Not so blue Monday

So it is Monday again, the start of a whole new week and what better way to end the Monday blues than a girls' night in, complete with awesome cheese, gin and tonic + panna cotta with kiwi coulis! We did fit in a pre-cooked dinner in between but will save that for another blog post some other time!

This was my first attempt at making panna cotta and kiwi coulis (or any type of coulis!) It didn't quite taste like panna cotta however- it was a bit lighter, more like a posset (or what I envisioned a posset would taste like), which I actually quite like. As for the coulis, it turned out to be quite easy to make and added quite a nice flavour to the dessert, so I think I am a convert on that part.

Anyway how this all came about was because I had a few kiwis sitting on my kitchen counter which I did not feel like eating and so I was trying to find a recipe to use it up in. It was either panna cotta with kiwi coulis or kiwi cupcakes and the former just sounded a bit more appealing than the latter. As usual, I chose the recipe with the least ingredients and steps and adapted it to suit my laziness and whatever I had in the pantry.

Panna Cotta (makes ~6)

400ml cream (I used thickened)

50g sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 packet of powdered gelatin

1/2 cup of cold water

1. Heat the cream and sugar together in a saucepan until sugar has dissolved.

2. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla essence.

3. Add the powdered gelatin into a bowl with the cold water and let stand for 10 mins.

4. Add the warm panna cotta mixture into the bowl with gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

5. Pour the panna cotta mixture into the individual bowls (I used wine glasses and ramekins, need to get myself some nice funky dessert dishes!) and chill in fridge overnight.

*This was also my first time using gelatin - I always thought it was too much trouble to get some and use them but it was actually quite fun!

Kiwi Coulis (This is a really awesome and super easy recipe!)

2 tbsp cornflour (recipe stated cornstarch but I only had cornflour)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

2 kiwis, chopped (save some pieces of kiwi as a garnish/topping)

1. Dissolve the cornflour in a small amount of water

2. Boil water, sugar and kiwi for ~5 mins

3. Take off heat and stir in cornflour mixture

4. Let cool before use

Have with gin and tonic + lime (lemon is a huge no-no!) with some awesome girlfriends and 90's music blaring in the background - definitely a cure for the Monday blues!