Apr 6th, 2009
Goat Cheese Pannacotta
I’m pretty excited now that we’re well on our way into Spring! Here in Vancouver the weather has just started to cooperate and bring us some much-needed sunshine after the coldest March on record. Spring’s also when a lot of people come out of hibernation and start getting social again – and our group kicked things off with a wonderful Spring Local Food Potluck hosted by fellow cookthebook.ca author Jen.
I decided to make the Goat Cheese Pannacotta recipe for this one. It’s easy to get local goat milk here, and since the recipe works with either soft goat cheese or goat yogurt, I figured I’d make my own yogurt to put in it.
The yogurt vs. cheese thing turned out to be a lifesaver, since my yogurt didn’t actually set! (It’s still a hit & miss homemade foodstuff for me). But I was left with just enough curd to to put in the recipe with the goat milk, and it turned out beautifully.
In fact, this whole thing was incredibly simple. Alongside creme brulee, pannacotta is another dish that looks & sounds far more complicated than it is.
Mix up your ingredients & pour into buttered ramekins (my ramekin supply falls far short of the 12 that are called for here, so I used 6 dessert bowls), refrigerate to set.
The book recommends serving them over roast beets, sliced up carpaccio-style. I just chopped mine into chunks to make life a bit easier – the last thing I want to be doing in the middle of someone else’s party is fussing over plating a complicated buffet dish.
Next time I plate this though, I’ll definitely spoon the beets over the pannacotta, or maybe drizzle them with some beet-juice or balsamic or something, so they look a bit less stark and other-worldly (which I suppose is a risk one takes with gelatin/molded food).
But what my plate lacked in beauty, it totally made up for in taste!
This is a bit sacrilegious coming from someone whose husband grew up on a goat dairy, but… I’m just not a huge fan of goat-dairy products. It tastes like goats smell. Not that I mind the smell of goat, or farms in general, but for whatever reason goat milk, cheese and yogurt just don’t do it for me.
However, when you mix those up with a bit of lemon juice and zest and a few other bits and bobs, then gelatinize and chill – wow. These little cakes were so incredibly light and mild and delicious. I was completely surprised by them! And they were still a perfect pairing for the beets.
So perhaps there’s still hope for me and the goats after all.
Goat Cheese Pannacotta – page 191
