White Miso Panna Cotta

[Indirect Heat]

I'm thinking of making a miso-flavoured panna cotta for dinner tomorrow night, but I'm not finding anything online to guide my flavours. Any suggestions? Just add white miso to taste to a panna cotta base? Will that require something else to balance the flavour? And I'm thinking of serving a raspberry compote with it. That should balance well, right?

Thoughts?

[nickrey]

White miso in panna cotta has a savory connotation to it rather than sweet. If you want to balance the two, I'd suggest something like red bean paste, which is used in Asian desserts, rather than raspberry.

Otherwise, why not go the whole savory route and find guidance in what is put into the Japanese custard called "Chawanmushi."

[Tri2Cook]

Pichet Ong does a white miso semifreddo (and serves it with a raspberry ice cream) so he thinks the combo works. I can see the nuttiness working nicely on the sweet side. I guess it depends on one's ability or willingness to accept traditionally savory tastes in a sweet setting (personally, I have a lot of fun playing with that line in the sand). I'd just work some into your favorite vanilla panna cotta recipe then pass it through a chinois before molding as a starting place. You're probably going to want to start relatively mild just so it's not overpowering and to keep the salt level in check, you can always add more. Once you decide whether or not it works for you, you can play with it in any way you want.

[Hiroyuki]

I found a photo of miso panna cotta here.

Recipe not provided.

I think miso purin (Japanese-style custard pudding) like this may give you some hints.

Ingredients for 6 to 8 servings:

60-70 g sugar

400 cc milk

2 L eggs

15 cc miso (type not specified)

As much kuro mitsu (black sugar syrup) as you want (instead of caramel sauce)

Small amount of vanilla essence

[Indirect Heat]

My inspiration is a miso "cheesecake" served at Providence in Los Angeles. It was really good. http://indirectheat.blogspot.com/2009/08/providence.html

I think I will try adding a bit of miso to a vanilla panna cotta, serve with sessame and a raspberry compote, but I think I may delay this project for an evening we're not having guests... Thanks for the suggestions.

[Sethro]

White or yellow miso paste have a very peanut-buttery flavor. Thats might help guide you to some possible flavor profiles.

[Indirect Heat]

I used David Lebovitz' panna cotta recipe: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2009/04/perfect_panna_cotta.html

I added in 4 tsp of white miso, and subbed out a bit of sugar for molasses. Though the amount of molasses I added was miniscule, it really dominated the flavour. I'd like something less hamhanded. Next time I'll try it either without the molasses, or with very little molasses. Perhaps drop it out entirely, and add a nut extract to balance the miso? Dunno. I served it with a blackberry compote, blackberries, port, lime juice, sugar and pomegranate juice.

Thoughts?

[Tri2Cook]

My thoughts would be, I would have done it with just the miso initially. No additional flavors outside of the necessary panna cotta elements. It would be much easier for me to decide how/if I wanted to tweak it once I knew what I was tweaking. I think a nut flavor in the panna cotta would take away from the point of trying to showcase white miso in this way since the miso has it's own nuttiness. Was there a thought process behind the molasses or did it just seem like a good idea at the time? I'm asking because that does seem like a powerful flavor to throw up against white miso. Since this is a multi-component dessert with the panna cotta not having to stand alone, I think I would just showcase the miso in the panna cotta and provide any balances and contrasts with the other components. That's just my thought process though, doesn't mean it's the best approach for everybody.

[Indirect Heat]

Reasoning? Fear, mostly. I hoped the molasses would help mellow anything in the miso that was objectionable in the dessert. Second time out, I think I'll be more bold and do miso by itself. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks!