Fried Egg, Sunny Side Up Dessert (Ginger and Cardamom Panna Cotta with Orange Gelee)

I like to play with food. I like to create food that is fun yet classy and elegant but not tacky.

Take the scenario in which you are hosting a dinner party. "Fried Egg, Sunny Side Up" is written on the the dessert menu. All your guests are so intrigued and excited by it.

Time to bring out the dessert. It's greeted with Ohh's and Ahh's....

And followed by: "How did you come up with this idea?"

Silence. Guests tuck into the dessert, with dessert spoons, not knives and forks.

"I taste orange."

"The yolk is made of Orange Gelee!"

"Did I taste ginger?"

"There is something else in it. A kind of spice?"

"It's cardamom!"

"Ginger and Cardamom egg white!"

The host announces: "It's Ginger and Cardamom Panna Cotta with Orange Gelee."

With a bit of wit, you too can play Heston's Feast at home without needing liquid nitrogen, a food lab or Heston Blumenthal.

Ginger and Cardamom Panna Cotta with Orange Gelee Recipe
(Inspired from Mandarin Saffron Panna Cotta by A Table For Two)
Serves 4

Ingredients

Orange Gelee:
150ml orange juice (you can replace it with mandarin, tangerine, mango or passionfruit)
½ tbsp gelatin powder
3 tbsp cold water
60 g caster sugar

Ginger and Cardamom Panna Cotta:
250 ml thickened (heavy) cream
350 ml full fat milk
110 g caster sugar
1 tsp grated ginger
1 cardamom pod, slightly bruised
1 tbsp gelatin powder
4 tbsp cold water

Method

1. Put orange juice and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat and bring it to boil or until all the sugar dissolved. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin powder into the cold water in a bowl and let it soften for 5 minutes.
3. Add the soften gelatin into the mandarin mixture and stir until all dissolved completely.
4. Pour over 4 cocktail glasses or ramekins and let it set in the fridge (around 30-45 minutes).

   

5. Add cream, milk, sugar, ginger and cardamom into a saucepan with medium heat and bring it up to just below boiling point until all sugar are dissolved.
6. Let it infused for 5-10 minutes and strain it through a fine sieve.
7. Add gelatin powder into the cold water and let it soften for 5 minutes.
8. Add the soften gelatin powder into the mixture and stir until all dissolved then let it cool
9. Pour the mixture slowly into the glass with the set gelee.

   

10. Let it set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.