Cornish clotted cream panna cotta with poached fruits

Method

1. Heat the milk in a pan over a low-medium heat. Add the vanilla seeds and pod to the milk. Add the sugar and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar and disperse the vanilla seeds.
2. Gently beat the Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream until smooth, incorporating the crust, then add to the milk, stirring till smooth. Remove the pan from the heat.
3. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water till soft (approximately 30 seconds). Squeeze the excess water from the soaked gelatine, add to the milk mixture to dissolve, then allow the mixture to cool.
4. Divide the mixture into dariole moulds and leave to set in the fridge for 4 hours, or overnight.
5. For the poached fruits, put the sugar, cinnamon and star anise in the pan with 1 litre of water and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
6. Add the halved plums. The cooking time depends on how ripe the plums are. If they’re very ripe simply put them in the hot syrup and remove from the heat to infuse. If the plums are hard and unripe, pop them into the syrup and simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes until tender. Leave to cool in the syrup.
7. Enjoy!

Chef’s tip: this syrup can be modified to suit the season or the fruit used e.g. replace the cinnamon and star anise with a sprig of rosemary and a split vanilla pod for peaches or apricots.