Thursday 5 December 2013

Festive Brunch Menu Using Perfect Italiano Cheese

Christmas is just another three weeks down the road and I am sure most of you are busy with the Christmas menu planning. Here with some complimentary cheese that we received from Perfect Italiano, we decided to whip up some dishes from their “Food Fixes in 15 Seconds” festive menu which features tasty and simple dishes that you can learn in just 15 seconds.

Using the cheese we prepared a 5 Course Brunch Menu shown above with Cheesy Corn Chowder, Parmesan Toast, Cheese Baked Christmas Casserole, Sausage And Mushroom Baked Rice plus Parmesan Pancakes for dessert.


Recently Perfect Italiano has launched a new cheese flavour known as Perfect Bakes which is a full-flavoured Cheddar blend with a little Mozzarella for stretch and Parmesan for bite. And the combination of these three cheese blend well to give a superior flavour which is perfect for some Italian inspired bake dishes such as pasta, vegetables or lasagne which you can impress your loved ones and guests during this coming festive season


CHEESY CORN CHOWDER


To start the brunch we had Cheesy Corn Chowder which is a creamy and fragrant soup that tastes extra luscious with the added Parmesan Cheese. And with simple ingredients like fresh corn kernels, chicken broth and potato that act as nature thickener, this soup is indeed one of the simplest to prepare at home. On top of it, there is also a 15 seconds cooking demo at the end of the soup recipe which I extracted from Perfect Italiano website for your reference too

Adapted from Perfect Italiano FoodFixes recipe here with cooking demo video.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 25 minutes)

Ingredients:
  • 100g Perfect Italiano Parmesan Cheese
  • 350g Corn Bits
  • 50g Butter
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
  • 100g Onion, sliced
  • 100g Potatoes, thinly sliced
  • 500ml Chicken Stock
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
Method:
1. In a pot, melt butter, then sweat onions with garlic followed by corn bits.

2. Add chicken stock and potato and bring it to a boil.

3. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until all vegetables are cooked through and tender.

4. Add grated Perfect Italiano Parmesan Cheese, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

5. Blend mixture until smooth.

6. Pass it through a sieve and garnish with additional corn bits and Perfect Italiano Parmesan cheese. (I did not sieved the soup as we prefer to have some corn bits texture in it

FoodFixes In 15 Second video via Perfect Italiano Website:


Cheesy Corn Chowder
To accompany the Cheesy Corn Chowder, my boy requested some Parmesan Toast to go with it. To prepare these: toast a few slices of your choice of bread till slightly crisp then spread them with a thin layer of butter and top with some Perfect Italiano Parmesan Cheese. Put them back into the toaster oven for another 5 - 7 minutes till bread turned light brown, crisp and cheese melted. Alternatively you can also replace cheese with minced garlic to make garlic toast too.


CHEESE BAKED CHRISTMAS CASSEROLE


According to the recipe website, this Cheese Baked Christmas Casserole is consider as an "appetizer" but for veggie lovers like our family it is just as good as any other main course. The dish it is loaded with plenty of goodness from the colourful vegetables plus the new Perfect Bakes Cheese blends in well with the ingredients giving it a perfect cheesy crust top. And if you have some left over Christmas Roast like turkey, chicken, pork knuckles or etc you could also swapped it with the ham or add in as an extra ingredient to create your own new recipes.


Adapted from Perfect Italiano FoodFixes recipe here with cooking video.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 15 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
  • 200g Perfect Italiano Perfect Bakes
  • 50g Cauliflower
  • 100g Broccoli
  • 100g Pumpkin
  • 100g Smoked Turkey Ham
  • 200ml Alfredo / Bechamel Cream Sauce
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Pinch of Nutmeg Powder
Method:
1. Cut broccoli and cauliflower into small pieces, slice pumpkin and dice smoked turkey ham.

2. Blanch cauliflower, broccoli and pumpkin in boiling water (salted) for about 1min then strain.

3. In baking dish, combine vegetables with smoked turkey cubes and mix well with alfredo cream sauce.

4. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Sprinkle a pinch of nutmeg powder.

6. Top with Perfect Italiano Perfect Bakes cheese and bake in the oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes or until cheese melts to golden brown.

Cheese Baked Christmas Casserole
Lovely combination of colours makes this festive appetiser look great and the use of Perfect Bakes Cheese adds a luxury finishing taste to the dish too.


SAUSAGE AND MUSHROOM BAKED RICE


I am sure most of you loved cheesy baked rice especially those that are packed with ingredients like ham, chicken fillet, mushrooms and etc that covered with a thick layer of melted cheese. With the given recipe booklet that I found in the new Perfect Italiano Perfect Bakes Cheese, I decided to try their Sausage And Mushroom Baked Rice which can be easily prepared in 20 minutes.


Adapted from Perfect Italiano FoodFixes recipe here.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 20 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
  • 100g Perfect Italiano Perfect Bakes Cheese
  • 1 Tablespoon Butter
  • 1 Tablespoon Chopped Garlic
  • 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 100g Chicken Sausage, sliced
  • 50g Shitake Mushrooms, sliced
  • 200g Tomato Paste Sauce
  • 100ml Cream
  • 200g Precooked Rice
  • Salt and pepper
Method:-
1. Saute garlic, mushroom and sausage with butter.

2. Add cream and tomato sauce into the sausage mixture.

3. Place Rice in a baking dish, top with the sauce.

4. Generously top rice with Perfect Italiano Perfect Bakes Cheese.

5. Baked at 180°C oven for 5 minutes or until golden brown.

Sausage And Mushroom Baked Rice
Prior this I didn’t know restaurant style baked rice can be so easily prepared at home with just a few key ingredients plus generous amount of the new Perfect Bakes Cheese. It's so simple and you can even try with different combination by using salmon, tuna, seafood melody, chicken and etc to create your own desire baked rice anytime of the day.


PARMESAN PANCAKE WITH BERRIES


For dessert I made some cheesy pancakes using ready pancake mix together with handful of Perfect Italiano Parmesan Cheese to enhance the flavour; then topped it with some fresh berries and maple syrup before serving. But if you have time, you can always prepare your own pancake batter from scratch and chill it in the fridge up to a day before cooking.


Adapted from Perfect Italiano FoodFixes recipe here with cooking demo video.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
Method:
1. Mix pancake batter with Perfect Italiano Parmesan Cheese.

2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat.

3. Pour the batter onto the griddle. Then brown on both sides.

4. Stack up the pancakes.

5. Drizzle with maple syrup and serve with strawberries and blueberries.

6. Lastly, sprinkle the stack with more grated Perfect Italiano Parmesan cheese!

Parmesan Pancakes with Berries
To be frank this was my first time making savory pancake by adding Parmesan Cheese and indeed it was something different from our usual pancake. Love the sweet and savory taste of this dessert when eaten together with berries and maple syrup whereas my boy suggested that it would be even better if I could add a scope of vanilla ice-cream on top.

For more "cheesy" inspirations you can follow Perfect Italiano Instagram account @perfectitalianosg or hashtags to share your bakes/dishes using their cheese at #perfectitalianosg and #foodfixesin15. And if you are looking for easy Homemade Pizza recipes without using pizza dough you can also refer to my previous post here using Perfect Italiano Mozzarella Grated.


*Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Perfect Italiano Singapore.

1 comment:

  1. Love all your delicious dishes Ellena! Kids love cheese and they love eating all kinds of cheesy dishes. Your casserole makes me hungry!

    ReplyDelete

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Ellena (Cuisine Paradise)

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