Serves: 5 (4 balls per person)
Preparation time: 20 min
Cooking time: 45 min
There is nothing yummier than an arancini ball, particularly when made with mushroom risotto. This recipe you can either stop and go into the risotto as is or go the step further and transform it into golden brown arancini balls.
You can get creative and improvise by adding fresh spirulina to any risotto recipe before forming into the arancini balls.
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetarian stock (or chicken stock)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 3 fresh swiss brown or field mushrooms
- 2 dried shitake mushrooms
- ¼ cup of slices dried portobello mushrooms
- ½ cup of white wine
- 1 1/2 cups (300g) arborio rice
- 3/4 cup (58g) grated parmesan, mozzarella or cheddar cheese
- 2 tbsp of fresh spirulina
- 1/2 cup (65g) plain flour
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- Oil for shallow frying
- Salt, to season
Method
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Place stock in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and keep at a low simmer.
- Put dried mushrooms in 1 cup of hot water
- When dried mushrooms are soft squeeze out extra and roughly chop them.
- Add the soaking water to the stock.
- Chop the fresh mushrooms
- Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat, add onion and garlic and cook 1-2 minutes or until softened.
- Stir in chopped mushrooms and cook 2-3 minutes until softened.
- Reduce heat to low, add rice and stir for 3-4 minutes or until evenly coated with oil.
- Add the wine and cook until absorbed by the rice
- Warm stock in 1/2 cup lots and stir occasionally until the rice soaks up the stock and the rice is al dente. The mix should be a little sticky.
- Add cheese and Spirulina, stir well and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cool completely.
- Roll heaped tablespoons of risotto into balls, dust with flour, dip in the egg mixture and then roll in the breadcrumbs.
- Lightly shallow fry the balls until the breadcrumbs turn golden brown.
- Transfer balls to a tray lined with baking parchment and cook for a further 20 mins.
Notes
Serve hot as a side to any Mediterranean style dish or serve cold with chutney as a finger food. Great for the picnic hamper as well.