Gelatin

  Vanilla panna cotta with seasonal fruit Total time: 30 minutes, plus overnight chilling time Servings: 8 4 cups (1 quart) whole milk, divided 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin 1/2 vanilla pod, split lengthwise 5 tablespoons sugar Pinch of salt 1 to 2 pounds of your favorite seasonal fruit, chopped 1. In a medium saucepan, combine 3 cups of the milk and the gelatin. Set the mixture aside for 10 minutes.

"This recipe was a specialty of my grandmother, Genny Lynn Babcock," Laura Korth writes. "It was a holiday tradition at our house, and still occupies a place of honor on my own holiday table. Grandma always said, 'If you eat this with your meal, you can eat more!' Rather a mixed blessing but very enjoyable."

Re "Ansel Adams, in Sharper Focus" (by Judith Coburn, Aug. 12): The article seems to be urging art lovers to view the centennial of Adams' craft because of his choice of landscapes, his decisions on composition, and the ability to capture a scene at the optimum time of day. If Coburn hadn't dropped the word "photography" in occasionally, you might think Adams worked in oils or watercolors. Photographers, working in black-and-white, know that anyone can travel to Yosemite and take the identical pictures he did. What makes him great, and is never mentioned in Coburn's and curator John Szarkowski's praise, is his mastery of the silver gelatin medium, his total control of the tonal scale and tonal separation.

Recipes are lists of ingredients; technique is what turns good recipes into great dishes. And in the course of all of that panna cotta testing, I found a couple of little tricks that are really important, because there is little more disappointing than thinking you've perfected a recipe only to have it flop. On two occasions, panna cotta recipes that had previously worked failed. I unmolded the ramekins to find that somehow the mixture had separated into a thin layer of clear gel at the bottom and a stiff custard on top. It's not an uncommon problem.

DEAR SOS: Recently a group of friends and I had lunch at Cafe Mambo in Los Angeles. I have never been a gumbo lover, but their Mambo Gumbo was fabulous. We all agreed it was the best we'd ever tasted. Can you come to my rescue with a recipe? --KAREN DEAR KAREN: Mambo Gumbo hit the spot among the tasters in The Times' Test Kitchen too. The gumbo is a thick stew full of extraordinary flavor from chicken that is marinated in Caribbean spices.