Location: My tiny kitchen
In addition to the crab cakes, these almond panna cotta take a good amount of time and effort to prepare. Like a regular panna cotta, these almond panna cotta are creamy cakes made with milk and almond puree. To create a very fine texture, the almond puree are first passed through a sieve and then squeezed out of cheesecloth. What I like most about this dessert is it could be eaten as cakes, or drunk as a traditional Chinese sweet almond soup.
This is for you J, who is the absolute lover of sweet almond soup and who gave me the key to making this dessert
Picking the right type of almond is one of the tricks in making this dish. I used the big, fat almonds imported from Turkey the first time I made this dish. The Turkish almonds were very good in quality but they didn’t give me good results. The dessert had a grainy texture and you can hardly smell the almond fragrance. After doing some research, I discovered that the Chinese Southern almonds are usually used. In particular, the Chinese Southern King Almonds give the best result.
Note: Do NOT use the Chinese Northern almonds for this recipe. The Chinese Northern almonds have a slight poison to them.
This recipe makes 4 cups of sweet almond soup, or 4 cups of almond panna cotta.
In a glass bowl, soak 2 cups of Chinese Southern almonds and 1/2 cup of rice in water. Soak the ingredients for at least 24 hours.

Once the almonds and rice are ready, pour out the water and rinse the almonds and rice under cold water. After rinsing, pour the almonds and rice into a quart pan. Fill the pan with 6 cups of water. Using a hand blender, puree the almonds and rice until they turn smooth.
You can also do this using a blender by pouring the almonds, rice and water into the blender and puree until smooth.

Bring the almond, rice and water mixture to a boil. The mixture overflows very easily once it comes to a boil. It takes about 9 minutes for me to bring the mixture to a boil using a gas stove over high heat. I usually stand next to the stove after 7 or 8 minutes. As soon as the mixture starts to boil, I immediately turn the heat down to low. Let the mixture simmer over low heat for 1/2 hour or until the mixture turns thick.
Once the mixture turns into the consistency of a thick sauce, turn off the heat.

Pour the mixture through a sieve, stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon will help the liquid to pass through the sieve.

This is how the liquid looks like. Let the liquid cool down to room temperature.

Once the liquid has completely cooled down, pour the liquid into 2 layers of cheese cloth. Squeeze the liquid out of the cheese cloth. Be careful not to let any almond or rice piece to drop into the liquid.

Pour the liquid back into a clean quart pan. Pour into the mixture:
- 1 and 1/3 cup of evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 tsp of almond extract
Bring the mixture to a boil. Turn off the heat as soon as the mixture boils.

This is the first version of the dessert – Chinese sweet almond soup. This soup is best drunk hot. It is smooth, creamy and full of almond flavour. I like my soup a little thicker and the rice did the trick of creating a slightly thick consistency.

Not satisfied with drinking just soup? Let’s make some panna cotta out of this soup! By now you should have 4 cups of almond soup. To turn the soup into solid, you will need 2 tbsp of gelatin powder. I’m using the Knox gelatin powder and it claims that 2 packets of Knox gelatin powder is equivalent to 2 tbsp of gelatin powder:

Stir the gelatin powder with a few tbsp of water. Stir the gelatin liquid into the almond soup while the soup is hot. Pour the soup into a container. Once the soup has cooled down to room temperature, refrigerate the soup in the fridge for a few hours or until it turns solid.

I just cannot resist the temptation of using my heart cookie cutter to make some heart shape panna cotta



I also couldn’t resist asking my family and friends to give me their preference between the soup and the panna cotta. Most people say the soup is creamy and rich, while the cakes are refreshing. Whether served as a soup or cakes, I just love this dessert.