Parmesan Foam, Parmesan Risotto, Parmesan Spinach Noodles

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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

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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.

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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.

Cheesecake with Berry Agar Noodles

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A fun Christmas dessert! I originally wanted to make the cakes into little parcels but ran into difficulty when trying to tie the fruit strings/noodles around the parcel. The string kept breaking:161214-cheesecake-with-berry-noodles-3572

I have since succeeded somewhat better (will post in a later recipe) but it’s quite tricky to get the balance right between holding together in one long string and being firm to being bendable enough… Good luck if you attempt the parcels, if not, then there are so many other options (like the one I’m presenting here). For more help in how to create the noodles, please click here.

For this dessert you will create:
Ginger crumbs
Cheesecake
Lingonberry (or cranberry) noodles

Base – Ginger Crumbs:
75 g butter, melted
1,5 tsp ground ginger
1,5 tsp ground cinnamon
0,5 tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground cardamom
75 ml sugar
75 ml maple syrup
400 ml gluten free flour (rice flour)
Dash of salt
¼ tsp baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

1. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl then add the liquids.
2. Press into the bottom of a springform pan
3. Bake 12-15 min in a 160 C oven
4. Let cool a bit

Cheesecake:
Filling:
350 g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 tsp vanilla (½ scraped out vanilla bean)
2 eggs
Dash of salt

1. Mix well
2. Pour into the cooled crust
3. Bake 35 min, 160 C oven – you only want it to set, not brown
4. Cool

Topping:
400 ml sour crème
1 tbsp sugar
¼ vanilla bean, scraped out seeds

1. Mix sour crème, sugar, and vanilla bean (or vanilla extract, if you prefer)
2. Pour on top of the cooled filling
3. Bake 10 minutes

Lingonberry (or cranberry) noodles:
300 ml lingonberry/cranberry juice
(plus some berries for decoration)
5 g agar powder (2,5 tsp)
Ice and water 161214-fruit-spaghetti-tools-3652

1. Prepare a large bowl of ice cold water where you will chill the noodles.
2. Mix the juice and agar and bring to boil for 3 minutes while stirring.
3. Cool one minute, then fill syringe and then the tube.
4. When the tube is full, remove from syringe and chill in ice water for a few minutes.
5. Empty the tube by inserting empty syringe and slowly and carefully pushing the air through.

For more info on how to create the noodles please click here.

 

Tips for making agar spaghetti noodles

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Tips for making the noodles:

161214-making-fruit-spaghetti-3654Make the syrup according to the recipe. Add some syrup into the syringe, fit the tube (long tubes are the best) on the syringe and push to fill the tube.

 

 

Place the filled tube in ice cold water a few minutes to chill and set.161214-making-fruit-spaghetti-3663

Take an empty syringe, fill with air, attach the chilled tube and slowly push the noodle out of the tube.

This step takes a bit of practice… If the gel is too soft it won’t hold its shape and you need to reheat the liquid with a bit more agar. If it is too hard when it comes out, then you must dilute the solution with some more juice. Thanks to the agar, the solution may be reheated many times over.161214-making-fruit-spaghetti-3667

To empty the tube is the difficult part. It will be quite hard to get the gel to exit the tube at first, but then, with all the pressure, it may come out too quickly and thus break. If you have a lot of problems exiting the noodle from the tube, you can prepare your tube (before inserting any fruit/berry mix) by putting a few drops of oil in your syringe, insert syringe into the tube and let the oil flow through. Fill the syringe with air and push through the tube in order to remove excess oil.

Another possibility to improve texture is to refrigerate the spaghetti overnight, then reheat by immersing them in warm water. This will add some stability and elasticity to the noodles.

There are many fun dessert ideas with these noodles, why not decorate a yummy cake? Or just make a berry salad with a nice marinade and noodles?

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