UCOOK and Parmalat have teamed up to bring you four fab recipes using flavoured butters, available until July 18. I was offered a choice of one to try out, and I chose tomato and chorizo risotto with paprika butter (pictured above).
It’s a thing of mine that I almost always fiddle with a recipe; my mom says I know enough about cooking to be able to do this without any severely detrimental effect on the outcome. Thank you, Mother, I appreciate your faith in me. She’s mostly right though. This time I looked at it and thought: risotto? Without wine? I can’t do that. So I added wine, and garlic, but otherwise followed the recipe.
The result didn’t look exactly like the professional photo on the recipe card, but it was pretty damn close and still delicious. I didn’t think I could post a pic of my effort but once I’d dished it up, I reckon it’s not too shabby after all. I’ll do that on Instagram next week, or maybe even Threads. At the time of writing the new Meta app had about 10 million subscribers in seven hours, me being one of them – the first time I’ve been on such a thing at inception. It’s all a bit Wild West there at the moment but it could be fun. Follow me if you like (I’d like it) @biancaleecoleman because it’s inextricably linked to Instagram.
Anyway. The tomato risotto breaks a lot of rules that Italians might disapprove of: Feta! What the heck? It uses passata seasoned with stock powder and herb mix from Nomu. The sliced chorizo is from Richard Bosman. And crème fraîche goes in at the end (again, what?) along with the smoked paprika butter (which has garlic, salt, lemon juice, smoke powder, parsley dried, cayenne pepper, and black pepper mixed in too) to taste. Being sensitive to burny things, I added it bit by bit until it got to “oh what the heck, put it all in”. It gave the dish a beautiful and subtle layer of warmth beneath the surface. I definitely want to make this again, but will reduce the amount of liquid for a slightly more al dente finish.
The other three dishes currently on offer are sage burnt butter and venison with lemon and black pepper butter, roasted beetroot and broccoli; Brie and cranberry jam baguette with rosemary and thyme butter, and artichoke salad; and beef and maple butternut with cinnamon and honey butter, and roasted cabbage.
The 150g Parmalat flavoured butters retail for R46,99 at Checkers and PnP stores, and are great to have on hand to elevate your cooking. Click here for more info about the UCOOK meal kits.
