Parmesan Parmesan Parmesan

Do you love parmesan? Then this recipe is for you!

Parmesan foam, parmesan risotto and parmesan/spinach noodles – yum!
Also, why not play with some agar liquid parmesan/spinach (or cranberry) shapes for the decorations?

Serves 4

Start by making the noodles. They are quite easy.

The Parmesan Noodles:
300 ml water
150 g frozen chopped spinach
300 ml water
400 ml parmesan cheese, finely grated
1,5 tsp agar agar

1. Bring the water and spinach to a boil. Using a handheld immersion blender, mix into a “spinach water”.
2. In a separate pan, bring the water and parmesan cheese to a boil. Take off heat and let sit for 10 minutes. The cheese will sink to the bottom and you can slowly pour the “parmesan-water” into the spinach water. Throw away the cheesy remains at the bottom of the pan.
3. Add the agar agar
4. Simmer a few minutes.
5. Pour onto a flat tray and refrigerate.
6. When you have a solid “pasta sheet” on your tray, cut the sheet into thin tagliatelle strips.

As always with agar agar, if you don’t have a solid anough outcome you can always reheat the mix on the stove and add some more agar agar.

You can also play with other shapes and liquids for decoration.

For the serving, if you want, you can heat the noodles slightly by placing them in a colander and pouring some warm (not hot) water over them.

The Parmesan Risotto:

1 leek, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
Butter
500 ml mushrooms of your choice, sliced
300 ml risotto rice
4-500 ml vegetable broth
200 ml white wine
200 ml grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Sautee the leek and garlic in butter over low heat in a thick bottom pan.
2. Add the mushrooms and fry until most of the water is gone.
3. Add the risotto rice and gently sauté while stirring. You don’t want to burn the kernels.
4. Warm the wine and broth mix.
5. Slowly add, a bit at the time, the warm liquid, to the risotto rice. As soon as the rice have gone dry you can add some more liquid. Keep simmering until most of the liquid is used up. Taste the rice to make sure that the kernels are a little bit “al dente”, not too mushy, but creamy.
6. Remove from heat and add the grated parmesan, stir until melted and incorporated into your risotto.
7. Add some pepper (but probably no salt) to taste.

The Parmesan Foam (I found this recipe at instructables.com):
300 ml water
400 ml parmesan cheese
2 g soy lecithin

1. In a saucepan, bring the parmesan and the water to a boil, use an immersion blender to make sure that it is well blended.
2. Let boil for a few minutes.
3. Take off heat and let the cheese solids sink to the bottom.
4. Carefully pour the parmesan water into a shallow container.
5. Tilt the container slightly as you whisk air into the mix with an immersion blender.
6. A thick foam will appear. Spoon it off into a separate bowl and continue to create some more foam.
7. The foam will only stay stable for about 20 minutes so it is best to make the foam as the last of your dinner preparation.