This is a delicious, elegant and (most importantly) simple dessert that I recently made for a dinner party.

Andy was making his signature egg drop Indian curry, so I searched high and low to find an Indian or Asian themed dessert that would work with the strong curry flavours.

When I saw this recipe for coconut and kaffir lime panna cotta in Rose Elliot’s gorgeous Veggie Chic I knew that I was onto a winner.

Coconut and kaffir lime panna cotta

Ingredients

400g of organic coconut milk
150ml of double cream
3 kaffir lime leaves
grated rind of one lime
2 tbsp of caster sugar
7g of vegetarian gelatine (I used agar-agar but Rose recommends Vege-gel)
lime slices and fresh kaffir lime leaves (optional) to decorate

Syrup

1 lemon grass stalk, crushed
juice and grated rind of 2 limes
6 tbsp of caster sugar

Method

Put the coconut milk and cream in to a saucepan with the lime leaves and lime rind. Bring to the boil, then cover, remove from the heat, and set aside until cold.

Remove the lime leaves. Stir in the sugar, then sprinkle the gelatine or agar-agar over the top. Stir constantly to prevent lumps. Heat gently, until the mixture just reaches boiling point, them remove from the heat.

Pour the mixture into 4 x 125ml ramekins (I used slightly bigger ones - not an awesome idea). Leave to set, but don’t refrigerate.

To make the syrup, put the lemon grass, lime juice and rind and the sugar into a saucepan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and set aside until required. Remove the lemon grass before serving.

Turn the panna cotta out on to individual serving plates and drizzle with a little syrup. Decorate with the slice of lime and kaffir lime leaves.

How I actually did it

I largely stuck to Rose’s recipe for this dish. However, rather than decorate the panna cotta with lime and kaffir lime leaves, I used pomegranate seeds and juice. Another lovely option is fresh fig slices.

I also kept the panna cotta in the ramekins rather than turn them out on the plate. Served this way the syrup turned out to be a bit much because it formed a reservoir on top of the pudding. If you do serve them in the ramekin I’d suggest holding back on the syrup.

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