Sweetbreads with Moretti Grand Cru

Today we present a new recipe from one of the finalist chefs in the Premio Birra Moretti Grand Cru 2014. In particular, this is the savoury recipe by Daniele Pennati of restaurant Hotel Roseg in Chiesa Valmalenco (Sondrio).

My mini-menu opens with the protein ingredient I love the most, that is to say sweetbreads. In this dish I tried to valorise it with different contrasts and with the different textures of the ingredients that go together: hot-warm, soft-crispy, fresh-fat, bitter-sweet. I decided to pair this with Birra Moretti Grand Cru because of its elegant sapidity.

INGREDIENTS
200 g sweetbreads
1 dl Birra Moretti Grand Cru

For the tarragon oil
100 g tarragon
50 g parsley
300 g grape seed oil

For the aioli
1 head of garlic
milk to taste
100 g egg white
grape seed oil to taste
salt to taste
apple vinegar to taste

For the barley pastry
200 g pearled barley
water to taste
peanut oil to taste

For the celeriac
100 g celeriac
water vinegar to taste
50 g extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

Green celery to taste
Alliaria Petiolata to taste

Matching beer, Birra Moretti Grand Cru

METHOD
For the barley wafer
Soak the pearled barley for 12 hours in lots of cold water. Drain and cook it in a pot with unsalted water until it is completely cooked. Blend the barley with the cooking water until you obtain a homogenous, smooth and soft purée. Spread the purée between two sheets of baking paper and leave it to dry at room temperature until you obtain a pastry. Then fry it in lots of peanut oil. Add salt and keep the fried wafer in a hermetically closed container.

For the tarragon oil
Blanch the tarragon leaves in salted water for 3 minutes. Drain and cool it down immediately in cold water. Remove the exceeding water by squeezing them. Then weigh out the tarragon leaves with the parsley, adding twice as much grape seed oil in a homogenising processor. Blend all the ingredients together. Pour into a Chinois with a cloth and leave the mixture to drain in the fridge overnight. Then put all the oil obtained in a baby bottle and place it again in the fridge, in the dark.

For the aioli
Peel the garlic, cook it with the milk in a saucepan and bring it to the boil then turn off the flame, strain and leave to cool. Repeat the procedure three times. Then blend the garlic with a drop of cold milk until you obtain a purée and then strain this in a Chinois. Cook the egg white in a vacuum pack in a Bain-Marie at 68°C for 35 minutes. Cool down. Process the cooked egg white and the grape seed oil as with a traditional mayonnaise. Add salt, apple vinegar and the garlic purée.

For the celeriac
Clean it, cut it into 3 mm slices with the help of a mandolin knife. Put this celeriac julienne in a vacuum pack with the apple vinegar, the extra virgin olive oil, the salt and cook in a Bain-Marie at 85°C for 30 minutes. Cool down. Leave to rest overnight in the fridge.

For the green celery
Peel the celery stalk and cut it into a 4 cm long julienne. Leave in water and ice. Keep into the fridge for at least a couple of water.

For the sweetbread
Put the sweetbread into a vacuum pack and cook in a Bain-Marie at 62°C for one hour. Cool down in cold water. Open the pack and dry the sweetbreads from their cooking liquids. In a non-stick pan, brown the sweetbreads on a low flame only on one side with a drop of peanut oil. Once it is browned, remove the exceeding fat from the pan and deglaze it with Birra Moretti Grand Cru.

For the finishing
Place the aioli in the centre of a plate. Place the glazed sweetbreads on top. Add a few drops of tarragon oil. Place the celery and celeriac on the sweetbreads. Finish with the pearled barley wafer and the alliaria petiolata. Serve immediately.