When you have left-over risotto, you make Arancini di Riso (Rice Balls)

I was testing a rice cooker recently and one of the recipes was Risotto on a specific setting on the machine. To say it was challenging is an understatement but after 6 tests and tweaks we finally came up with a recipe I was rather happy with. And the neighbours were also happy, one can only eat so much risotto! The last test was the best and JT and I had it for supper but it made so much that I had enough left over to make Arancini di Riso, Italian Rice Balls and boy were they delicious!

Everyone has a favourite risotto recipe so I won’t reinvent the wheel, you just need to have some risotto made and cooled (I spread it out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and covered it with plastic wrap in the fridge overnight). The risotto should be able to be formed into a ball, so if your risotto is a little dry, you may want to add a bit of liquid to allow it to stick together in a spherical shape.

Baking at 400° F gives you the crispy crust that you expect from deep frying, except you didn’t!

Arancini di Riso (Rice Balls)

My mushroom risotto recipe yielded 8 cups (give or take 2 L) but we ate about 3 cups in for dinner, so I estimate that the remainder 5 cups (1.25 L) made 22-24 balls

Ingredients:

• 5 cups risotto
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup AP unbleached flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella (or 22-24 1 cm or 1/2 inch cubes)
• Fresh basil and Parmesan for garnish

Directions:

1. Spread risotto onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate until entirely cooled (overnight).
2. Add bread crumbs to a shallow bowl and the flour to another shallow bowl. Lightly beat the eggs with a splash of water and pour into a third shallow bowl.
3. Make golf-ball sized balls of the cooled risotto and squeeze a good pinch (or one cube) of cheese into the centre — cover the cheese entirely with the risotto otherwise it will leak out. Continue until you have used up all the risotto.
4. Coat each ball in flour, then roll into the eggs and repeat the flour and egg mixture (this will make the balls as crispy as if they had been deep-fried). After the final roll in the egg wash, roll each ball in the bread crumbs to coat well . Set onto a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze for future use.
5. To bake from frozen pre-heat the oven to 400° F. Spray Arancini and the baking sheet with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and warmed through; turn often so it bakes evenly.
6. Serve with a chunky salsa or tomato sauce.

The cheese melts on the inside and becomes deliciously gooey!

We had our dear friends Paul and T up from the US this past weekend (hence the tardiness of this post), here are a few pics!

We might have had a few of these!

Paddleboating on a very warm day.

Our lake apparently has good fishing.

Figgy finally made us a couple of figs.

Sadly they were not as sweet as I had hoped. I’m sure I just need to fertilize.

 

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Fresh Figs with Goats Cheese, Proscuitto and Arugula

This is an exciting week for me! I’m doing some recipe testing. Yes, that sounds exactly like it is — we test recipes developed by trained chefs (or home economists) to make sure the instructions work, the tastes work and it’s basically fool proof. It’s another skill I want on my resumé and through some lovely and generous connections in the biz, I was hired for this job! How cool is that? I cook, I love to cook, and now I get paid to cook!!! I’m really over the top on this one. Thank you lucky stars!

The holiday season is upon us and like you, I am on the lookout for some very tasty and elegant hors d’œuvres to serve at get-togethers. I posted photos of this deliciously easy hors d’œuvres in 2009 but I thought it was lovely enough to post again. The first time I saw this was on Food Network Canada but I can’t recall the chef or the name of the show (a search turned up neither). The recipe, which really isn’t a recipe, is so easy and so incredibly tasty you and your guests will wonder how you lived without this incredible treat. I know figs can be expensive this time of year in North America, but it’s well worth it; it’s an incredible combo of salty, sweet, tangy, savoury, chewy and creamy all in one.

A delightful combination of salty, sweet, earthy and tangy.

Ingredients:

1 large fig will make 4-6 pieces, so count on 1 fig per person. Serves 4

• 1 large fig, per person
• 1 tbsp goats cheese, at room temperature
• 4-6 stems of beautiful specimens of baby arugula
• 1 slice of prosciutto, sliced into 4 (1 1/2 slices of prosciutto, sliced into 6)

Directions:

1. Gently clean the figs and slice into 4 or 6 portions (this will depend entirely on the girth of your figs, remember you want them one-bite sized).
2. Gently spread a thinnish layer of goats cheese over each slice of the prosciutto (that has been sliced into portions already(
3. Add one beautiful, fresh stem of baby arugula to one end of the goat cheese covered slice of prosciutto, then add a fig wedge and begin to roll up.
4. Present on a platter or store in an air tight container until ready to serve. I would let them get to room temperature for serving as the goats cheese and figs will be MUCH tastier.
5. Watch them vanish like magic.

It’s worth the ridiculous prices of figs off season

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Gluten Free Honey and Ginger Cake

We invited my friend Kim and her hubby for coffee and cake after seeing Cloud Atlas at the TIFF film festival. I was hoping to have a great discussion about the film (and there was a lot to discuss) but unfortunately, they hated the film so instead of prolonging their misery, I served coffee and cake.

I started the recipe and was committed to it when I realized I didn’t have quite enough GF Flour, so I improvised and added the remainder as finely ground corn meal. It added a very nice texture to the cake and no body threw it back at me!

Original recipe can be found here.

A lovely honey and ginger taste, it’s garnished with fresh figs, candied ginger slices, candied walnuts and edible rose petals.

Gluten Free Honey & Ginger Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 oz liquid honey
• 6 oz gluten-free flour
• 2 oz of fine cornmeal (just run regular cornmeal through a coffee grinder to get a fine powder)
• 1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 3 oz of sugar
• 1/2 tsp orange essence
• 1/2 tsp lemon essence
• 4 oz butter
• 1 egg (the cake was very crumbly, I might add another egg next time)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 oz finely grated fresh ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (170°C).
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices into a large bowl and add the sugar and zest. Rub the butter in (you can do this in a food processor with plastic blades)
3. Warm the honey slightly, and beat it with the egg. Mix into the flour mixture.
4. Mix the baking soda with 3 tbsps of water until dissolved, then process it into the flour mixture.
5. Stir in the finely minced ginger pour into a greased or lined 8″ square pan.
6. Bake for about 50 minutes (mine was ready in about 40 minutes). Cool it in the pan for about 10 minutes then turn it onto a cooling rack until cold.

A very tasty but crumbly cake

I garnished the cake with additional warmed honey, fresh figs cut into quarters, honey walnuts, slices of candied ginger and edible rose petals.

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