Mushroom Risotto and Arancini. Again.

Dh was away, so I used Thermy to make mushroom risotto, usin gthe recipe in the Fast and Easy cookbook. I used half dried porcini mushrooms and half fresh mushrooms.   Unlike last time, this time I let it stand for 5 minutes, and it was lovely.


I put the leftover risotto, when cold, in the fridge.  The next day, I made arancini - deep fried risotto balls - and some Tzaziki to serve with it.  Thermy helped out again, making the tzaiki, and making the breasdcrumb/parmesan/parsley coating.   Very good.    They could have done with  a bit more seasoning, so I'll do that next time...remembering that I want to do it while the lefotver risotto is still warm, or certainly befor it goes into the fridge overnight.

I couldn't eat them all, despite pigging out.  I put the remaining cooked balls in the fridge,  and I've just eaten them cold.   They were amazing!  If they were smaller, they would make excellent cold buffet or picninc food...  they'd need to be mini scotch egg sized I think.

I had toyed with the idea of making some risotto balls and freezing them, before the deep frying stage.   Maybe I'll have enough leftover next time to try that.

Maybe.
 

Bits and pieces

Arancini

Yesterday we had Arancini (deep fried risotto balls) , using the leftover risotto.    I seasoned it, even more, this time.   

I made parsley and parmesan breadcrumbs in Thermy (fantastic, thank you).

Next time, I think I'll add the additional seasoning to the leftover risotto before I put it in the fridge.   This is because the risotto was very well set, perfect for forming into balls... but I had to stir it up to stir in the seasonings, and that made it all loose again.

They were very good. 

 Hummus

I also made another batch of hummus,  this time I added some moroccan seasoning.   I think it was a bit too thick, I should have slackened it off more. I also should have added more lemon juice.  

I'd bought a new jar of Tahini, as I hadn't got round to ordering sesame seeds to make my own. (That's now rectified - or it will be when my Wholefoods order arrives - so I'll be in good shape when the Tahini jar runs out).  

While I was shopping, I also took some photos of Waitrose's hummus varieties - the backs of the packs, anyway, so I could see what they put in theirs.  I saw that I can use Tahini to make Baba Ganoush, so I bought an aubergine as well...but I haven't go round to it yet.   Hopefully I will do so before the Aubergine walks out of the fridge.

Ginger

This time, I cut the ginger into hald and 1 inch pieces before freezing. Ha!

 Millet Flour

I decided to try Rye and Millet bread, in my breadmaker.  I had both millet flakes and millet seeds, from when I was buying grains to tempt my housechook to eat.    I  needed some millet flour as well,  and was childishly excited that I could use Thermy to do this.    I feel very proud of my 50 grammes of millet flour.  No idea what the bread is going to taste like, but that isn't the point.

It's just gone into the oven, so I'll find out later.

Pizza Dough

I took the frozen pizza dough out of the freezer, so it could defrost for dinner tonight.  The wrapping said "needs second rise",  so I after it was defrosted, I put it in a bowl in the airing cupboard. 

I realised that it would probably have been quicker to have made fresh dough from scratch. I used to make my pizza dough by hand, painstakingly stirring the middle while the flour gradually slips in.  Then I started to cheat, and used my KitchenAid, on the basis that the planetary action is sort of similar to doing it by hand.  In both these cases it's been worthwhile making double and freezing one.    Now I'm not so sure. It was really quick in Thermy, and the taste and texture was fine.  

That's a bit of a Thermy revelation.  

 

Arancini

Today I made Arancini, or risotto balls.

I had these when out for lunch last Friday,  and I wanted to try them myself.  In fact, the reason we had risotto earlier in the week was so that I would have leftover risotto to make Arancini.

Cold risotto, shaped into balls, then flour-egg-breadcrumbed, and deep fried.

I should have added extra seasoning to the cold risotto, but they were still delicious.  I suspect they will become a staple second-risotto dish and will stretch our chicken for a further day.

Thermy didn'r help with this, but it did make the accompaniments.

More on that in a moment.