Chai panna cotta - Indian recipes

Chai panna cotta with coconut sorbet, mango shrikhand and strawberry somosas

Ingredients

For the chai panna cotta

• 600ml/20fl oz single cream

• 150ml/5fl oz milk

• 150g/5oz caster sugar

• 2 cassia leaves

• 15g/½oz cassia bark

• 10g/⅓oz cracked green cardamom pods

• 13 English breakfast tea bags

• 2 gelatine leaves, soaked in a bowl of water

For the pistachio tuille

• 125g/4½oz icing sugar

• 125g/4½oz plain flour

• 3 free-range egg whites

• 80g/3oz soft unsalted butter

• 5 tbsp ground pistachios

For the coconut and lime sorbet

• 2kg/4lb 8oz coconut purée

• 300g/10½oz caster sugar, plus more if necessary

• 1 lime, juice only

For the mint sherbet

• 10 mint leaves

• 6 tbsp sugar

• 1-2 tbsp citric acid

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the strawberry samosa

• 2 punnets strawberries, hulled

• 2 tbsp caster sugar

• 24 filo pastry sheets, each cut to 6cm x 25cm /2½in x 10in

• 50g/2oz melted butter

• icing sugar, for sprinkling

• 150ml/5fl oz ghee, for frying

For the mango shrikhand

• 600ml/20fl oz natural yoghurt, plus extra if needed

• 100ml/3½fl oz double cream

• ½ tbsp icing sugar

• generous pinch ground green cardamom

For the mango coulis

• 1 ripe mango

• 50ml/2fl oz orange juice

• 1 tbsp sugar

• squeeze lemon juice

Preparation method

1. For the chai panna cotta, boil the cream, milk, sugar and spices for four minutes in a large pan. Add the tea bags and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly. Strain the milk into a mixing bowl. Squeeze the soaked gelatine leaves and whisk them into the milk, ensuring that the gelatine is fully dissolved. Pour the mixture into 5cm/2in diameter moulds and leave to set in the fridge for three hours.

2. For the pistachio tuille, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

3. Make a stencil by cutting the desired shape out of an ice cream tub lid with kitchen scissors, preferably leaving a tear-drop shaped stencil, but you can make any shape you like.

4. Mix all the pistachio tuille ingredients together in a bowl, except the pistachios.

5. Place your stencil onto a silicon mat and spread the paste over the top with a spatula. Repeat until you have as many tuilles as desired. Sprinkle the shapes with the ground pistachios and place into the oven for five minutes, or until golden-brown.

6. For the coconut and lime sorbet, put the coconut purée, sugar and lime juice into a food processor and blend until very smooth. Taste and adjust the sweetness by adding more sugar if required.

7. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process for about 15-20 minutes (or longer depending on the machine) until churned. Place into the freezer until ready to use.

8. For the mint sherbet, blend together the sherbet ingredients in a food processor and set aside.

9. For the strawberry samosa, cut the strawberries into slices, place into colander set over a plate and sprinkle them with the sugar. Set aside in the fridge for four hours.

10. Spread out a sheet of filo pastry, brush with the melted butter and sprinkle with icing sugar, place another sheet on top and also brush with butter and dust with icing sugar.

11. Place a small amount of the strawberries on one end of the strip, fold one corner of the pastry over the mixture so that it forms a triangle, then fold the remaining pastry over the top to continue the triangle pattern. Repeat until all of the pastry has been folded and you have a triangle-shaped samosa.

12. Heat the ghee in a frying pan and shallow fry the samosas until golden-brown and crisp.

13. For the mango shrikhand, pour the yoghurt into a cheesecloth and leave it to hang from your kitchen tap over the sink to allow the excess whey to drip from it. Leave for 2-3 hours - the longer the yoghurt is left, the thicker it will be. Turn it out into a clean container and keep in the refrigerator.

14. Whisk the cream in a bowl until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl. Mix the cream, five tablespoons of the hung yoghurt, the icing sugar and cardamom together - if the mixture is too stiff, stir in a little more yoghurt.

15. For the mango coulis, peel and stone the mango and then blend it in a food processor with the orange juice, sugar and lemon juice and then pass through a fine sieve. Layer the yoghurt mixture and mango coulis in small glasses.

16. Serve the samosas with the mint sherbet on the side for dipping along with the chai panna cotta, pistachio tuille and shrikhand on a platter and allow guests to pick and choose what they like.