Episode #208 - Risotto Croquettes (Arancini di Riso)
and it can be extremely pleasurable if applied wisely to your food!
Learn how to work with your leftovers, use you freezer, your fridge, and a good set of tupperware; it will make your tomorrow easier.
Lunch boxes, a meal on the run, or simply an evening that you cannot/don't want to be bothered with too much time to spend at the stove.
As promised we gang-shot an evening episode, turning last night risotto into delicious Croquettes.
Just in case you would
like to try this recipe, but you do no have leftovers
to recycle, simply cook 1 cup of white rice, let it
cool off, then follow each step as if....Just keep in
mind that you might want a bit more generous when it
comes to adding salt and pepper. If you are working
the left overs your risotto is already well seasoned,
but if you are working with white rice well, its
taste is...how to describe it....flat...
Risotto Croquettes
Serves: 6-8
Prep Time: 20
Cooking Time: 10-15
Goes well with...
As an appetizer, with a salad, or as a warm bite for
a wine tasting evening....
Tips... if you intend to serve it to your kids, slice
the croquette in halves before you do so...they will
cool off quicker.
2 Cups of leftover risotto, cold from the fridge.
3 Eggs
1/3 Cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ Cup of ham
½ Cup of Mozzarella Cheese
1 handful of fresh Parsley
1 Cup all purpose flour
Breadcrumbs
Canola or vegetable oil
Separate 1 egg yolk.
Chop the ham and the mozzarella in very small pieces.
Wash the Parsley and chop it fine.
Episode #207 - Artichokes and Butternut Squash Risotto
It can be intimidating from the very beginning, when it's time to select your rice at your local grocery store...
Bu at the end, once you get it going into the pan, well...truly,
it's only about stirring, adding the ingredients and stirring again, until it's ready.
Indeed the final 5
cooking minutes are crucial for any risotto; if you
have too much broth in it, the risk is to serve rice
soup for dinner, if the rice still requires some
cooking, make sure you add very little broth at the
end. Achieving the balance between the cooking rice
and the broth that needs to go in it, is the only
real challenge.
We have gotten a bunch of feedbacks about our Risotto
with Sausage and Asparagus, and everybody agrees that
risotto, after all, was a very easy dish to
cook...enjoy!!!
Artichoke and
Butternut Squash Risotto
Serves: 4-6
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking Time: 40-50 minutes
Ingredients.
3 Tablespoons of butter (olive oil works as well)
1 ½ Cups of Butternut Squash, chopped
2 Artichokes
6 Cups of Vegetable Stock
2 Cups of Risotto Rice
1 Handful of freshly chopped Parsley
Salt and Pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese, to serve.
Break off the Artichoke
stems and discard the outer coarse leaves of the
chokes, then cut into thin wedges.
Bring your Vegetable Stock to a boil.
Vegetable Stock
before you get to the next episode, please challenge yourself with an Organic Vegetable Stock. May I suggest...double the ingredients, and cook a lot of it in a big, deep pot. Then freeze half of it, and use it when a new recipe will call for it.
Vegetable Stock
Serves: 8 Cups
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20-30 minutes
Ingredients.
2 Potatoes
2 Onions
2 Leeks
2 Carrots
2 Turnips
1 Celery stalk
2 Tomatoes
6 Cups of water
Salt & Pepper
Episode #206 - Pesce Spada all'Isolana (Swordfish Steaks in Tomatoes and Seafood Sauce)
I remember eating it in Livorno and Isola d'Elba when I was growing up, the smell and the color of it (yes, the taste too) make me think about the old Medici Harbor...the noise of the fishing boats, the continuos mumbling (and hard core cursing) in dialect of the workers at the dock. My father used to keep a small boat there when I was growing up, and he used to drag me with him for "week-end-scheduled-mantainance-and-cleaning"...I used to ask myself: "Why is Mom staying home?".
I eventually figured that out.
However, the memories I
have of those week ends are now worth a treasure in
my heart: my first fishing experiences, the hours of
cleaning under the scorching heat listening to The
Beatles, my first Cecina (thin garbanzo bean flour
bread)...my first beers!!!
Livorno is also very famous for another, even more
traditional recipe, their Caciucco... an intense and
memorable fish soup that deserves its own episode on
this show...will do!
For now,
enjoy our weekly recipe,
Buon Appetito!
Pesce Spada all'Isolana (Swordfish Steaks in
Tomatoes and Seafood Sauce)
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15-20
Cook Time: 40
Ingredients
9 Oz of Mussles
9 Oz of Clams
5 Oz of Shrimps (medium size), peeled.
4 Swordfish Steaks
5 Cloves of Garlic
1 Lb Cherry Tomatoes
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
1 Handful of fresh Parsley
1 Handful of fresh Basil
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper.
Tip - If you like the “fresh” feel of the sauce,
stick with the cherry tomatoes…but if you’d like to
make it juicier, try using a 12Oz can of Peeled
Tomatoes.
Getting Ready With The Ingredients
Wash thoroughly all the seafood, scrub and remove the
beards from the mussels.
Wash the cherry tomatoes and chop them in halves,
wash the pepper, remove the seeds and the white from
the inside, and then cut it into medium-large slices.