Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Blood Orange Gelée
For 13 months, I’ve been participating in the Burwell General Store Vintage Recipe Swap, yet this month is simply bursting with firsts.
I’ll start with the obvious: it’s my first time posting a vintage recipe remake on a Wednesday. For those of you who are familiar with the swap, you might be used to them coming on Sundays. Well, our group of 30 or so, has split into two groups of 15 with half of us posting on the first Sunday and half of us posting on the third Wednesday.
The second first (that sounds funny) is this. Of all the vintage recipes Christianna has given us, this is the first that has ever actually repulsed me. From hot slaw to jelly cake, grandma’s chicken pie and drop biscuits to company time lemon cake, I have always found something to love in the recipe we’ve started with. This Orange Snowflake Salad may be my bête noir, the thought of it is completely horrifying. he recipe contains two packets of orange jello, pineapple juice, pineapple, cottage cheese, onion, cottage cheese, and celery- oh and just to be elegant, one should serve it on a lettuce leaf- with mayonnaise.
With morbid fascination, I some researched Orange Snowflake Salad. While I was unable to find it’s exact match, I found an abundance of Jello-salad related delights. My favorite little chestnut gleaned from said research? By the 1950’s Jello salads were so wildly popular that Jello launched a whole line of flavors just for that purpose including, mixed vegetable, celery, and seasoned tomato. Just imagine, a seasoned tomato Jello tart!
Since the Internet wasn’t going to give me the information I needed, I started asking around. Joshua’s grandmother was pretty WASPy so I asked him if he’d eaten this salad- he said he’d had something similar, but the onion and cottage cheese were throwing him off. I asked my favorite Southern Belle, Miss Katie Jackson. She’d had Jello Salads served on lettuce leaves before, although again, the cottage cheese and onions were a bit of a mystery.
I was beginning to feel this was a hoax of a salad, then I remembered the Mormons! Jello has traditionally been a big part of Mormon culture, particularly in Utah, so I turned to my friend Sue Anne, not only is she a kick ass social media guru, Sue Anne crochets awesome stuff, knows a thing or two about genealogy, and has schooled me on Mormon foods like funeral potatoes and frog eye salad. I thought she might know about Orange Snowflake Salad. Though she wasn’t sure if she’d had the exact recipe, she was sure, she’d had something pretty darned similar. Good enough for me.
So now… what to make?
I thought of making something savory. I actually like aspic. When I was a kid, I loved trying the different aspics my French family made. They were so beautiful to look at, and I loved the cold wiggly texture. My grandmother made one once in a fish mold with smoked salmon, she fashioned scales from thinly sliced cucumbers and it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I don’t think I’m that deft.
The thing that kept coming to mind is that I’ve still never made panna cotta. I love it as much as any girl possibly can, and it’s simple as can me, and yet… no panna cotta.
So, I give you, Mandarin Orange and Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Blood Orange Gelee, no onions, no lettuce leaves, no celery, but I think it tastes pretty good without them. For the record, while the blood orange gelee looks stunning, tastes bright and juicy, and gives and an extra super fancy touch, I really love the panna cotta without it, it’s gently aromatic vanilla and mandarin orange flavors are simply delightful. I might try a nod to the original recipe and serve with some orange blossom-scented mascarpone, next time (get it, cheese?).
INGREDIENTS MANDARIN AND VANILLA BEAN PANNA COTTA
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 1 ½ cups cream
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon mandarin zest
- 1 vanilla bean
- 3 teaspoons plain unflavored gelatin
- ¼ cup mandarin juice
INSTRUCTIONS MANDARIN AND VANILLA BEAN PANNA COTTA
- In a bowl, sprinkle gelatin over mandarin juice and 4 oz of cream, do not stir. Allow gelatin to soften for about 3-5 minutes.
- Warm milk, cream, sugar, mandarin zest, scraped vanilla bean, and vanilla pod in a saucepan over medium low heat. Stirring constantly until sugar is completely dissolved. Do not allow to boil. Once sugar is dissolved, remove from heat.
- Add gelatin mixture to the saucepan, and stir to combine. Pour into clear glasses or well-greased ramekins. Note, if using ramekins you will want to invert them onto a plate if you’re using the blood orange gelee.
- Allow to set for at least three hours and up to overnight.
INGREDIENTS BLOOD ORANGE GELEE
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- ½ teaspoon plain unflavored gelatin
- ½ cup blood orange juice
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons sugar
INSTRUCTIONS BLOOD ORANGE GELEE
- Once panna cottas are set, make blood orange gelee.
- In a bowl, sprinkle gelatin over lemon juice and water, do not stir
- Warm blood orange juice, vanilla, and sugar in a saucepan over medium low heat until completely combined, do not boil. Remove from heat, add gelatin mixture, allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before gently spooning over your panna cotta-
- Allow to set for at least two hours and up to overnight.
You went into much greater detail but absolutely mirrored my thoughts when first seeing the original recipe…and then you make this lovely and simple take on it. Was a good time for blood oranges to come into play; I'm going to miss them!
I'll miss them too. In the market they are already beginning to get a little soft. Their trademark bittersweetness is turning sweeter by the week. I've recently done a last hurrah with them, kumquats, and some mandarins. Look for it next week on my site.
That is just a bonkers recipe but I absolutely love your interpretation of it, panna cotta is one of my favourite things in the world!
Thank you Kathryn. My grandmother was French and Italian but raised in the UK, so I feel like Panna Cotta is the dessert that pulls together these three cultures like no other. Of course, it is Italian, but with the English love of creams and puddings and the French love of custards and heavy cream, I am destined to adore panna cotta.
Gorgeous panna cotta with lovely blood oranges. I was not into the Jell-O salad at all and really enjoy the route you took with it. Delightful!
Thanks Lora. I am deathly frightened of the Orange Jello + Cottage Cheese + Onion + Mayonnaise + Pinneapple, but secretly, I want to try a jello mold. Maybe I'll do one from scratch with real food ingredients some day— just not that flavor profile. GROSS.
How beautiful! I love panna cotta as well, and I've been dying to try my hand at a vegetarian version. I'm so glad that we all had the same reaction to the original recipe– I like to think I'm not alone in my fear of vegetables in Jello. But this, this is a completely elegant and BEAUTIFUL interpretation of the recipe!
Have you tried Genutine? It's supposed to be pretty awesome as opposed to messing with the different strengths of agar agar. It might be great fun.
Thank you for the lovely compliments. I always enjoy your blog as well.
X
S
I haven't tried (or even heard of, honestly) Genutine! Where do you buy it– do you think it would be available at a natural foods market like Whole Foods? I'm intrigued, especially because I've been burned by agar's fickleness before. I'm going to look into it!
This is lovely !! Blood oranges do add that tart sweet balance to the pana cotta.
Thank you Tunde. I love Blood Oranges and I'll be sad to see them out of season in the coming weeks.
This looks delicious! And I agree the original recipe looks repulsive!
I am not adverse to the idea of a jello mold, exactly, if I did it will all natural flavors, but that combination was just horrid.
Oh my goodness. This is more noteriety for Jello than the decade of the 1960's! It's funny I have my family recipes and some I've collected and there is this weird hop from 'real' food over the 60's-70's into the world of Jello, 3 ingredient canned soup casseroles, Space Food sticks and Shake-a-Puddin. Must have been the advent of the space program encouraging 'high tech' food. So glad you brought it back to earth with your gorgeous dessert! Miss you! Toni
Ha. Toni, Are any of them awesome like this though, is the question? Do any of them include celery or seasoned tomato jello? I think I might like those better. I miss you too- wishing we were still in the same swap- it's not the same without you, but I'm looking forward to see what fantastic things you all produce for the next one. Lots of love, sabrina
beautiful photos! I am in LOVE with anything with vanilla bean!
Thank you so much, and I just adore the name of your site. Have I mentioned that before?
My best friend loves panna cotta and I think it's such an easy, elegant dessert! I'll have to try this one out for sure!
I laughed so hard when I read that you and I had the same response to this miserable salad challenge! I too hit the web to try and find some form of edible jell-o salad storey, to keep me going.
I love that you used the old vintage jell-o ads in your post!
Beautiful recipe!
I so miss you in my swap! This recipe is perfect and wonderful in every way. And so cute in the little cups! Also, I think it's funny that you actually LIKE aspic! You're a braver lady than I…
Such a great idea to make a gelee ON panna cotta! I see we were thinking alike with the unflavored, un-artificially colored gelatin 🙂 And I love the Jell-O research you did with the old ads to go along…the tri-layered salad is interesting!
Thanks so much. I had fun with this one. It was really a blast!
That looks great. I literally laughed out loud when I read the part about Mormon food. I'm from Northern Utah and I am a Momon and I know how good and bad our regional food can be at the same time. I actually think a lot of the popular recipes here stem from frugality and simplicity…and a love of dairy product (hey if we aren't supposed to drink, smoke, or do drugs we've got to be allowed SOME vices). I can't believe you left out green jello with shredded carrots in it. Looks and sounds gross but is actually decent. If you ever need more aspic, jello, or vintage recipes I have several cookbooks from the 20's and 30's that belonged to my grandmother and a few from the 40s and 50s that belonged to my father in his bachelor days. They crack me up but a lot of the recipes aren't half bad once you get past their love of aspic, pimento cheese, white bread, and mayo.
Ha thanks Suzzzz. I\’m so glad you enjoyed. I\’ve actually read the same response about Mormons love of sweets (re no other vices) and it totally makes sense. Some of my Mormon friends are the best bakers I know, so I really appreciate that vice. I\’d love to hear more about those vintage cookbooks. You should post some pics and do a post.