Arancini?? I had never heard of this till Karen came up with it for an idea for one of our pop-ups. Sounded wonderful – but needed to learn how to make it.
So, what are they? – Basically, deep fried risotto rice balls. Which of course was immediately a problem because we do like to keep things healthy and avoid deep frying. It would have to be a baked version!!
Took me 4 attempts to get this right. The first attempt, I did shallow fry just to make sure I was on the right track.
Also consulted my Rouxbe course on how to properly cook risotto rice.
To cut a long story short, the ones we served on the night were amazing and everybody raved about them.
I did have to hunt down a recipe, and the one I used eventually was based on the one from The Hungry Herbivores. Thank you to them for the inspiration.
I did make a few modifications. I used dried thyme instead of fresh thyme. And for the crumb coating I used ground gluten free oats instead of breadcrumbs. (We try to make most of our food gluten free)
My recipe:
Ingredients:
For the Risotto –
- 1 large white onion – fine diced
- 2 cloves garlic – minced
- ½ C white wine
- 5 C vegetable stock
- 1 T heaped dried thyme
- 2 T nutritional yeast
For the Filling –
- 200 g brown mushrooms – fine diced
- 1 clove garlic – minced
- 2 T soy milk (or other plant milk)
- 1 T cornstarch
- 1 T dried thyme
For the Coating –
- 1 to 1 ½ C GF oat flour
- 3 T nutritional yeast
- ¼ C cornstarch
- ¼ C soy milk (or other plant milk)
What to do:
The Risotto –
1 – Heat a little olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook very gently, stirring every now and then, till onions translucent. Do not let the onions brown as you do not want colour here.
2 – Add in the garlic, dried thyme and the rice. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring gently.
3 – Add in the wine and continue to cook till the wine is absorbed.
4 – Start adding the stock, about 1/3 C at a time. Stir continuously till absorbed, and then add the next amount.
5 -Continue till all stock added and the rice is cooked (test it after about 25 mins). This could take 30 to 35 minutes.
6 – The rice should now be soft and creamy, and a bit thicker/stickier than you would normally serve Risotto. Stir in the nutritional yeast and season with salt and pepper.
7 – Spread the mixture out on a tray and let cool.
Meanwhile –
Make the filling –
1 – Heat a little oil in a pan and cook the garlic for a minute or so.
2 – Add in the mushroom and thyme. Cook, stirring often till the mushrooms start releasing water.
3 – Add in the soy milk and cornstarch and cook till all liquid absorbed.
4 – Set aside.
To assemble and finish the Arancini-
(You will need to keep wetting your hands so have a bowl of water handy)
1 – Take a large spoon amount of the cooled rice. Shape it into a cup shape in the one hand. Take a teaspoon amount of the filling and put in in the centre. Now close the ball with another small amount of the rice. Gently squeeze and roll into a ball shape. Set aside and repeat till all rice used up.
2 – Place the balls in the fridge for a while to firm up.
(I made the balls to this stage the night before, so they were nice and firm and easier to work with)
3 – Prepare 3 bowls – 1 with the cornstarch, 1 with the soy milk and 1 with a mix of the oats and nutritional yeast.
4 – Roll each ball in the cornstarch, dip in the milk and coat with the oat flour mix. Set aside.
5 Preheat the oven to about 180 C (160 C for Fan Oven)
6 Place the balls on parchment on a baking tray. Lightly brush with oil.
7 Bake for about 20 mins or till lightly browned.
Notes:
1 – Cooking plant based is all about drawing out and layering flavours, which is where the first step of cooking the onions comes in.
2 – Again consider colour – which is why you do not want the onions to brown. Also, for my first attempt I used red onions as per recipe. But for the final one I used white onions for the colour reason.
3 – You can use any plant milk if you are not keen on soy milk.
4 – As mentioned in the recipe, you want the rice to be slightly stickier than you would normally cook and serve risotto
5 – If you are not worried about gluten then you could use breadcrumbs in the coating.
6 – And of course you could deep fry the balls till lightly browned and crisp instead of baking them.
7 – If you bake them, do not crowd the baking tray. You need the heat to be able to circulate around the balls. Use 2 trays if necessary. This principle applies to all roasting and baking.
8 – This is quite and elaborate recipe, but the result is well worth the effort.
9 – And I must mention that I learned such a lot from the Rouxbe Plant Based Chef course I completed online. Really worth it!!
10 – Thanks again to The Hungry Herbivores for the initial recipe.
Bon Apetit
