Part cookbook, part cooking show and totally ingenious. That’s how I’d describe Panna opens in a new tab, the award-winning video cooking magazine for the iPhone and iPad. Every two months, a new issue highlights the season’s best with recipes and cooking instruction from their master chefs.
Panna’s 6th issue, Tomato Bounty, is out now and it celebrates the tomato with a Simple Tomato Tart from Canal House (you can get the recipe for free when you download the free portion of the app opens in a new tab). Chef Chad Sarno shows you how bring out every ounce of sweetness by grilling stone fruit, and gain kitchen confidence as Rick Bayless guides you in selecting seasonal herbs to make his Heirloom Tomato Salsa your way.
It’s this confidence that Panna founder, David Ellner, hopes to give subscribers. Here’s what he says about his app:
Cooking is more than just assembling delicious ingredients. It takes planning, creativity, technique and love. Panna supports you so you can create your best meals.
“Here’s a personal example of the benefits of using Panna. This past Friday I wanted to make Rick Bayless’ Potato Chorizo Tacos for my wife, but I didn’t have all of the ingredients. Instead, I thought about the concepts and techniques I learned from the master chefs in the app, and I created a very good variation of my own. Panna gives you the fundamentals and confidence you need to just cook.
A lot of that confidence comes from watching the videos of the chefs. There are certain cooking techniques that you need to see to understand. For example, our Panna culinary chef and I cooked one of Michael Tusk’s homemade pasta recipes before our recent video shoot. It was good, but didn’t compare to what Chef Tusk made live on set because we missed of all the nuances and techniques you can’t get from the written recipe. That’s what we hope to capture and share with our subscribers.
And we hope with Panna you’ll feel the passion and inspiration behind the recipes and take your cooking to another level, resulting in incomparably delicious meals. Every issue of Panna comes with a free recipe. I invite you to try it out and see for yourself.”
The app is free to download opens in a new tab and you’ll get a free recipe with every new issue, then you can purchase each bi-monthly full issue for $4.99, or $14.99 to subscribe to a year’s worth - six issues. Admittedly that’s a bit more than your average 99-cent app. But that’s because you get so much more from it than your average app.You’ll get regular columns like A Taste of Health from Whole Foods Market®’s friend, Chef Chad Sarno. Chef Chad demystifies the how-to’s of healthier cooking and debunks the myth that food that’s good for you doesn’t taste good.
Here’s a small taste of what you’ll get from Chef Chad in the latest issue:
For a limited time, from now until August 16th, Panna has unlocked the full 15+ minutes of Chef Chad’s technique video from Issue 6: Lettuce Wraps with Grilled Apricots and Thai Herbs. Get the full recipe below and download the app opens in a new tab (before August 16th!) to watch the full video in the app.
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Lettuce Wraps with Grilled Apricots and Thai Herbs
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons (48g) honey or liquid sweetener of choice
3 tablespoon (45mL) white balsamic vinegar
6 apricots, slightly ripe, but not soft
1/2 cup (80g) canned water chestnuts
1/2 small bunch of mint, leaves removed from the stems
1/2 small bunch basil, leaves removed from the stems
1/4 bunch of cilantro
1/2 teaspoon (3g) minced Thai red chile, plus extra for garnish
Juice of 1/2 lime, plus extra lime wedges for garnish
Sea salt
1 medium head butter or Boston lettuce
1/4 cup (56g) smooth almond butter
1 1/2 teaspoons (7mL) reduced-sodium tamari
2 tablespoons (30g) tamarind paste
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 pitted dates
2 green onions, for garnish (optional)
1/4 cup (35g) chopped dry roasted peanuts or almonds, for garnish (optional)
In a small mixing bowl, combine the honey, white balsamic vinegar and about 2 tablespoons of warm water.
Over medium-high heat, heat a heavy-duty (preferably cast iron) grill pan.
Slice the apricots in half, remove and discard the pits. Dip the apricot halves in the honey-vinegar glaze, and place cut side down on the hot grill pan. Brush the outside of the apricots with a little of the extra glaze.
While the apricots cook, continue to prepare the other ingredients.
Coarsely chop the water chestnuts, and add them to a medium mixing bowl.
Check the apricots—remove from the pan when they begin to soften and caramelize, after about 4 to 6 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator while you finish chopping the other ingredients.
Slice the mint, basil and cilantro. Add to the mixing bowl along with the Thai chile.
Remove the apricots from the refrigerator and coarsely chop. Add to the mixing bowl.
Add lime juice to the bowl. Season with a pinch of sea salt and mix gently to combine.
Remove the tougher outer leaves from the head of lettuce, and set aside at least 4 to 6 of the more tender inner leaves. Fill each lettuce cup with a generous 1/4 cup of the apricot mixture.
To make the almond-tamarind sauce — in a blender, combine the almond butter, tamari, tamarind paste, ginger, garlic, dates, and a few tablespoons of water. Drizzle over the lettuce cups or serve as a dressing on the side. Sprinkle with green onions and peanuts and serve with lime wedges.
