Arancini

I had never even heard of these until the other day whilst watching a re-run of the original Masterchef Australia and there they were. There was a challenge to cook snacks at a fairground and one of the contestants was knocking up these little beauties. They sounded really yummy so today was the day to experiment! 
I actually didn't quite know where to start so just googled Arancini and up it all popped - I plumped for Antonnio Carluccio's recipe as it sounded authentic and off we went, here's how it goes:


Ingredients 
For the Risotto:
350gms Risotto Rice
1 Small onion - finely chopped
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Generous glass of white wine
1.5 litres of vegetable stock ( I used chicken stock )
130gms Parmigiano Reggiano finely grated
Salt and pepper
1 egg beaten

Breadcrumbs to coat
Oil to fry - olive or vegetable depending on taste

In a small saucepan, heat the stock and keep it simmering. In a heavy pot, sauté the onion in oil till golden. Add the wine, stir, and simmer until it is reduced. Add the raw rice and stir with a wooden spoon. When the rice is evenly coated with oil and almost ready to stick, add a ladleful of hot stock. Stir. For the next 20 or so minutes, keep stirring and adding enough hot stock to wet the rice, but not drown it. When the risotto is al dente, take it off the heat. Stir in the grated Parmesan, salt and pepper. Allow to cool before mixing in some or all of the egg - just enough to bind the mixture.

When the mixture is nice and cool, with wet hands form a little patty in your hand, pop a blob of Mozzarella into the middle, place a bit more mixture on top and from into a nice neat ball. Cover with the breadcrumbs and fry for about 5 minutes until golden brown.

These are the first four I made, one really fell apart, another was a bit crumbly but two were good. A small admission on my part though, I omitted the egg!! Foolish I know but the mixture was quite sticky and I didn't think it was needed,  hmmmmm , adding the egg for the next batch.....

Ok, so added the egg and they held together so much better - lesson learned the hard way here. The recipe said that you could make ten arancini - I made twenty and they were still a really good size. 

This is the first recipe that I've road tested for my new venture and I'm really pleased with it, I think it needs a tweak, I'm going to make these the day before and pop them into the fridge which I think will make them a little more stable and hold together better when fried. I'm going to serve these with some kind of sauce, I was going to use a chilli dipping sauce but I may try them with a romesco sauce ( love it!! ), I don't know yet - maybe a simple tomato sauce.

Anyway - all done for today just got to clear up and get some reviews!!

Debs