{Cookbook Giveaway} Made in America & Chocolate Panna Cotta
Today I would like to introduce a special guest poster, Lucy Lean. She is the author of the new cookbook, Made in America: Our Best Chefs Reinvent Comfort Food. Lucy is the mom to two beautiful kids and lives in sunny California. Her new cookbook is a collection of over 100 reinvented comfort food recipes from today’s top chefs. Without further adieu, here’s Lucy to share one of Michael Mina’s favorite recipes.
Michael Mina’s Chocolate Panna Cotta from Made in America is a simple yet sophisticated recipe that has replaced my usual go-to recipe for chocolate mousse. Unlike traditional chocolate mousse, there is no raw egg in this recipe — so it’s safe for young and old to eat. My kids love making this with me and then after a four-hour wait, when the magic has happened and the pudding has set, they love to tuck in.
I first ate at Michael Mina about five years ago. I flew up to San Francisco from Los Angeles for the night to join my best friend Amelia and her husband who were visiting from England. The creative menu, excellent service, and stunning room blew us all away. Plate after beautiful plate of ingredients, each “done three ways,” was served—every dish more tempting than the last. I remember feeling so full after dinner that it hurt; my eyes were definitely bigger than my belly. Michael Mina has recently relocated his eponymous restaurant to the space that was previously the restaurant, Aqua, where he began his illustrious career in San Francisco over twenty years ago.
Born in Cairo, Egypt and raised in Ellensburg, Washington, Mina fell in love with cooking at the age of fifteen, working as the garde manger in a local restaurant. Formal training followed at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park with weekends spent honing his talent in Charlie Palmer’s kitchen at the upscale Aureole in New York City. With his bold restaurant concepts, this Michelin-star chef has certainly built upon San Francisco’s reputation as a world-class dining destination. In 2002 he partnered with Andre Agassi to found Mina Group, which has since opened eighteen restaurants, scattered across America.
Mina gives us his recipe for chocolate panna cotta, perhaps the most effortless dessert to make ever, proving that even the fanciest of chefs can turn their attention to something supereasy. I was struck by how similar the recipe for panna cotta (which means cooked milk in Italian) is to early American recipes for blancmange, a milk dessert that is
thickened with gelatin so it sets. The recipe is a cross between a chocolate pudding and a milky Jell-O.
I love the breezy, chatty voice of Marion Harland in Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea (1875), in which she includes an early recipe for “Chocolate Blanc- Mange” in her chapter “Fancy Dishes for Desserts.” Nineteenth-century cookbooks are full of recipes for jellies, blancmanges, custards, and creams. These wobbly creations are a lost art of wonderful translucent colors and subtle flavors, most often set in whimsical molds and then turned out. In The Ladies Receipt-Book by Eliza Leslie (1847), there is a recipe for “Chocolate Blanc-Mange” that calls for “four calves’ feet, or eight or ten pigs’ feet.” She goes on to say that you can substitute “Russian isinglass.” And people think molecular gastronomy is something new? Thank goodness for modern packets of dried gelatin.
I love whipping up a batch of chocolate mousse based on an Elizabeth David recipe but this eggless custard, panna cotta, gives a similar chocolate fix and is foolproof. You can get fancy and serve it in pretty glasses or keep the presentation simple and turn out the dessert onto a plate, once it’s set up. Either way, enjoy the wobble.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/29616582[/vimeo]
Michael Mina’s Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta
From Made in America, Our Best Chefs Reinvent Comfort Food, by Lucy Lean
Ingredients
1/2 pound milk chocolate
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon gelatin powder
1 1/2 cups cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fleur de sel, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
1. Gently melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water; the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water.
2. Pour the milk into a pot and sprinkle the gelatin over the cold milk. Cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
3. Add the salt and pour the mixture over the melted chocolate in the bowl. Mix with a silicone spatula until smooth.
4. Add the cold cream and mix until completely incorporated.
5. Fill four 6-ounce glasses two-thirds full with the panna cotta mixture.
6. Refrigerate until set, about 4 hours.
7. Just before serving, top with a little fleur de sel.
Serves 4
Made in America: Our Best Chefs Reinvent Comfort Food is filled with classic comfort foods like this one, reinvented by some of today’s top chefs like Mario Batali, John Besh and April Bloomfield. Lucy has traveled the country, interviewing top chefs. In this cookbook you will find those chef’s best recipes, many created especially for this book.
“Made in America is a celebration of the contemporary American food landscape. Be inspired by some of this nation’s finest and most influential chefs as they help you navigate from coast to coast.”
— Bobby Flay, Chef and restaurateur
“Lucy’s genuine love of good food jumps off every page of this beautiful book. I can’t wait to make my way through every recipe.”
— Curtis Stone
Lucy is also hosting a launch party for the book with top LA chefs, Oct 23rd at 12:30 from San Pedro.
For a chance to win a copy of Made in America: Our Best Chefs Reinvent Comfort Food, just leave a comment below.
For additional entries:
2. RT the following : I just entered to win a a copy of Made in America from @EclecticRecipes http://su.pr/9su5KV
3. Follow Eclectic Recipes on TWITTER.
4. Like Eclectic Recipes on FACEBOOK
5. Like Babble’s Family Kitchen on TWITTER.
6. Follow Babble’s Family Kitchen on FACEBOOK.
Giveaway ends 10/28/11.
To learn more about Made in America and all the great goings-on, head to Lucy’s blog, Ladles and Jellyspoons.
The recipe sounds amazing and I would love to have this cookbook!
Should I leave a comment for each of the additional entry tasks? I hate to fill things up unnecessarily!
Would love love love this cookbook and I plan on making that panna cotta very soon!
love desserts.will definately have to try this one.
Would love this book!
This looks amazing!!!
My family would love this!!
I am very excited to try to make this desert for my family maybe this weekend I will surprise them with this special treat thank you so much for sharing it!
Sounds like a great cookbook. Would love to win.
I Like Eclectic Recipes on Facebook.
Panna cotta! Looks so yum I’m gonna make it this weekend.
I tweeted:
http://twitter.com/#!/iamjessiebyrne/status/127446107738484737
I followed @eclecticrecipies on Twitter.
I liked Eclectic Recipes on Facebook.
I’ve liked Babble’s Family Kitchen on Facebook
I’ve been following Babble’s Family Kitchen on Twitter.
Following Babble’s Family Kitchen on Twitter
Following @eclecticrecipies on Twitter!
Wow how wonderful is this book. I am sure that I would want to make the recipes as soon as possible.
Hoping this book would help inspire more fun in my family’s kitchen!
Liking Eclectic Recipes on FB
Liking Babble’s Family Kitchen on FB. I noticed you switched “like” and “follow” in #5&6
Sounds like a great cookbook to add to my collection and cook from.
I Follow Eclectic Recipes on TWITTER as @southerncooker
I follow Babble’s Family Kitchen on TWITTER as @southerncooker
I would love to win this book, sounds like it would have a lot of yummy recipes to try out.
want,need ,must have book (“,)
Sounds like a great recipe, will definately have to try it! Sounds like a great book.
What a great idea for a cookbook! I’d love to try the chef’s takes on various common dishes. Bet they’re all special versions.
Tweeted about this giveaway: https://twitter.com/#!/teslaca/status/127845076457095168
Following Eclectic Recipes on TWITTER.
Following/Like Babble’s Family Kitchen on TWITTER
Looks like a great book!
Nice cookbook and must for the wife and desserts
Panna Cotta is one of my favorite desserts!! I can’t believe they transformed it to milk chocolate Panna Cotta
I would loveee to have this cookbook
This book looks great. Thanks for the chance
Tweet! http://twitter.com/#!/PurpleLarkspur/status/128179843681628160
I follow Eclectic Recipes on TWITTER. I am @purplelarkspur
I follow Babble’s Family Kitchen on TWITTER. I am @purplelarkspur
Looks heavenly. Love what Lucy Lean has done with her cookbook!
Would love to win this cookbook! I’m a big fan of comfort food!
I follow Family Kitchen on FB.
I would love to win this. It would be so fun to learn more about making chocolate and entertaining with desserts!
I tweeted giveaway
I follow eclectic recipes on twitter
I like eclectic recipes on FB
I like babbles family kitchen on twitter
I like family kitchen on FB
Would love to win this cookbook! Always looking for new ideas.
I follow family kitchen on fb.
I follow family kitchen on twitter.
I’m ready to try these new recipes!
Yummy book! I wanna win!
I retweeted the contest Twinmama12
I follow Eclectic Recipes on Twitter
I follow Eclectic Recipes on Facebook
I follow Babble’s Family Kitchen on twitter
I follow Babble’s Family Kitchen on Facebook
What a wonderful cookbook. I would love to add this to my special collection.
Wahoo! What a cool book!