Dessert at Night

This week in Recipe for Success our student chef Christo Pretorius from Pretoria prepares deconstructed Nachos for Adriaan Maree from Fermier, Reuben also speaks to Whitey Basson about his Recipe for Success and then there’s still the viewers competition worth almost R 250 000.00.

Ingredients

• Coffee panna cotta

  • 140 ml heavy cream 

  • 100 ml full cream milk 

  • 15 ml unflavoured granulated gelatine 

  • 50 ml water (for saturation) 

  • 75 g caster sugar 

  • 4 heeped tsp strong coffee granules
  •  
2.5 ml vanilla extract
  • 
1 ml salt 

• Chocolate soil & almund brittle shards 

  • 35 g Chocolate
  • 
50 g caster sugar
  • 
15 ml water 

  • 100 g granulated sugar 

  • 50 g butter 

  • 60 ml water
  • 
50 g almond shavings (raw) 

• Rosewater spheres
  • 
50 ml Rosewater
  • 
10 g caster sugar 

  • 5 ml Unflavoured granulated gelatine 

  • 15 ml Water (for saturation) 

  • As needed Cooking oil 

• Chocolate twigs & crystallised leaves
  •  
50 g dark chocolate
  • 
15 g cacao powder 

  • 1 egg white 

  • 1 handful fennel leaves (fresh)
  • 
25 g Caster sugar

Method

1. Panna Cotta
   1. To make the panna cotta, soak the gelatine in water. Bring the cream and milk to a simmer in a saucepan.
   2. Add the caster sugar and stir until dissolved.

   3. Then add the vanilla extract.
   4. Add the saturated gelatine to the mixture and stir until it is completely dissolved.
   5. Add the coffee granules and salt and stir until dissolved. Take care to never let the mixture boil.
   6. Strain the mixture through a sieve into (unreadable word) moulds.
   7. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
   8. When unmoulding the panna cotta, put the base of the mould just above boiling water for approximately 8 seconds and tip onto the plate, or try to pry the panna cotta from the edges with your fingers and slide it out of the mould.
2. Chocolate Soil
   1. To make the chocolate soil, heat the caster sugar and water in a pan.
   2. Finely chop the chocolate.
   3. Remove the pan from the heat when the mixture turns medium brown.
   4. Mix the chocolate into the syrup and empty onto the silicone mat as (unreadable word) possible.
   5. Once completely set grind the mixture to a fine soil in a mortar and pestle.
3. Almond Brittle:
   1. To make the almond brittle, melt the butter in a sauce pan and then add the water and the sugar.
   2. Boil the mixture until golden brown, and then add the almonds.
   3. Pour the mixture onto a silicone mat and spread thinly before it sets. Snap into shards once set.
4. Rosewater spheres:
   1. To make the rosewater spheres, pour oil into a kidney tray or cake tin until 1⁄4 of it is filled and refrigerate.
   2. Saturate the gelatine and heat rosewater in a saucepan, just below simmering.
   3. Dissolve the gelatine and the caster sugar in the rosewater.
   4. Remove the rosewater from the saucepan and allow cooling.
   5. Remove the oil from the fridge and add droplets of the rosewater mixture into the oil using a pipette or syringe.
   6. Leave to set (unreadable word followed by another unreadable word)
5. Chocolate twigs:
   1. To make the chocolate twigs, sift half the cocoa powder onto a sheet of greaseproof paper.
   2. Then temper the chocolate by heating it to 46 ̊C (use only half the chocolate).

   3. Remove from the double boiler and stir in the rest of the chocolate to cool it down to 27 ̊C.
   4. Finally heat it back up to 31 ̊C (never higher than 33 ̊C) and pour into a piping bag.

   5. Cut a very small tip and pipe twig formations on the sifted cocoa.

   6. Sift the rest of the cocoa powder over the piped twigs.
6. Crystalized leaves:
   1. To make the crystallised leaves, whisk egg whites to just loosen them up a bit.
   2. Brush the fennel leaves (unreadable word) the egg whites to (unreadable word) then, but do not let the leaflets stick together.
   3. Sift the caster sugar over the fennel leaves and put it in the fridge to set.