We obviously love food. And there is more food content than there are Thursday Treats. So every now and then we will tantalize your tastebuds on a…Tasty Tuesday.
A cooking workshop is a really fun activity, and even better with fellow foodies. Last week we were invited by Parrano to do a cooking workshop with their cheese as a main ingredient.
The workshop was meant to introduce Parrano’s latest product: a 320 g wedge piece. Although the name of the cheese sounds Italian, it is a 100% Dutch (Gouda) cheese and named after the Italian village where the manufacturer took the inspiration for the cheese.
Its taste is mild and nutty, combining the more pronounced flavour of aged Parmesan with a supple texture.
Interesting detail: Parrano is very popular in the US and one of the Whole Foods bestsellers.
Since we only had a few hours to cook AND eat (luckily we had some professional help from Eat2Gather), we just made the main course of Risotto Amarone with green asparagus & basil and skin-fried dorade (sea bream) filets. We were quite happy with our end result and hereby share the recipe:
Ingredients for Risotto Amarone:
3dl of chicken stock
Sea salt and grinded black pepper
125 g of unsalted butter
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
300 g of risotto rice
6 dl of Amarone wine (or other full flavored red wine)
6 tbs of chopped fresh basil
6 green asparagus
juice and zest of 2 lemons
100 g of grated Parrano cheese
5 tbs of mascarpone
How to prepare:
Heat the chicken stock and check if it’s right on taste.
Put a large pan of water to boil.
Cut the ends of the asparagus (a nice trick is to break them at the ends as they break exactly where they should. Note: this only counts for green asparagus) and parboil them for 4 minutes until they’re al dente
Directly cool them in a bowl of ice water
Melt half of the butter in a large pan
Add the onion and stir until its soft
Add the garlic and stir
Add the rice and stir until all of it is covered with the butter, onion, garlic mixture
Increase the heat of the stove and add half of the wine until it reduces to a syrup
Slowly add dashes of chicken stock, lower the heat and constantly stir until the rice absorbed the stock before adding the next dash
Chop the asparagus in 1cm pieces
Once the rice is ‘al dente’ (after approx 20 mins), add the rest of the wine, the juice and zest of lemons, 3/4 of the asparagus, the basil, the mascarpone and 50 g of Parrano cheese
Make sure the risotto has a creamy texture
Serve with the remaining asparagus, basil leaves and shreds of Parrano cheese
Skin Fried Dorade Filets
For 4: 4 filets of dorade of 150 g each with skin
Remove the remaining fish bones with a special tweezer (it’s easiest to go from the top middle of the filet and work your way down)
Make a few carves in the skin and sprinkle the filets with sea salt, pepper and olive oil
A tip from the pro: place a piece of baking paper in the pan and bake the filets (skin side) until you see the edges are golden brown – 2-3 minutes- pull them out and finish baking them (skin up) a few minutes in a pre-heated oven for a crispy skin
Our dinner was completed with a delish cheesecake, limoncello and coffee as dessert.
Buon Apetito!
