Arancini Rice Balls

I recently made this at a dinner party as a side dish for a pasta dish and it seemed to add just enough of a crunch to both contrast and compliment the pasta dish at the same time. 

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic

2 Cups Arborio Rice

1 Qt chicken broth

1/2 cup dry white wine (Chardonnay)

1/2 lb shredded fontina cheese

3 Tbsp light butter

Vegetable / Canola oil for deep frying

* Olive Oil

* Salt

* Black pepper

Stuffing Mix

3 parts - Progresso Italian Style breadcrumbs

1 part - Parmesan Cheese

Fresh Oregano - minced

Fresh Parsley - minced
Garlic Powder

Olive Oil (amount will vary based on quantity, we are looking for a specific texture)

Rice ball coating mix

Progresso Italian Style Breadcrumbs

4C seasoned panko breadcrumbs

1 Pint Eggbeaters (original)

Tools:

Instant Pot

6 - 8 qt stock pot

Wire basket

Preparation: 

Rice Filling: 

Set the Instant pot to saute for 7 minutes with some olive oil and the minced garlic cloves with salt and pepper until fragrant. After about 5 minutes, add the wine and mix up the bits of garlic. Add the arborio rice, butter, and the chicken broth. Close up the instant pot and pressure cook on high for 6 minutes. Quick release when done and immediately mix in Fontina cheese. Set aside and allow to cool. 

Stuffing Mix:

In a bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, cheese, oregano, parsley and garlic powder. Stir in olive oil until the mixture has the consistency of wet beach sand (should hold its shape when formed)

Coating Mix:

In a 1 qt chinese food soup container (or equivalent) mix together the italian style and panko breadcrumbs. Cover and shake to incorporate together. 

Rice Balls:

In a bowl mix the cooked rice, stuffing, and some egg beater mix to incorporate it well. It does not have to match the rice 1:1 but it should be enough that its visible throughout. Using a teaspoon, scoop off some of the mixture and roll like a meatball into a ball anywhere between 1.25 and 2" in diameter. Place into the breadcrumb container and shake until coated thoroughly. 

Cooking:

Heat enough oil in a large stock pot to 370 - 380 degrees and drop in rice balls for between 30 - 60 seconds until each is golden brown. Set aside on a cooling rack to drip dry of any extra oil.  

Roasted Garlic, Shallot and Mushroom Risotto

This is  variant of the butternut squash risotto I've made for years. I made it using the cooking liquid from a venison pot roast but it is equally as tasty when using chicken or vegetable stock.

Ingredients:

4 cloves garlic

5 Shallots

1 lb small cremini mushrooms

2 Cups Arborio Rice

1 Qt Homemade Low Salt Vegetable Broth

3/4 cup dry white wine (Chardonnay)

1/2 lb Gruyere Cheese

4 Tbsp light butter

* Olive Oil

* Salt

* Black pepper

Tools:

Oven Safe baking dish

6 - 8 qt stock pot with lid

2 qt saucepan 

Preparation: 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Rough chop shallots into 3/4" chunks and crush/peel garlic. In a baking dish, add a drizzle of olive oil, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper. Put in the oven and roast until it has started to brown. (approx 15 minutes). Feel free to use the broiler at the end for 2 - 3 minutes to finish. 

In a 2 qt saucepan bring vegetable broth with salt to a boil. 

In the stock pot, melt butter and add rice mixing well. Season the rice with salt and pepper and stir until well incorporated.  Spread rice around the edges and add wine again mixing well. Using a small ladle (4oz) add 2 ladles of boiling broth to the rice mixture. 

Repeat this process once the liquid has mixed in and boiled down until half of the stock has been added.  Rough chop the cremini mushrooms into quarters or halves depending on size and add to the pot with the roasted shallots and garlic (chop if necessary) mixing well.  Continue to add broth in the same increments until all broth has been mixed in with the rice. 

Using a fine blade food processor, grind up Gruyere cheese until it is almost a powder and mix in with the risotto. 

At this point, the mixture needs to simply cook until the rice is no longer crunchy being stirred frequently to ensure that all of the cooking liquid has been incorporated in. 

Serving

This serves 6 with roughly 1 cup of cooked per serving. 

For an added kick, dice up bacon or prosciutto and fry until crispy topping risotto with some crunch. 

Arancini Pork Casserole

This is a less healthy variant of https://www.skinnytaste.com/sicilian-rice-ball-casserole/ 

Ingredients:
1 Qt Joe's Homemade Pasta Sauce

1/2 Medium Red Onion

3 cloves garlic

1/2 Cauliflower

2 Cups uncooked Jasmati Rice

1 Qt Homemade Low Salt Vegetable Broth

3/4 lbs Part Skim Mozzarella Cheese grated

1/2 cup Progresso Italian Style Breadcrumbs

5 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 whole egg

1 egg white

1 lb Ground Pork

* Olive Oil

* Cooking Spray

* Salt

* Black pepper

* Garlic Powder

* Dry Basil

Tools:

13x9 Oven safe casserole dish

Small oven safe dish (for roasting cauliflower)

Large skillet for pork

2 qt saucepan 

Preparation: 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small oven save dish, add olive oil, cauliflower, salt and pepper. Put in the oven and roast until it has started to brown. 

In a 2 qt saucepan bring vegetable broth with salt to a boil. Add 2 cups of jasmati rice, cover and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. 

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Dice onion and mince garlic, add to skillet with salt & pepper. While cooking, flatten out pork and season with salt, pepper, garlic and basil and fold into the ends over. Once the onion/garlic mix has become fragrant and starts to become translucent, spread to the outside of the skillet and add pork breaking up as it browns on one side. Once cooked through and broken up into small pieces (think taco meat) add enough sauce to mix through but not cover the pork. Cover with a lid leaving partially open and reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, mix together Parmesan cheese, egg, egg white, and cooked rice with about 1 pint of sauce. Mix thoroughly until well incorporated and set aside. 

Prepare oven safe casserole dish by spraying all sides and adding 1/4 cup of the breadcrumbs, spreading around until all sides of the dish are coated in breadcrumb. Add a 1/2" layer of the rice mixture, cover with pork combined with chopped cauliflower.  Add 1/4 lb of grated mozzarella then cover with another 1/2" layer of rice mixture. 

Top with remaining 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs and remaining mozzarella cheese. 

Bake in oven for 30 - 45 minutes until breadcrumbs have toasted and cheese has melted with a good crust. 

Serving: 

Remove from oven and serve in squares as you would lasagna. 

Cheesy Potato Soup

Ingredients:
1 Russet Potato

1 Medium Red Onion

1 Green Pepper

1/4 lb deli ham OR 1/4 lb taylor ham 

1 1/2 tbsp butter 

1 tbsp flour

1 cup 1% milk

1/4 lb block cheddar cheese shredded

2 tbsp sour cream

* Croutons

* Chives

* Cheddar cheese (shredded for garnish)

* Olive Oil

* Salt

* Black pepper

* Garlic Powder

Tools:

Large non-stick skillet with lid

2 qt saucepan

Preparation: 
Heat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat. Dice all vegetables and ham into 1/2" cubes, place in skillet and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Stir regularly and cover until potatoes are browned and all vegetables are tender. 

In a sauce pan, melt butter adding flour and milk to make a roux. Once steam begins to rise, add cheddar cheese and stir until well incorporated.  Use sour cream as needed to thicken but should otherwise have a brothy consistency. 

Add vegetables and ham once cooked to cream sauce and simmer on low heat. 

Garnish with diced chives, croutons, and additional cheddar cheese

Serving: 

Serves 2. 

Strawberry Italian Ice

After making lemon and orange for a while, I decided to branch out, this was one of the successful ones. 

Ingredients:
1 lb carton of strawberries

1 1/2 cups of water

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 cup of water (separate)

Tools:

Ice Cream Maker 

2 qt saucepan

2x 1qt freezer safe containers

Blender/Food processor

Preparation: 
Remove the tops of the strawberries and place in a blender/food processor. (I use a Ninja so its theoretically both).  Begin to blend together and add 1 cup of water to thin down the mix. Once the strawberries are the consistency of a smoothie/milkshake, they are done. Remove from the blender and cool in the refrigerator. (the cooler they are at the start of freezing, the faster the ice will form). 

In a saucepan, mix 1 1/2 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups of sugar to make a simple syrup. Stir together well over high heat and when bubbles begin to form, remove from heat and set aside to cool. The cooling process can be accelerated by placing the simple syrup in a container and surrounding that container with ice + salt water. 

Mix together the syrup and strawberry mix in the ice cream maker and begin churning on a higher speed (if using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, speed setting is 6 or 7).  This will need to run for a while as you are looking for the presence of the ice crystals to form. Stop the mixer every so often to manually scrape down the sides (this will give you a better idea of how close the mix is to freezing as the ice on the sides and the ice in the middle will look similar in texture. If there is ice on the sides but the middle is still liquid, keep churning. 

Once the volume of ice crystals is visibly greater than 90% of the mix (meaning that there is a small amount that will still appear as liquid) pour out of the ice cream maker into 1 qt freezer safe containers and allow to chill for another 24 hours before eating. 

Serving:
Using a warmed ice cream scoop, serve into bowls, cups, glasses, etc. 

Eggplant Parmesan Bread

This started because a local bakery made something like this and the combination just made complete sense. 

Ingredients:
Dough: 
1 Tsp Active Dry Yeast (1 package contents)
3/4 Cup of warm water (should be between 100 - 105 degrees F)
2 1/2 Cups of White Flour
1/2 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tsp Kosher Salt
1/2 Tsp of Sugar


Eggplant:
1 Whole baby eggplant (Roughly 5 - 6")
1 cup white flour
1 pint of egg beaters (separate 2 - 3 Tbsp and mix with water for egg wash)
2 cup of italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1 cup of panko breadcrumbs
3 cups of Joe's Homemade Pasta Sauce (divided - 1, 2)

12 oz of Mozzarella Cheese
8 oz Ricotta Cheese
* Parmesan Cheese (unmeasured)
* Olive Oil (unmeasured)
* Corn meal (unmeasured)

Preparation: 
In a stand mixer, mix together yeast and water until bubbles form (indicating the yeast is active).  Once well blended, add in flour, 1 Tbsp of oil, salt and sugar. Mix together with a dough hook until a solid ball forms. (if its too sticky add additional white flour, if not sticky enough add water). Once The dough ball has formed and is not sticky, let the ball rise in a large covered bowl in a warm dry place for about 1 hour.

Peel the eggplant and slice 1/8 lengthwise.  You will need 3 shallow dishes: in one shallow dish, distribute flour evenly, in the second, empty entire carton of egg beaters, and in the third mix together both breadcrumbs.  Dip the eggplant slices in the flour, then egg, then pat well in the breadcrumbs to ensure complete coating. 

Heat broiler on high. Using a stoneware pan, drizzle with olive oil and place down one layer of the breaded eggplant.  Drizzle more on the exposed side of the eggplant and place in the broiler until crispy. Depending on your oven, this may vary in time, the best gauge is to look every 2 - 3 minutes and flip when they have just started to brown and before they burn. When done, remove from pan and let rest/oil drip on paper towels. Wipe down the oil from the stoneware pan but do not allow to completely cool. 

In a 2 quart saucepan, heat up pasta sauce and shred the Mozzarella cheese. 

Cooking:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Stretch the dough out on a flat surface into a rectangular shape that matches the stoneware pan. Once it is the appropriate size, flip one side onto the other and coat the surface that it will contact with corn meal so it can easily be transferred. Spread a thin layer of pasta sauce on the bottom approximately 3/4 of an inch from the edges and only to the center line of the dough. Add a layer of mozzarella cheese onto the sauce and layer in a row of eggplant again keeping the edges 3/4 of an inch from the edges of the dough. On top of the eggplant, spread a 1/4 inch layer of ricotta cheese followed by another layer of eggplant, sauce and cheese. 

Using the egg wash that was set aside, brush the edges of the dough and fold over stretching as needed to cover the eggplant layers until sealed (similar to a calzone). Transfer to the stoneware pan (corn meal side down) and make shallow slices across the top (similar to how you would see on a loaf of french bread). Brush the surface with the egg wash and sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese.  Put in the oven and repeat egg wash every 3 - 4 minutes until golden brown. 

Serving:
Remove from the pan and slice width wise with a large knife. Serve with remaining pasta sauce for dipping. `

Venison Chili

I'm thankful to my friends who hunt and can supply me with venison to make this dish. 

Ingredients: 
1 pound of ground venison - fat content will dictate how long this should cook down
1 large red onion
1 package (28 oz) of diced pancetta
1 can (14 oz) Rotel tomatoes and chili peppers
1 can (14 oz) medium red chili beans
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes 
* Chili Powder
* Garlic Powder
* Kosher Salt
* Cracked black pepper
* Cumin
* Coriander


Preparation: 
Finely dice onion to about the same size as the pancetta. 

Cooking:
Heat a dutch oven (preferred) over medium heat and add pancetta. Finely dice onion and when the pancetta starts to sizzle, add to the pan with some salt and pepper.  Season the venison with salt, pepper, garlic, cumin, coriander, and chili powder evenly. When the onion becomes translucent, add the seasoned venison to the pan and as it begins to brown, break it up to ensure that there are no large chunks. Once meat has browned, add in the chili beans, tomatoes/chilis and the can of crushed tomatoes adding salt and pepper and stirring well. 

Cook over low/medium heat for between 1 - 3 hours depending on the fat content in the grind until the chili reduces down and becomes thickened to your desired consistency. 

Serving:
Eat as a meal or as a topping for anything else. Goes great with hot dogs and cheese sauce.