Lime Panna Cotta w/ Poached Hibiscus

Last year I ate the most perfect lime sorbet with plum and poached hibiscus. I couldn’t fault it and having never eaten hibiscus flowers before (I’ve only cooked with it as a spice, like you would a cinnamon stick) I was struck by how tender and soft it could be. Of course, this makes perfect sense when you consider a hibiscus is a plant and dehydrated for cooking, but when rehydrated it’s a soft plump petal of a flower. Anyway, it blew me away and I thought I’d love to try and create something similar. For this recipe I used the Panna Cotta I used a version that Kitty Coles created for her column in Gloss, with a few tweaks.*

Making this recipe reminded of my daughter’s potion making kit - heating, bubbling, stirring each element and then it coming together to make this rather surprising pudding at the end. Lots of little steps, but a good recipe to make a day or two ahead of serving.

I’ve used hibiscus here to top the lime panna cotta, but you could substitute for deliciously ripe mango or perhaps some blackberries or plums if you’re making it later in the year.

*Note: if you haven’t already, you must check out Kitty and her brilliant column over on The Gloss.

Serves 4

500 ml double cream
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
75ml whole milk
2 tsp powdered gelatine
150g Greek-style yoghurt
50g icing sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice

50g hibiscus flowers
120g sugar
1L water

1 tsp Tajin spice mix

Add double cream and lime zest into a pot and heat over a medium heat until it’s hot to touch.

Heat your milk until hot, but don’t let it boil. Remove from the heat and add then gelatine powder, stirring continuously as you add it to ensure it dissolves into the milk rather than making jelly on the bottom of the pot.

Add the lime and cream mixture to the milk and allow to cool

Mix the icing sugar, greek yoghurt and lime juice together. Then stir into the cool lime cream and pour into moulds.

Boil the hibiscus flowers, sugar and water together for 20minutes until the flowers become soft and plump and the water reduces to a syrup. How long this takes depends on how dry your flowers are. So make sure to try them as you go and you want them to be really soft and juicy by the end.

Remove your moulds from the fridge 20 mins before serving. If they don’t come out straight away you can dip the moulds into a little hot water for a second and then turn it out onto the plate. Top with poached hibiscus and a sprinkle of the Tajin mix.