Baked Arancini

Well, after a glut of sweet posts, this is finally a savoury post.   And one without any chillies!  I consider risotto to be a standby meal because it’s so easy to make and most of the ingredients can be found in the cupboard, freezer or fridge.   I tend to use fresh mushrooms if I have them but it’s great with dried mushrooms, possibly better because of the stronger flavour.   I always have frozen peas in the freezer; onions, garlic and rice in the cupboard and usually parmesan in the fridge.  I haven’t included the full recipe for the risotto as I never measure how much of what I’m using and for arancini, I’m sure any risotto would do.   This time I just made extra risotto for our dinner the night before so I could be sure of having leftovers to make these.  I planned to make them in the evening but being a little greedy, there wasn’t quite enough risotto left for two people and so I made the arancini for my lunch instead.  Usually arancini are deep-fried, but I decided it would be easier, a little healthier and less messy to bake them.   I could have coated them in flour and then egg before the breadcrumbs but as the rice balls are quite sticky I just used breadcrumbs and they easily stuck to the risotto balls.  The finished result was crispy on the outside and warm and creamy inside.

As these used up leftovers I am linking them to Frugal Food Fridays which this month is being hosted by Utterly Scrummy Food for Families.

Ingredients

Leftover risotto (made with arborio rice, onion, garlic, bacon, mushrooms, peas, chicken stock, rosemary, thyme, parmesan)

Breadcrumbs

How to Make Baked Arancini

1. Use any leftover risotto.   Form into small balls using approximately 2 teaspoons of risotto for each ball.    Roll in the breadcrumbs.

2. Place the arancini on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at about 200C.

I just served them with salad but I think they would be lovely with a tomato salsa.

 

Chicken Biryani and Spinach Raita

In my opinion, you can never have too much homemade Indian food.  I normally choose to make dishes with lots of sauce, which explains why I’ve never made a biryani before.  Whenever I’m out in a restaurant or ordering a takeaway I consider it, but somehow the lure of a saucy dish wins each time.   However, this month biryani won.    I was paired with Poornima from Tasty Treats for Taste and Create.   Now, as Poornima is from India but living in the US at the moment, she has loads of delicious saucy Indian curries on her blog, as well as other dishes too, so it wasn’t that I couldn’t find a dish with lots of sauce, no, I just fancied a change.  After all, it is the new year.

Poornima suggested serving the biryani with a raita and as I had lots of spinach in the fridge I decided to make a spinach one.    I haven’t made many raitas before so I searched for one and settled on this one from My Kitchen Experiments.   It was easy to make and was delicious alongside the biryani.   The only thing I would change would be to make more of it, as it provided the perfect cool saucy accompaniment to the biryani.   Next time I would also add a little less chilli powder as the biryani turned out to be incredibly spicy (I think the chillies I used were hotter than expected) and less chilli powder would have made it more cooling.  Even so, I’m delighted to have discovered a new love of biryani and raita and am already excited about trying out some more new raita recipes.

Click here to see Poornima’s original recipe for the Biryani.

I am also sending this to Michelle at Food, Football and a Baby as she is hosting this month’s Sweet Heat Chilli Challenge and the theme is Indian Food.

Ingredients for Biryani

Step 1

200g chicken, diced

2tbsp yoghurt

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Small knob ginger, grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

Salt

Step 2

100g basmati rice

5 peppercorns

1/2 cinnamon stick

3 cloves

2 cardamom pods

1 star anise

2 bay leaves

Oil

200ml water

Step 3

1/2 onion, finely diced

2 chilli peppers, finely sliced

Handful of coriander leaves (cilantro)

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp garam masala

Salt

Oil

How to Make Chicken Biryani

1. Prepare the marinade for the chicken. Mix all the marinade ingredients into the yoghurt and then add the chicken.   Coat well and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

2. Wash the rice.  Put a little oil in a pan.   Add the whole spices (peppercorns, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, star anise and bay leaves).  Fry for about 20 seconds then add the rice. Fry for another minute until any water left with the rice has evaporated. Then add the 200ml of water.    Take off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

3. Heat a little oil in another pan.    Add the chopped onions and chillies.   Fry until softened and slightly browned.  Then add the ground spices and the chopped coriander leaves.   Fry for a minute then add the chicken and marinade.

4. Fry the chicken until it is almost fully cooked and the pan is almost dry. Then pour the water and rice into the pan with the chicken.   Bring to the boil and then cover the pan and lower the heat.   Cook over a low heat for 15 minutes then turn the heat off and leave to stand for about 10 minutes.

5. Serve the Biryani with the raita on the side.

Ingredients for Spinach Raita

2 handfuls of spinach

3 tbsp yoghurt

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp chilli powder

Salt

How to make Spinach Raita

1. Wash the spinach and microwave for 1 minute.   Rinse in cold water and leave to drain in a colander.

2. Roast the cumin seeds in a dry frying pan and leave to cool.

3. When the seeds are cool crush slightly and add to a bowl with the chilli powder, salt and yoghurt.

4. Squeeze any extra moisture out of the spinach.  Chop roughly.

5. Mix the spinach in to the yoghurt and serve alongside the biryani.

 

Appams and Sri Lankan Beef Curry

This month’s Daring Cooks Challenge seemed to creep up on me really quickly.   One day it was July and then suddenly I realised the posting date was almost there.    This month we were challenged to make appams to accompany a south Indian/Sri Lankan dish.  I think I’d heard the name appams before but that was as far as it got.   They are a type of fermented rice and coconut pancake.  I’d never eaten them before and they are also quite different to any other pancakes so for me, this was exactly the type of challenge I like.  The fact that they are Indian and I love Indian food was also a bonus.

I think my appams looked right, at least they looked the same as other appams on the internet, but as I haven’t had them before I’m  not sure if the texture was quite right.   They broke up very easily and this may have been because when I blended the rice, I didn’t blend it quite finely enough, although the recipe did state that it didn’t need to be completely smooth.  I noticed after blending that there were still some tiny gritty bits in the mixture.   Maybe using rice flour or half rice flour, half rice instead of the uncooked rice would have helped the appams to hold together better.  Or maybe they are supposed to be like this. Like any of these things,  I think when you make a completely new recipe, it can sometimes take a few tries to get it just right, and unfortunately, I’ve only had one try at these.

In terms of flavour, they did have a lovely coconut  flavour and I might even like to make them more coconuty by adding extra coconut blended up with the water.  I did feel I could still taste a slightly yeastiness though, which I would like to mask next time.   Maybe I didn’t add quite enough salt.   When I’ve experimented with using less  salt in homemade bread, I find that I get the same yeasty flavour.

The curry tasted good too, I especially liked the flavour the tamarind gave it.  I used my lazy slow cooker method and the picture looks terrible (so I’ve hidden it right at the bottom of the post). I wasn’t sure how to eat it with the appams as they did not hold together well enough to eat like a bread, so I dipped them in which was good and then tore them up and put the bits in the curry as that was the easiest way.   Sorry! Probably not the right way, but it worked for me!

Blog-checking lines: Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.

Ingredients for Appams – Makes 6-8, serves 2-3

Recipe from Aparna at My Diverse Kitchen

150g uncooked basmati rice

Just under 1 tsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

60ml water

9g cooked rice

1/4 tsp salt

60ml thick coconut milk

How to make Appams

1. Soak the raw rice in bowl of water for at least 3 hours.

2. Dissolve the sugar in the water.   Then add the yeast and leave it to become frothy.

3. Drain the raw rice and put in a blender.   Add the yeast and water mixture.   Blend.

4. Add the cooked rice to the blender and continue to blend until it is fairly smooth.

5. Put the mixture into a bowl and leave for 8-12 hours in a warm place.  I left mine in the kitchen for about 21 hours and it was fine.   It will go quite yeasty and a bit smelly but don’t worry.

6. When ready to make add the salt and coconut milk.   It should be a little thicker than milk.   If it is too thick add a little water.

7. Smear a little oil around a wok or frying pan.   The pan should be oiled but there shouldn’t be a pool of oil in the bottom.

8. Take half a ladle of the batter and pour it into the pan.   Swirl it around so it is thin around the outside but a bit thicker in the middle.   This is why I found a wok works really well.

9. After about two minutes remove and keep making them until all the batter is used up.

Ingredients for Sri Lankan Beef Curry – serves 2

Adapted from Mangoes and Curry Leaves, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

300g stewing steak, cubed

About 10 dried curry leaves

1 green chilli pepper, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp salt

60 ml coconut milk

1 tsp tamarind paste

How to make Sri Lankan Beef Curry

1. Put all the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning.   Cover with a little water so the beef is covered.

2. In the evening, remove the curry from the slow cooker and simmer on the hob to reduce the liquid a little.

3. Don’t reduce too much.   It should still be quite soupy.  Serve with the appams.

 

 

 

Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto

Risotto is the ultimate comfort food.    It’s also very easy to make.   This is my favourite risotto and the one that I tend to make whenever I get fresh asparagus and don’t have inspiration to make anything else.   Hmm.  That makes it sound like this is not a great recipe.  It is, it’s just that this is an old favourite and one I’m happy to come back to again and again.

Ingredients – serves 2

200g arborio rice

1 onion

Clove of garlic

Approx 12 spears of asparagus

8 medium-sized mushrooms

500ml Vegetable stock

50g Parmesan cheese

Olive oil

Black pepper

How to make Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto

1. Heat a little olive oil.   Add the onion.   Cook until soft then add the garlic and mushroom.

2.Cook for a couple of minutes then add the rice.  Stir so it gets coated in oil.   The grains of rice will go a little translucent.  Begin adding the stock a little at a time.   Keep stirring. If there isn’t enough stock, just add water.

3. At the same time, blanch the asparagus for just a couple of minutes in some boiling water.

4. After about 20 minutes the risotto will be ready.  Add the asparagus, stir in the parmesan and season with extra black pepper.

 

Chicken Fried Rice

One of my favourite Chinese cooks is  Ching-He Huang and this recipe is taken from her book Chinese Food Made Easy.  I didn’t stick exactly to the recipe.  I realised I didn’t have any mushrooms and so used a green pepper instead.  I also didn’t have any Shaohsing rice wine or sherry and so used a teaspoon of white wine vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the sharpness of the vinegar. I’m not sure what Ching-He would have made of it but it seemed to work.

Ingredients

2tbsp groundnut oil

1tbsp freshly grated root ginger

3 shallots, finely chopped ( I used an ordinary onion)

3 dried Chinese mushrooms, pre-soaked in hot water for 20 mins, drained and finely chopped (I used a green pepper instead)

225g/8oz skinless chicken breast fillets, finely diced

1tbsp Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry(I used vinegar and sugar)

1tsp five-spice powder

1tbsp dark soy sauce

50g/2oz dry-roasted peanuts

300g/11oz cooked jasmine rice or glutinous rice

3-4tbsp light soy sauce

1-2tbsp toasted sesame oil

Ground white pepper (I used black pepper)

1 spring onion, finely chopped ( I used 2 spring onions)

1 green chilli (in my version but not in Ching-He’s)

How to make Chicken Fried Rice (My version)

1. Heat a wok and add the groundnut oil. Add the ginger, onion, chilli pepper and peppers and cook for about a minute.

2. Add the chicken and cook for a minute or two, then add the rice wine (or alternative) followed by the five-spice powder. As the chicken starts to turn white, add the dark soy sauce.

3. Add the peanuts and then the rice, mix well and stir-fry for 1 min.

4. Season with the light soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper to taste and stir to mix. Finally, stir in the spring onion.

 

Paella Recipe

I’ve been having a rather Spanish themed week this week after my mother gave me a packet of Carmencita Paellero seasoning her Spanish teacher had recommended and she had brought back from Spain.  The first dish I tried was Paella.  As my husband doesn’t like seafood I went for the meat only version.  I can’t say it’s entirely authentic as I didn’t follow any particular recipe.  However, it tasted good and reminded me of Spain.  If I hadn’t had the seasoning I would have just added the ingredients separately, not including colouring and corn flour.  For the colouring a pinch of turmeric would work just as well.

Ingredients

250g paella rice (I didn’t have any so used arborio risotto rice)

200g chicken, chopped up

50g chorizo, cubed

1 red pepper

2 tomatoes, diced

Handful of green beans

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp Paellero Carmencita seasoning (contains: garlic, salt, paprika, corn flour, colouring E102, pepper, clove & saffron)

Extra pinch of pimenton (smoked sweet paprika)

1 small green chilli, finely sliced (optional and probably not authentic but I love chilli)

Method

1. Fry the chicken briefly till white on all sides. Remove.  Add the onion and fry till soft.  Add the chorizo.   It will soon begin to release oil.   Then add the vegetables.  Return the chicken to the pan.  Add the seasonings.    Then add the rice.   Cook for about 1-2 minutes, stirring.

2.  Cover with water and leave over a low heat.  Don’t stir.  If it gets dry, add an extra dash of water.  It should be ready in about 20 minutes.