The Amazing Arancini

I have found a new love and it's name is Arancini.  It is an Italian appetizer made from a nice rich and creamy risotto with mozzarella cheese and FRIED.  The recipe I chose to use is from Giada De Laurentiis from the Food Network.  Now I did have to modify it a little bit.  The store I was at happened to be out of porcini mushrooms so I used baby bella's and skipped the button mushrooms as well.  I also added about twice as much white wine than what the recipe called for.  Now this recipe does take some time so be sure to give yourself plenty or make your risotto a day in advance.  It needs some time to cool before you make it into your balls.  Don't want to burn your hands!

So the first thing you do is make the risotto.  It will take at least a half hour to make this not including the prep.  The mushrooms need to be sauteed prior to being added to the rice.  Also, it seems like 8 cups of stock is a lot but you really will use all of it.  The key is to keep adding the stock one ladle at a time and continuously stir the rice around.  This helps break it down the rice and get it creamy.  This is also where I would taste it and see if it needs more wine.  I think I need to find a good dry wine to use.  I used a Pinot Grigio but think that I will try a Chardonnay next time.  If anyone has a suggestion for a good dry white I will be more than appreciative.

Simmering Risotto

close-up of the creamy risotto

So once our risotto is made and you have resisted the temptation to eat it all, let it cool and cut your mozzarella cheese into small quarter inch square cubes.  Chef also suggested that cooked Italian sausage is good too, maybe next time I will try that out.  Scoop some risotto in your hand (yes, you will get messy) and place a piece of mozzarella in the middle and form a ball around it.  Once this is done roll it around some Italian bread crumbs.  Then lightly fry them in a skillet.  A vegetable or canola oil should be used.  Once a nice golden color place on a plate with a paper towel to drain.  I did come across a few recipes that had a marinara sauce to dip them in but I thought the flavor of these ones didn't need a sauce.  I just shredded some more Parmesan cheese on the top for some garnish.  They were delicious but don't keep well so they need to be eaten shortly after you fry them.  My neighbor's got to sample some of the ones I made so I didn't have a bunch of left overs.

Arancini perfecto!

who want's to be my neighbor?

If you want to try this at home here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• 2 large eggs, beaten to blend
• 2 cups Risotto with Mushrooms and Peas, recipe follows, cooled
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 1/2 cups dried Italian-style bread crumbs
• 2 ounces mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• Salt

Directions

Pour enough oil in a heavy large saucepan to reach the depth of 3 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.

Stir the eggs, risotto, Parmesan, and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs in a large bowl to combine. Place the remaining breadcrumbs in a medium bowl. Using about 2 tablespoons of the risotto mixture for each, form the risotto mixture into 1 3/4-inch-diameter balls. Insert 1 cube of mozzarella into the center of each ball. Roll the balls in the bread crumbs to coat.

Working in batches, add the rice balls to the hot ail and cook until brown and heated through, turning them as necessary, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the rice balls to paper towels to drain. Season with salt. Let rest 2 minutes. Serve hot.

Mushroom Risotto with Peas:

• 8 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1/2-ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups finely chopped onions
• 10 ounces white mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice or short-grain white rice
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• 3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, optional

Bring the broth to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan. Add the porcini mushrooms. Set aside until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Keep the broth warm over very low heat.

Melt the butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the white mushrooms and garlic. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the porcini mushrooms to a cutting board. Finely chop the mushrooms and add to the saucepan. Saute until the mushrooms are tender and the juices evaporate, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and let it toast for a few minutes. Add the wine; cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Continue to cook until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy, adding more broth by cupfuls and stirring often, about 28 minutes (the rice will absorb 6 to 8 cups of broth). Stir in the peas. Mix in the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Yield: 6 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Beer Brined Cornish Hens

Hello all, I am finally sitting down to write after making my hens last night.  I needed the motivation from my Godiva Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa to get me to sit.  So where did we leave off?  Oh yes, we had put the hens in the fridge to brine for 24 hours.  So yesterday at around 3pm or so I started to get my mirepoix all cut and put in the bottom of my roasting pan.  I preheated my oven to 350 degrees then got the hens out.  I placed them breast side up on my cutting board and began to tress them.  I started by placing my twine under the back near the thighs and then pulled it across the thighs and tied them in a knot right at the cavity (filled the cavity with split garlic and two sprigs each of the savory herb).  I knotted it twice to make sure it was nice and tight.  Then I tucked the wings back and under it as if its arms were behind its head and getting a tan on the beach.  Then I put it around the wings, flipped it over and tied it on the back.  This should have the legs closed and the beast sticking out.  Then I flipped it back over breast side up and then tied it down at the bottom again.  Hopefully this makes some sense.  If not then then try to watch a video on youtube or just get a chicken and try it out.  There are many ways to tress it up.

My "Street Walker" Hens

My "Catholic Schoolgirl" Hens

I laid it on my mirepoix and then heavily seasoned it with salt and pepper.  Now into the oven.  After about 10 minutes I could smell the hens and I was getting hungry.  Ten more minutes and I went in for my first basting.  I gave them a little squirt with the olive oil and brushed it around.  15 more minutes and I basted them again.  After about an hour I took its temp to see if they were done.  If you don't know, the place to check the temp is in the thickest part of the thigh not in the breast.  The breast meat cooks faster so you will not get an accurate temp taking it there.  The temperature you are looking for is 165 degrees.  This rule goes for all forms of poultry.  Mine was ready to come out.  As much as I wanted to dig in I had to let it rest for about 10 minutes or so.  This rest period is so the juices in the meat get disbursed back into all of it.  This rest period should be done with all forms of meat, including roasts and steaks.  Just remember the thicker the meat, the longer it needs to rest.  A turkey should rest about 20 minutes or so before you carve it.  This will help your meat not dry out.

Ready for roasting...

Now I plated my hen with some simple couscous and my roasted mirepoix,  I ended up just mixing the two and it was delicious.  The hens had a great beer flavor but not an overwhelming one.  As you got further into the meat you could taste the garlic.  I had heard about tasting the layers in food but I think this was my first experience where I could recognize it.  I have to say DJ and I really enjoyed it as well as our sitter Abby that just happened to be coming to watch the kids as DJ and I headed out to the movie.  I will definitely try more things with beer.  I will just be sure to make it a good quality one!

Bon Appetit!

Cooking with beer.

Thought that beer would get some attention.  Yes today I have gotten my 2 Cornish hens ready for tomorrow and I have them in a brine.  My brine consists of 2 IPA beers (Single Wide IPA), they are from the Boulevard Brewing Company out of Kansas City Missouri.  They make Boulevard Wheat, one of my favorites if you are from the Midwest and want to try something good.  I also have about a half cup of brown sugar and about a an eight of a cup of salt in there as well.  You will want to stir it all up to try to dissolve the salt and brown sugar.  Lastly, there are about 6 garlic cloves, halved, floating around.  I will let these swim over night.

Now to really help the flavor get into the birds I used my fingers to gently pull away as much skin from the meat as possible with out tearing the skin.  I also placed the birds in breast side down.  That meat is the thickest so we want that part submerged.  Tomorrow when I take them out I will "tress" them or tie them up.  I have never tressed a bird before but it was demonstrated yesterday in class and since I so happen to have a couple ready for the roasting I will try it out.  For an average sized chicken you will need about 3 feet of twine to work with.  I went hunting for it today at my local grocery but couldn't find any to buy so I went back to the butcher, batted my eyes and flashed a big smile, then asked if they could help me find some.  They were kind enough give me some.  Lesson for the day, smiles and kindness .

I will take pictures of my tressing so you can get an idea of what to do.  Before I tie it up I will be filling the cavity with salt, pepper, savory.  The bottom of the roaster will have my mirepoix.  Now the mirepoix is something most of us have used for years but didn't know it had a name, it is the French term used for a mixture of celery, onions and carrots, the base to many soups and roast dishes.  They are used as an aromatic for foods.  The drippings from this will be wonderful for making a gravy.  The mixture amount should be half onion, a quarter celery and a quarter carrots.  Adding salt to these vegetables will also help draw out their flavor.  Try it next time on a soup and cook them on low to sweat them instead of saute and see how it tastes to you!  

Later this week

Hello everyone!  It has been a few days since I posted so I will let you know what I plan to make later this week, I was thinking that on Friday (since I have no classes or children at home) I would make some Cornish Game Hens and maybe try an attempt at the Arancini, fried balls of risotto!

Until then...keep cooking and let me know what YOU are making!

Me against the Eggs Benedict

So on Wed I invited my neighbor Karen over to have breakfast with me.  On the menu, Eggs Benedict with crab and asparagus.  I warned her that I was using her as a guinea pig for my blog so she was aware that it may not come out...at all.  So we started as we should, laying out all of our mise en place, getting the pots simmering and the toaster ready with a whole wheat English muffin waiting to be toasted.  My parsley was in my water for my poached eggs (lesson #1, take the parsley OUT of the water before you put your eggs in. Unless you are fond of funny looking eggs with branches sticking out of them), my crab legs are steaming in another pot.  When the crab was done I dropped in the asparagus.  This is also the time I started my first attempt at the Hollandaise sauce (yes, you read right, the first attempt).  So I cracked my 3 egg yolks in a bowl and mixed them and added my lemon juice with water. In another pan I had my butter melting.  It was now time to heat up the egg yolks, I poured them into a small saute and immediately got scrambled eggs.  I still added in my butter thinking if I whipped it enough that it would get creamy, yeah it didn't work.  I tried it again (lesson #2, if it didn't work look for more directions!) but this time I poured the eggs into the melted butter.  Again, not right.  So to not starve Karen, we layered the rest of the sandwich and it was delicious.  I really liked the flavors of the crab (real not any of the imitation crap) and the Canadian bacon together, then to add the egg yolk from the poached egg was so yummy.  I could have done with out the buttery scrambled eggs that were on the top. Also I put the other half of the muffin on the top and it looked funny, yeah, you only use the bottom half.

Those of you that know me know that I don't give up very easily so last night I subjected DJ to my quest to get the Hollandaise right.  Luckily for him I had my Foundations class earlier that day and got to ask my Chef what I had done wrong.  He told me to whip the eggs and cook them in my double boiler that way I can control the heat better by being able to take it off the heat if they get too thick.  It worked, well for the most part.  I still "broke" the sauce but it was WAY better than what I had the previous morning.   I think my butter was still too hot when I added it in but it was creamier like it should be. Unfortunetly, I was paying too much attention to whipping the sauce that I poached my eggs a little too long. I know, bummer.  I didn't get my velvety yolk that I love. The Hollandaise has not seen the last of me, I will be back, oh yes, I will be back.

Here are the recipes I used:
Eggs Benedict with Asparagus and Crab from

Sherri Leyendecker from food.com

• 1/4 cup parsley
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 4 eggs
• 4 slices Canadian bacon, thin slices, cooked
• 2 English muffins
• 4 whole crab claws
• steamed asparagus

Hollandaise sauce

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• salt and pepper
Change Measurements: US | Metric

Directions:

Prep Time: 15 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

1. 1Steam asparagus till tender with 1 teaspoon of vinegar.
2. 2Steam crab till fully cooked.
3. 3Poach eggs with parsley.
4. 4Heat muffins and cut in half. Place eggs on muffin halfs. Add cooked bacon, crab and aspargus and top with hollandaise sauce.

1. ?

Homework Assignment

Good evening everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great start to their New Year!  Last night DJ and I took advantage of a New Years Eve date night and did my homework that was assigned for my Culinary Foundations class.  Our assignment was to go to an Ethnic, non-chain, restaurant that we had never been to before.  Omaha has many to choose from but I really wanted not just a place I had never been to before but a food I hadn't tried too many times.  So we decided on Indian.  I have only had it one other time and that was in Japan with my friend Anita who is actually from India so she helped me pick what to eat.  I am a self-proclaimed big wuss when it comes to spicy food.  Although I have graduated from a 0 in spice to a 1!

So we went to a place called Dhaba located off of 120th and Blondo for those of you that are local. It was a very cute little place that had tables that looked like you were under a thatch roof.  We had called to make reservations not realizing that they really were not necessary (we were the only ones there), granted it was at 5 PM.  More people came later, we were just trying to catch a movie too.  Now back to my story.  So we get there and ask if it is OK if we can take pictures of our table.  I tried to explain to them that I was doing a homework assignment but all they heard was I was writing something.  We had the best service and everyone that worked there came to our table to see if everything was good.  I finally got it across that I was a STUDENT and what my homework was.  I think they thought I was a reporter or something.  I was so relieved when they finally got it.

Our "Reserved" table (at the empty restaurant)

Our food was great!  Like I said, I am not one for spicy food so when I got it and could eat it and not have my nose run was great.  I did order for DJ and I a Mango Lassi to help with the spice and it was good too. I plan to try to make one at home after looking at the description in the menu, yogurt, mango puree and sugar. Yummy!  They brought to the table some Papadam, it was a crunchy chip with cumin and other spices.  It was nice and light but very tasty.  For our main dishes DJ chose a mixed grill plate consisting of Tandoori Chicken (my favorite) Chicken Tikka, Sheesh Kabab, and Tandoori Shrimp.  I tried all but the Tandoori Shrimp, it was bright red in color and I have learned from past experiences that if it is red I need to STOP!  I have to say that I think the Sheesh Kabab was my least favorite and it was from the goat meat, just too strong of a flavor for me.  It was served on a pan that is used for fajitas and it had grilled onions and peppers on it as well as the meat.  Over all really good.  Now I got some curry.  I love curry after being in Japan for so long.  The curry I got was called Dhaba Shrimp curry and it was cooked with coconut milk.  It had great flavor with the spice and then the sweetness from the milk.  I would get it again.  Both of us had it with a side of Basmati rice and then we couldn't not get a side order of garlic Naan bread to go with it.  I did like eating my curry with the Naan more than the rice.

Look at that steam coming off the plate!

My yummy Mango Lassi

If anyone wants to go and try this place out, let me know, we have already picked out what we want to try next!