Arancini balls

You may think I haven't been eating much lately even the lack of posts...but it's been quite the opposite. We've had Lucy's birthday recently and a few visitors from out of town so I have been extremely busy in the kitchen really.  To be honest we have been eating recipe after recipe from my existing posts so there hasn't been a lot of new dishes to report.  We had a buffet of succulent baby back ribs, crispy noodle salad as well as satay chicken skewers for Lucy's Luau party and then pork banh mi for a quick friday night meal with our Australian friend, Kev.  We've eaten lamb and cous cous, then the spicy beans and feta for breakfast, I fear I may have plateaued... I need a holiday to find time to search for some more delicious recipes!  Luckily enough, we are off to Disney World tomorrow and then taking a 6 day roadtrip from Orlando back up to Milwaukee through the south.  Perhaps I'll find the secret to great southern fried chicken or taste the best Cherry Pie in a diner somewhere along our travels.  I don't expect to find much culinary inspiration at Disney that's for sure.

So the arancini balls came about from hosting our second Trivia night challenge recently and everyone made a tapas dish.  These arancini balls were my contribution and they seemed to go down really well.  I kept them simple this time but you could add any sort of combination of flavors to the actual risotto or the centre filling.  They are great because you can do them a day ahead, deep fry them and just re-heat in the oven when you need them.  I have done them before using semi dried tomato and basil in the risotto and stuffing them with a little cube of mozzarella or gorgonzola cheese, they were really yummy. So get creative, make a delicious risotto and then stuff them with your favorite surprise!

Makes 24-30

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 tblpsn butter

1 small onion, fnely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 cup arborio rice

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

1/3 cup pecorino cheese

24-30 pitted green olives

1/3 cup breadcrumbs (panko)

vegetable oil, for deep frying

Method:

• Pour stock into a medium saucepan, bring to a boil and then let simmer
• Melt butter in a medium saucepan, cook onion and garlic stirring until onion is tender.
• Add rice and stir, coating the rice in the butter over low heat
• Add the white wine and let it almost fry off, once the wine is absorbed add a ladle of hot stock and stir until the liquid is absorbed.
• Continue adding the stock in 1/2 cup batches until the liquid is absorbed after each addition. Total cooking time should be about 30mins or until the rice is tender
• Turn off the heat and add another knob of butter and the cheeses.  Stir through and let cool.
• Prepare your olives ready to be placed inside each risotto ball.
• Line a baking tray with gladwrap on the bottom and enough to cover the top as well.
• Prepare your breadcrumbs in a large dish and season with a little salt and pepper
• Once the risotto is cooled and easy to handle, mold into large teaspoon full size balls and push the olive into the centre and ensure the risotto joins around it. Then roll in the breadcrumbs.
• Place on a lined tray and continue rolling until mixture is used up. 

• You can either store them in the refridgerator (or freeze them) at this point and deep fry them when you are ready for them or, as I prefer to do, get the smelly deep frying out of the way well before I need them.  I fried them during the afternoon and then just re-heated them briefly in the oven when we were to serve them.