January 5th
2006
2005 Food Blog Awards: Now that I have finally gained control over my blushing, I can say I'm deeply honored finding d:d nominated as one of five finalists for the categories Best Food Blog - Reader's ChoiceBest New Food BlogBest Food Blog - PhotographyBest Food Blog - Recipes of the 2005 Food Blog Awards hosted by Kate over at Accidental Hedonist. Thank You! to everyone who nominated us! For those of you who would like to vote, the polls will remain open until 12 midnight PST on January 18th.
Sometimes there is nothing better than grabbing a cup of tea and browsing the tons of cookbooks, the numerous recipes stored on my pc or going through my rather chaotic recipe box just to find this very one extravagant recipe I have no choice but to try. But then there are also times, when I don't have the time or the muse to venture out on unknown terrain. The latter pretty much sums it up - my state of mind during Christmas season. Since we were already decided on the more elaborate main courses, what I needed was a quick win so to say. A dessert, that I could whip out just like that, however, maintaining the overall culinary momentum.
Regular d:d readers will probably have noticed, that I have and always had a weak spot for anything panna cotta and equally so for delicious crème brûlée recipes which have made me a happy cook throughout the last year.
Using known and proven recipes, adding a little touch of winter, I felt comfortable handling the upcoming two major dinner dates on our calendar given both of our work schedules.
Pomegranate Yogurt Panna Cotta
White cream/yogurt layer
1 Heat cream, add sugar and the vanilla bean (scraped out seeds and shell). Let it lightly cook for about 15 minutes and stir every now and then. Remove the vanilla pod from the pot and the pot from the heat.
Meanwhile soak the sheets of gelatin in a small bowl of water (for about 5-10 min). Squeeze well and add them to the cream mixture. Stir thoroughly until the gelatin has completely dissolved. Blend well with the Greek yogurt.
Light pink cream/yogurt/pomegranate layer
Simply use half of the above cream/yogurt mass and add pomegranate juice to provide color and taste per your liking (I used about 5 tsp).
Red pomegranate jello layer
1 Add equal amounts of juice and water to a bowl and put on medium heat, no boiling necessary. Add sugar to taste.
Soak the 2 leaves of gelatin in water (for about 5-10 min) and add them to the diluted juice. Stir thoroughly until the gelatin has completely dissolved.
The final steps involve turn by turn chilling of the different layers. Starting with the top layer (red) and a chilling time of at least 1-2 hours in the fridge, followed by a pink layer, more chilling...and so forth. I experiment quite a bit with different numbers of layers, even added a few pomegranate seeds to [still liquid] jello layers before chilling them again. The key really is to wait long enough so the layers don't mix, while keeping your mixtures in the pots at a lukewarm temperature, to be used for the next layers - not necessarily the quickest dessert after all.
Note: Accuracy is essential when filling glasses with different layers, wiping away extra/superfluous drops just won't work with glass - as you will always see the evidence afterwards. (*cough*...got a few of those, too).
To unmold the panna cotta, briefly dip the form in hot water and carefully flip it over on a plate. Decorate with some extra pomegranate seeds.
Gingerbread Crème Brûlée
The steps involved to make this seasonal dessert are in principle the same as here. With the difference of using gingerbread pieces instead of Earl Grey tea.
With or without experimenting, both desserts are definite keepers, certainly with a seasonal character, but delicious nevertheless.
Pomegranate Yogurt Panna Cotta
Recipe Source: Own creation
Prep time: about 40 min., chilling: at least 8 hours
.
Ingredients for white/pink layer (serves 6):
250 ml heavy cream
100g sugar
1 vanilla bean
400ml Greek yogurt
5 sheets gelatine
about 5 tsp pomegranate juice, freshly squeezed
.
Ingredients for pomegranate jello:
juice of one medium-sized pomegranate, freshly squeezed
equal amount of water
sugar to taste
2 sheets gelatine
for decoration: some extra pomegranate seeds
.
Gingerbread ("Lebkuchen") Crème Brûlée
Recipe source: Own creation
Required time: prep. 30 min., baking 25 min., chilling: best over night, serves 4
.
Ingredients:
450ml heavy cream
one vanilla bean
gingerbread pieces (1 regular German "Lebkuchen")
4 egg yolks
50g sugar
fine caster sugar for caramelizing
These are well-deserved nominations. Your blog is just beautiful, light, clean, inviting. Great photography and text. I really like it!
Happy New Year!
All is great ! amazing !
oh wow! congrats! you totally deserve it! you leave a trail for the rest of us to follow
Well deserved alright and rightly voted for you in one of the category or is it 2 ? chuckle !
Keep up the great post.
Cheers!
The nominations are well deserved, Nicky and Oliver.
These layered pannacottas look very tempting! Your buttermilk pannacotta was the first dish I spotted on your blog last summer, and you had me totally hooked. I still haven't tried it thou:( Shall include it in my to-do-in-2006 list!
Congrats on the the nominations. The photo nomination is spot on, I adore and am envious of your perfect photos. They make the food pop out at you. Wishing you the best this 2006. Buon Anno!
Divine, simply divine. Glad I found this blog. Keep up the good work! ;)
I can't believe this! I made panna cotta - just decorated with pomegranates, didn't have the time for the waiting to set part of the jello! - in December too, but haven't posted about it until now! Coincidence? Great minds think alike? Something in the air? - I dunno, but that's just too funny!:-)
i just found you via maria/port 2 port.... not only do i love food... but of course the first post has panna cota?? one of my absolute favorite things on the planet??
i am doing a little happy dance around my computer!
[congrats on the nomination as well... i'm off to vote!]
Congratulations on your nominations! Your site is gorgeous and I cannot wait to try the pomegranate pannacotta.
All the best in 2006!
Yum. And yum.
And congratulations, on all the nominations. You deserve them, fully, and more. Thank you for inspiring me every time I come over to see what you have cooked up lately.
Congrats ! You deserve it. Your pics are always so beautifully taken and of course the recipes always great. Love your site.
Congratulations on the nomination! I am drooling over that creme brulee photo ...
I love pomegranates and have been wondering for a while now how I can use it. This is a brilliant recipe and I wil definitely use it! Congratulations on your nominations.
These pomegranate panna cotta look so yummy. I can't wait to go to the farmer's mrket to buy some extra juicy and pink pomegranates and try your wonderful recipe.
By the way, congrats for the *FIVE* nominations. You really deserve it - i mean just look at your pix and creativity. Wow !
Love
Fanny
Congratulations on all the well deserved nominations. For some reason, I only discovered you recently. Very class of you not to urge people to go vote for you.
Nicky,
Wow! Four nominations!! You're like the Spielberg of food blogs or something! Good luck!
Aloha! I really need to get things off my chest and I need to tell you that you are one of the best 'inspired' people because of your wonderful site. I love all of your photos of food and packagings....it is such a spectacular site! Curious to know...what kind of digital camera do you use to take those wonderful shots? And you use wordpress but as a hosted domain, do you use yahoo or others? How do you make your own template or sidebars? I am staring at your site and keep wondering..."how is that......?" I used your link on my link sidebar and I hope that you don't mind =-)
Your site design is totally awesome! Your love to details, your photography, well, everything! Glad I stumbled upon your site :)
Amazing Photos like always.
Congratulations on the nominations, you deserve them and more !
Hallihallo,
super Seite u. die Fotos von Deinen Kochkünsten beeindrucken auch. Bin erst gerade auf die Seite gestoßen, werde sie mir aber mal genauer anschauen. Wohne übrigends auch in München ;-)
Mach weiter so ;-)
LG
ninfanysa
Hiya Nicky and Oliver, CONGRATS on the nominations. Good luck!
Congratulations on your nominations!! Love your photos and creations!! :) Good luck!!
Something so pretty! Excellent style! Just found out about your site and will be back for more!
First off, many deserved congratulations on the nominations. Secondly, I shake a (playful) fist at you! Just when I was ready to turn away from cream and custard and other such lovely holiday treats - sigh, you bring me right back into the fray with that gorgeous crème brûlée.
Nicky and Oliver, I can't believe that it's taken me this long to get over here, but hopefully you'll agree that late is better than never! Congratulations on your well-deserved nominations, and thank you for delicious:days! It's an inspiration.
Nicky,
Thanks for visiting my site and for the compliment on my spice tin collection. I just adore your site - so beautifully done. Your photography is spectacular and recipes truly inspiring.
Congratulations on being nominated! I found you via the nominee list - what a beautiful site and excellent photography! The Creme Brulee sounds incredible - I need to try this one!