Dragon Fruit Panna Cotta

Fall is here. But if you think that means all the yummy fruit is gone until next spring I have a surprise for you: there’s still plenty of fruit out there to enjoy. And it’s not just apples, either. There’s passion fruit, prickly pears, pomegranates, dragon fruit, not to mention all that citrus.

How do I know about all these cool fruits? Melissa’s Produce was nice enough to send me a box of their “freaky fruits” for Halloween. And since I’ve gotten the box, I’ve been using them for juicing, salsas and even just snacking on. While they’ve all been wonderful, it was the dragon fruits that peaked my curiosity.

I’ve been seeing them at the farmers market for awhile now. They come in purple or white and I’ve been curious about what to do with them and how they taste. So you can imagine my thrilled excitement when two showed up in my freaky fruits care package. While they may look scary on the outside, I was happy to discover that beneath the hot pink and neon green skin was a beautiful soft snow white flesh that had a subtle sweet & sour flavor. I knew it would be a great addition to a fruit salad or make a scrumptious juice, but I really wanted to make a dessert. Something sweet and rich and the last possible place you’d expect to find a dragon fruit – panna cotta.

The rich, creamy dessert while usually made with vanilla, works just as well when paired with a tart fruit flavor, like passion fruit. But the beauty of the dragon fruit is that it’s subtle enough to add that great fruity flavor without overpowering the sweet vanilla. And the white color with the black specs looks exactly like the flesh of the dragon fruit. I actually thought it’d be great to serve the panna cotta inside the shell of the dragon fruit. Unfortunately the skin isn’t healthy to ingest, so I had to settle for a ramekin.  But it was still delicious and a dessert I’ll definitely be making again.

Dragon Fruit Panna Cotta

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
• 1/3 cup cold water
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup dragon fruit puree

Directions:

1. Pour the cream into a medium saucepan. Split the vanilla bean length-wise and scoop out the seeds with a knife. Add the seeds, pod and sugar to the cream and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally.
2. While the cream simmers, sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let stand until the gelatin softens.  Stir the gelatin mixture into the hot cream mixture until fully dissolved. Remove the vanilla bean.  Add the milk and dragon fruit puree and stir until combined.
3. Fill 6 ramekins with the custard base and chill for at least 4 hours and up to overnight. Dip each ramekin about 1/2 way into warm water. Run a knife around the edge of the ramekin, invert onto a plate and serve.