risotto . arancini . the elegance of leftovers

Why is it that everything tastes better after a night in the fridge? A little fermenting perchance? Never underestimate the power of left overs.

You remember when we made chicken stock a few weeks ago. The stock spent a night in the fridge so the fat could rise and harden so I could scoop it out of the stock. But the night in the fridge also allowed to flavors to exchange and deepen.

Dough spending it’s retard overnight in your fridge allows for deeper flavors in your bread.

Pizza dough can spend up to a week in the fridge, and as well as making a great pizza base, the taste is superb.

Risotto leftovers rest a night in the fridge and come out ready to become arancini.

Imagine tasting your food as a bar code. Each of those lines in the bar code represent an aroma/taste in the profile of your meal. Thinking like this helps us with blending flavors.

A few days ago I used the last bag of frozen chicken stock; I made chicken and thyme risotto with peas.

Then we had a few messy baby days and it has taken this long for me to get this post finished!

Chicken, Thyme and Pea Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups Arborio rice

• 5 cups good-quality stock, piping hot

• 2 cups cooked peas

• 1 small onion, diced

• 1 dollop butter (plus extra for finishing)

• 1 slop white wine

• 1 big cup Parmesan cheese, grated

• Zest of ½ a lemon

• Salt and pepper to taste

For the chicken:

• 2 chicken breasts, sliced into cubes

• 1 tbsp oil

• 3 cloves of Garlic, minced

• 1/4 cup Fresh thyme leaves

• Salt and pepper (lots of pepper)

Method:

1. Season the chicken: Place the garlic, chopped thyme leaves, salt, pepper, and oil into a mortar bowl. Grind together using the mortar and pestle. Add to the chicken and distribute. Let sit to marinate.

2. Prepare the stock: (🐓see below) Heat 5 cups of stock in a saucepan and keep hot with a ladle nearby. Taste and adjust seasoning. Add sprigs of thyme and halved lemon while heating.

3. Cook the chicken: In a deep wide pan, pan-fry the seasoned chicken with diced onion. Remove the chicken once browned and set aside.

4. Start the risotto: Use the same pan, add a generous dollop of butter to the chicken drippings in the pan. Once sizzling, add all the rice and stir to coat in butter. Cook for 1–2 minutes.

5. Deglaze: Add a slop of white wine and let it cook off. Stirring to coat the rice further.

6. Add stock gradually: Begin adding stock one ladle at a time. Stir thoroughly every 3–4 minutes, allowing each addition to absorb before adding more.

7. Finish cooking: Continue until rice is al dente, you will be stirring much more now. Add the hot chicken and peas with the final ladle of stock. Stir and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat off.

8. Rest: Cover the pan with a lid and allow the risotto to cook its last 5 minutes unmolested.

9. Final stir: Just before serving, stir in a thick slice of salted butter, a big cup of Parmesan, and the zest of half a lemon. Replace the lid until ready to serve.

Tips:

• 🦋Risotto will take about 40 minutes. Prepare to spend all that time in the kitchen stirring every few minutes.

• 🍷Pour each ladle-full through a sieve, as you add it to the rice, then dump the seive of debris back into the steaming stock pot.

• 🧈The amount of butter at the end is a personal choice. It depends on your heart health! We love butter so we add way more than a dollop.

• 🫛Use a vegetable that holds its shape like asparagus or peas or mushrooms, etc. If using asparagus grill until slightly charred - this adds another layer of to the risottos taste profile. I pan fry mushrooms in a dry pan before adding this removes the water from the mushroom and adds a little brown.

• 🐓Homemade stock makes all the difference. See method for chicken stock. The stock will elevate your risotto so spend some time creating a tasty stock. If you don’t want to drink your stock out of a cup it is not good stock.

  I don’t have a picture of the risotto. Risotto is not a photogenic dish so here is an old farm photo instead. BooBoo with one of his rescue piglets. This is from 2017.

  

  He loves his babies does our Boo.

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Just want to reiterate here that almost all of the food I write about here is open to interpretation. Bring your own flavors and tell us about them, too. Swap out the veges. Experiment with new proteins. There are very few right ways.

Plus (as an aside - totally off the point); I hate it when an article crosses my path with the header - “(insert number) things you are getting wrong (insert subject)”. No. Fuck off. Life is way too short to be bothered reading about the shit some stranger thinks I get wrong.

You are getting a ton right. You are doing great! Doing it differently is not wrong!

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Arancini (using risotto leftovers)

Ours was not a real arancini because we had no mozzarella and we made them into patties, but the method was the same.

Cool leftover risotto completely - best if chilled overnight. Scoop into balls, press a cube of mozzarella into the centre of each, and roll tight.

Dip each ball in flour, then beaten egg, then breadcrumbs.

Fry in hot oil until golden and crisp all over. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot.

I had mine with sweet thai chilli sauce (fusing my cultures) and Daughter had hers with mayo. Fusing the cultures further. Mayo is her thing. (Don’t get me started!🤣).

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So. There we have it!

Baby is just waking up! So we are going to take him out in the pram for a walk and some daylight. Daylight is useful for setting those circadian rhythms.

Exposure to daylight—especially in the morning—helps regulate the body’s internal clock by signaling when it’s time to be awake. This can gradually support better sleep patterns for babies, especially as they begin to differentiate between day and night.

Learning how to human. 🥹

As an aside - for jet setting grown ups - 15 minutes in the direct sunlight (without sunglasses) immediately upon landing helps reset your body to the time zone you have landed in. Avoiding a bit of jet lag.

If it is a dim gloomy rainy day too bad for you! 🤣

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Baby is seeing more clearly now - and sometimes will have clear focus up to 10 inches from his face. Which is the exact right length to see the face attached to the arms that hold him.

Have a gorgeous day.

Celi

Thank you. And as always - no matter how you support me - I am grateful. 🙏 Just popping in with a Like 💙 and a read is marvelous!