Honey Panna cotta, fig and praliné mini tart
Seasonal cooking is key. But what does it mean? When you live in a city where everything is available and where world cuisine is wildly diverse, it is easy to get lost. Depending on where you live in the world, you’ll have different seasons, different climates and so different fruits and vegetables. An easy way to start eating in season and locally, is to always look for the provenance of your products. If they have been grown in the UK for example, then you are pretty sure they are currently in season. There are so many advantages of eating in seasons, but the 2 most rewarding points are that :
- That fruit or vegetable will taste its best! It didn’t need to travel far, it has grown naturally and it is at its best condition to develop normally.
- It is cheap! When you start to look closely at prices, and how they fluctuate, then you always know when a product is in season. Simply put, in capitalist economy, what is rare is expensive and what is in abundance, is cheap.
This October, figs are still in season and that couldn’t make me more happy! I adore figs, and I think I can easily say they are one of my top 3 fruits. When you buy them in season, they are juicy, sweet, beautifully red and irresistible! I like to eat them with honey to complement its sweetness, and rosemary for freshness. You could skip the tart part of that recipe, and just make a honey panna cotta with fresh figs and a little bit of praliné, which would also be delicious!
Quantity: For 6 mini tart
Utensils: 6 mini sphere moulds, electric mixer
Difficulty
Ingredients
Honey Panna cotta
- 300ml of double cream
- 300ml of whole milk
- 5 sheets of gelatine
- 2 tbsp of good runny honey
Sweet Pastry
- 100g of salted butter (at room temperature)
- 70g of icing sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 180g of plain flour
- 25g of grounded almond
Crunchy
- 2tbsp of Praliné ( see recipe here)
- 75g of salted butter
- 4 biscuits ( hobnobs, petit Lu, Digestive etc)
A few fresh figs
Method
1* Make the honey panna cotta: Pour the milk inside a pan, and let the gelatine melt for 5 min. Lightly grease the moulds with some oil and a paint brush. After these 5 min, the gelatine should be gloopy, start to gently heat up the pan under low heat. Once the gelatine has fully melted, add the honey. Do no simmer the milk, it could burn the gelatine. Finally, add the cream to the milk, and pour the panna cotta into the moulds. Set in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
2* Make the sweet pastry: Beat the butter with an electric mixer for a few minutes, and add the sugar. Then add the egg and beat well for a couple of minutes. Finish the pastry by adding the flour and grounded almond and beat for one minute. Form a ball using your hands, cover and keep in the freezer for 10min.
3* Make the praliné: Follow the recipe
here
4* Prepare the mini tarts: Take the pastry out of the freezer, and roll out thinly on a floured worktop, using a rolling pin. Draw some circles 1/2 inch extra than the tart tin, use a pallet knife to remove the pastry from the worktop, and place inside a mini tart tin. Use your hands to press the pastry against the tin. Keep in the fridge for 5 min before baking.
5* Blind bake the mini tart cases: Pre heat oven at 180C/350F. Use a fork to do some holes at the bottom of each tart case. Cover with a small sheet of grease proof paper (I always use the same, and reuse my grease proof paper) and use some blind bake beans, or simply some dried beans, or rice to cover the grease proof paper. Do that for each tart. Bake for 20min with the beans in, and an extra 10 min with removing the beans.
6* Make the crunchy: Mix the praliné, butter and use a fork to mix it together. Add the crushed biscuits and for a paste.
7* Assemble the tarts: Once the tart cases have cooled down and the panna cotta is set, time to assemble. Fill the tart cases with 1 tbsp of Crunchy. Gently remove all of the panna cotta from their moulds onto a baking sheet. Use a pallet knife to place one by one, a panna cotta on top of a mini tart. Decorate with fresh figs, rosemary and hazelnuts. Et voilà!
