Deep fried risotto. Need I say anything more to sell this dish? I can’t think of any better combination than the creamy texture of risotto bursting out of it’s crispy deep fried shell. It’s also the perfect way to use up leftover risotto, and can even be made partially in advance and stored in the freezer until it’s time to fire up the fryer!
This version of arancini, supplied by Chef Taryn Wa from Savoury Chef Food last year at a Vancouver Olympics event at the Northern House uses Japanese panko for breading and provolone cheese with sundried tomatoes as filling. It’s so delicious and there’s almost no way you can make this dish not tasty! We even put in fillings of pancetta, mushroom, red peppers into our arancini balls.
Summary
Preparation Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 60 min , including 15 mins cooling time.
Total Time: 70 min
Servings: 20 balls
Meal type: Appetizer
Cost: $17
Ingredients
- 120 g arborio rice, $4 for a 750g bag. ~$0.65
- 20 g white onion, diced fine, $1
- 2 g garlic, fresh whole peeled, $0.50
- 4 sprigs of thyme, fresh, $2
- 12 ml olive oil extra virgin
- 20 g grana padano cheese, $3
- 20 ml dry white wine, $4 for a 200 ml bottle
- 2 l water, boiling
- 100 g provolone cheese, $5.49 for 250 g package. ~$2.50
- 40 g sun dried tomatoes, $0.90 from antipasto bar
- 0.5 g sea salt
- 0.5 g pepper
- 2 eggs
- 100 g flour
- 100 g panko bread, $2.50
Instructions
Make the risotto
1. Heat water in pot
2. In a separate pot, sweat thyme, onion and garlic in olive oil until transluscent
3. Add rice and sautee for 2 minutes
4. Add wine and cook until wine has evaporated
5. Add 125 ml water and cook until evaporated
6. Repeat until rice is fully cooked (just slightly past al dente)
7. Add Grana Padano and stir until combined
8. Cool rice in a thin layer on a baking tray
Tip:Make some extra risotto and have some dinner while you wait for the rest to cool
Assembling
9. Once rice is cool, take 20 g rice, roll into a ball and fill with 1 piece each of provolone and sundried tomato
Tip:While the natural instinct is to just pick some risotto up and start rolling it around in your hands, we found that we just ended up with risotto stuck to our hands. It was a lot easier to assemble the risotto balls using a spoon (or a small ice cream scoop) than rolling it around in our hands.
Also, get creative and try different fillings such as roasted tomatoes or prosciutto
Breading
10. Beat eggs with salt and pepper in a shallow dish
11. Put flour and panko in shallow dishes
Breading method
12. Dip arancini into the following:
- Flour
- Egg
- Flour
- Egg
- Panko
Frying
13. Fry at 375 degrees F until golden brown.
We used an infrared temperature gun to get to the right temperature. We found that right after putting in the arancini balls, it brought down the temperature significantly so we had to keep playing with the stove settings to keep the oil at that temperature.
Use a high temperature oil to fry the arancini, such as canola oil, soy oil, or sunflower oil. If you don’t have a deep-fryer, just put some oil in a pot – just be careful not to let the temperature get too hot or it will smoke and eventually combust. Do not use olive oil, this is not a high temperature oil.
Results
Like I said, I don’t think there’s a way you can go wrong while making this dish. The risotto takes some patience as it takes a good 20-30 minutes of active cooking time, but almost anything you throw in the risotto or stuff in the arancini tastes so yummy.
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Tags: arancini, arborio rice, deep fried, Italian, left over, left over risotto, mushroom, oil, pancetta, rice, risotto, sundried tomatoes
