Discombobulated about Cadbury's, Beetroot Salad and Rik Mayall

Firstly as I had some motivating leftovers I just ate an interesting Sudden Lunch!

~  Menu  ~

Riso al Salto

Tender Leaves (and beetroot) with Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette
Glass of Red
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate with Ritz

Black Coffee

You may remember the Roasted Shallot & Blue Cheese Risotto I made the other day – it was delicious but too much for me (I wish, wish, wish I had a larger appetite!) so today I fried myself a flat risotto cake, called Riso al Salto in Italy.

I grated over some Gran Padano and topped it with some Tesco Sweet Beetroot Salad which was a bit surprising. This is our favourite prepared salad and we buy it quite frequently. Only the other day my real man commented that there wasn’t much beetroot – I don’t know if anyone was listening but this pack took beetrootiness beyond our expectations.

I am going to take some out and make pretty pink coleslaw!  Anyhoo I dressed it with the remainder of my Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette and I wondered if it might be too much of a roasted shallot good thing but no way!  It worked very well.

Other ideas for leftover risotto include ...

~   Arancini ~ shape leftover risotto into a ball, make a hollow in the middle and insert a piece of appropriate cheese (blue in this case).  Reform the risotto around the cheese and roll in seasoned flour, then beaten egg and finally coat with breadcrumbs (or panko for a bit of yummy fusion). Fry till hot, crisp and golden with a melty middle.

~   Use to stuff vegetables eg. tomatoes or peppers before baking.

~   Leftover risotto can, with care, be reheated to be almost as good as the first time. Heat a little stock and then stir in the leftover risotto, continue stirring till hot through and then add a knob of butter and some Parmesan cheese and stir till melted.

Lunch pudding was strange.  I bought on a whim the other day a triple pack of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Ritz and I just cannot see the point!  

Each large flat square of gorgeous Cadbury’s milk chocky is topped with a tiny Ritz cracker!  Sometimes the cracker falls off but this was fine with me because after a thorough test of the product I picked off the remaining Ritz, they just interfered with the chocolate.  I really like salt and sweet combinations, love Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt and didn't dislike the Marmite Very Peculiar chocolate I tried a while ago but this just didn't work for me! Cadbury make such wonderful chocolate and I hate to feel like this about one of their products.

In Other News ...

~   I have received a package of goodies from Olives et Al which I shall be experimenting with over the next few days – such interesting things to play with!

~   I am so very sad, are you?, at the death of Rik Mayall who contributed a lot to my laughy youth and I like Ade Edmonson’s comment ...

“And now he's died for real. Without me. Selfish bastard.”

R.I.P. Rik Mayall

A Questionable Arancini for Lunch

~ Menu ~

Leftover Risotto Arancini-ish Thing

Fresh Herb Salad

Balsamic & Chilli Glaze

Cuvée Prestige

Homemade Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

You will remember that I had a delicious risotto the other day – see previous post.   Well I couldn’t eat it all at the time and today I made myself a whopping great arancini like thing with the leftovers. I say “arancini-like” because, as you probably know if you are at all foodie, arancini means “little orange” in Italian but if mine was a little orange it was a seriously flat one. 

Also I deviated in the cheese department; arancini are often stuffed with mozzarella and this caused me to ponder for a while. I had Cheddar, Feta, Brie, Gorgonzola, Parmesan and Boursin to hand to hand and eventually settled for the latter. Thirdly, I would have liked to have coated my arancini in panko crumbs but didn’t have any lying about and I couldn’t be arsed to mess about with breadcrumbs so I just shallow fried my rice patty in olive oil – worked for me!

Mozzarella and panko would probably have been perfect but we must remember that this is a blog about leftovers and stuff in the store cupboard so popping out to the shops would have been out of the question.

How to make arancini …

Really cold, ie. chilled risotto is sticky and easily holds together to make a 'little orange' or other shape.

leftover risotto of your choice – chilled to really cold

cheese of your choice – mozzarella for instance

a little flour seasoned with salt and pepper

a beaten egg

soft breadcrumbs or panko

~ Form cold risotto into balls (about 2 inches across would be reasonable – I was unreasonable).
~ Press a small dice of your chosen cheese into the centre of each ball and then reform the risotto around the cheese to encase completely and seal the cheese in.
~ Coat your balls (madam!) in seasoned flour, then the beaten egg and finally the crumbs or panko. Chill until needed.
~ Deep or shallow fry till crisp and deep golden.
~ Drain and set aside for a minute or two (giving the cheese a little extra melting time) then serve.

Boursin worked well flavour-wise but didn’t make for as gooey a melting heart as I’d have liked.  Nevertheless with some fresh herb salad (from Tesco), little plum tomatoes, red onion and balsamic glaze this was an excellent lunch - rather filling too.

In keeping, however, with the festive time of year I managed to struggle on and have a morsel or two of dessert.

As I have mentioned before I am working on a book of ice creams in which I divulge a wicked easy recipe which can be varied ad infinitum to universal delight. Actually it’s all but finished but I’m beginning to lose my enthusiasm about it. Unbelievable as it may seem there is, in fact, a limit to how much ice cream one person can eat and I need to get it published, move on and lose weight. 

So now I’m full. Again.

News from the future!

My ice cream book, Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine was published in June 2015.  Phew!