The Postman always rings twice – EuroBlogging by Post #3

MAGYARUL

I swear this is almost even better then Christmas! For the very first time I registered for participating in the third round of EuroBlogging by Post (first organized by Andrew )well before the holidays and was extremely excited about the whole event. Imagine, you get an address of another foodblogger of whatever nationality in whichever country in Europe to whom you are sending a nice parcel of foodie gifts and for that you can expect to recieve another package from someone in Europe – the sender and the country of origin of course remains a secret and surprise until the very last moment. This time the event was organized by Johanna, the Passionate Cook who made a fantastic job with all that organizing and tracking, thank you so much!

But the real big Thank You goes to Johanna, because to my greatest surprise she is the sender of the parcel which I received today early morningl!! Wow, how great is that!! Johanna is Austrian and she lives in London and writes one of my favorite foodblogs, the Passionate Cook. ( By the way just at the end of my last entry yesterday I recommended her recent fantastic sounding choco-mocca liquer and even translated the recipe into Hungarian). She has amazing recipes on her site and makes the most mouthwatering party bites I’ve ever seen.

A couple of days ago Johanna in her capacity as the organizer of the event, sent me an e-mail saying that my parcel would arrive later this week due to some late applications:) I told her, no problem, I’m waiting patiently for mine (but secretly, to be honest, I just couldn’ wait to discover who would be my Santa Claus.). So today very early in the morning (thank you Belgian Post!) at 7.30 am the doorbell rings, I open the door (still kind of underdressed so to say) and there it is: my parcel arriving directly from London and the sender is….Johanna!! Hurraah!! The package is amazing, I LOVE every single item of it. Here is what it includes:

> A bag of a very good quality sardinian risotto rice + a recipe for a gorgonzola-ruccola-pear-risotto as an ultimate comfort food –I couldn’ agree more and already made it (see the picture above)! Johanna has some other great risotto recipes on her site, I think I’m going to try those too.

> A nice chunk of gorgonzola cheese

> A bag of chocolate flakes from Johanna’s local chocolatier Wiliam Curley to make some..hmm..chili vanilla hot chocolate maybe?

> A box of her homemade chocco-mocca beans – recipe here – and I’m telling you, these sweet cookies look so cute innocent, but boy taste they amazing! These are cookies for adults, very rich, very chocolatey, I totally fall in love with them

> Two very special chocolate bars from an Austrian chocolate company Zotter who produces the weirdest flavour combinations according to notes of Johanna. One is filled with strawberry-cream (and called Ein kleiner Trost –„a little consolation”) and the other with sour-cherry-marzipan and sesame nougat. I checked their website and they really offer a wide choice of interesting flavours from pinneaple+paprika to black beer+wild rice (Do I read it correctly Johanna that your favorite is the one with pork scratchings??:))

> A bag of wasabi peanuts – Johanna writes that she is addicted to them – oh, now I can understand why. I can remember reading about those in Angelika’s post when she visited Johanna. They are crunchy, spicy, salty, hmmm. Actually, it’s a kind of hard mental training to be able to stop eating them. In the morning I returned into my kitchen after every step of my make-up to nibble on them (which resulted in two things: 1. I was absolutely late at work, 2. I ate almost half of the bag for breakfast (now, am I a gourmet, or what:)?)

> And finally a bag of dried hot chili linguine made of pure durum wheat semolina + a recipe for a chili linguine with crab, lemon& rocket sauce.

I’m absolutely thrilled and happy with all these fantastic goodies, and can’t wait to use them at some special occasions. Johanna, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, Tausend Dank!!!!!!

And I just finished the bowl of this risotto, which is – and believe me, I’m not exaggerating – one of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten in my life, I can only urge you to try it!! This classic combination of pear, gorgonzola and rocket is fantastic in the risotto –it’s such a sophisticated dish! Creamy, full of exploding flavors, the ultimate comfort food for a winter evening. I followed the instruction of Johanna word for word, the end result is perfect. Johanna, I hope you don’t mind if I post the recipe – I also translated it into Hungarian for that language version of this post!

Johanna’s Gorgonzola, rocket &pear risotto (for 2)

2 shallots, finely chopped
200 risotto rice
125ml Noilly Prat (or Martini dry)
375ml chicken stock
150g gorgonzola (cut into chunks)
1 medium pear (cut into bite-size pieces)
50g rocket salad
parmesan to serve (optional)
­­*I sprinkled the top with a handful of chopped walnuts

Fry shallots in 3 tsp olive oil until just starting to brown. Add rice and fry for another 2 min. Deglaze with Noilly Prat. When evaporated /absorbed, top with ¼ of the stock. Turn heat to low setting. Cook until absorbed. Add another ¼ of stock, let absorb. Add the cheese, let it melt, then add another ¼ of stock. Leave to absorb and infuse, stirring constantly. Add the pear and the remaining stock, cook until liquid is almost completely gone and rice is cooked al dente. Fold in the rocket until wilts.

I hope that the parcel sent by myself will make at least the same great pleasure as this one. (No signs yet from x). Oh, and tomorrow I'm going to post that Hungarian goulash recipe in English.