticipated, cost more and are just more difficult than you imagined.  I oscillate between excited anticipation, plain old freaking out and tired frustration.  Good news is the countertops have been ordered and will ship at the end of February.  Our wall has insulation again, yippee for cheaper gas bills in winter.  The next big hurdle will be building the cabinets.  This is a time where I sit back and trust the husband and go into the office/kitchen/wine cellar/nursery to cook something.  I needed to use up some cream, terrible dilemma, and with having no oven what better than panna cotta.

Panna cotta, meaning cooked cream in Italian, is just cream, milk (in this case yogurt) and gelatin gently heated.  You can add sugar, fruit, flavorings, or not.  I had an amazing buttermilk panna cotta at Coppia Restaurant and Wine Bar in Portland.  It was cool and silky with a delicate tang from the buttermilk.  I like the tartness and color from the blueberries.  I think blueberries and Greek yogurt were meant to be.

This would be perfect in the summer too, use whatever fruit is in season and you don’t need to worry about heating up your house with the oven.  It’s also easy to make ahead, say for a dinner party.

Recipe

adapted from: The Kitchn

Time: 4-6 hours including chill time

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 1 1/4 cups cream
• 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk Greek yogurt
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups of blueberries, fresh or frozen

Instructions:

1. Put water into a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the top, set aside to let gelatin soften.
2. Put cream into a saucepan with the sugar and place over medium heat, whisking well until bubbles form around the edge, don’t let it boil.
3. Remove saucepan from the heat and add gelatin, whisking well to combine.
4. Then add yogurt and salt.  Continue whisking every few minutes until cooled to room temperature.
5. While panna cotta is cooling, divide blueberries among four medium sized bowls.
6. When panna cotta is cooled divide equally among bowls.  Place bowls in the fridge for about four hours or until set.

Note: I like to keep it simple and serve in the bowls.  You can unmold the panna cotta for presentation purposes but I would recommend leaving the berries out of the bottom and adding to the top.  The frozen berries especially can make the consistency a little thinner.  Here is a great tutorial on doing such from The Kitchn.