Arancini – Crispy (Leftover) Risotto Balls

Cripsy Risotto Balls

Hands up if you have ever cooked a delicious risotto only to realise you had used twice as much rice as you needed to, and you now have enough to feed a small army?

I thought so...

It happens to the best of us. Before the grains of rice have plumped and swollen it’s easy to convince yourself just to add another half a cup or so more and before you know it your pan is overflowing with the stuff.

But fear not! Never again will you have to throw away tasty, leftover risotto! This recipe is incredibly simple to follow, and deliberately so.

It is thought that arancini originates from Sicily, though there are similar recipes elsewhere in Italy. They are often stuffed with a meat sauce or even cheese, but so that you don’t have to buy in any extra ingredients to make these, I’ve decided to give you a basic recipe and method so that you can use any leftover risotto you might have.

Mustard Chicken and Vegetable Pie

Mustard Chicken and Vegetable Pie

When I look around my blog I think the last word I would use to describe my food is traditional. More often than not my recipes are a twist on a classic – a traditional idea that has been warped either to be healthier, more exciting, or to simply use up the ingredients I’ve got in the cupboards.

With that in mind, this is probably the closest I will ever get to a traditional recipe.

Chicken and veg pie has been around for hundreds of years. It’s a simple idea and is such a crowd pleaser. With the addition of English mustard, this pie has a bit more kick than some, but the filo pastry keeps it crisp and light. (It also helps to keep the calories down, which is always a plus!)

Lamb Rogan Josh

Indian is by far one of my favourite cuisines and I know I’m not alone! The Indian often gives Chinese a run for its money in the country’s favourite take-away food.

When I was younger I didn’t ever eat Indian food. We’ve always been the kind of family that orders a takeaway for special occasions (like birthdays) or evenings where the routines gone out of the window (like parents evening for example). BUT the Indian takeaway leaflets were always left in the drawer until Mum and Dad were home alone.

I remember trying my first piece of Chicken Tikka. I had never tasted anything like it before! It was so new and different that I genuinely couldn’t tell if I liked it or not. I wanted to try more, but I was scared that my parents would order me a dish and I wouldn’t be able to finish it. After all, trying one piece of Chicken Tikka isn’t quite the same as sitting down to a plate of keema naan, pilau rice and a creamy curry.

It turns out my sister HATED her taste so that was that...I never really got a chance to try curry again properly until I was in my early teens. To this day I maintain I fell in love with Jon (AND cooking) because he cooked the best curries! Ok...we both know they were out of a jar, but I had never had a homemade curry until I started going for dinner at Jon’s house. They were always vegetarian (sometimes which extra quorn pieces) and served with fluffy basmati rice. That was it...I was hooked!

When I passed this news on to my parents it was decided we’d start ordering Indian take-aways as a family. No more Dominoes or Chinese. The Indian was king. By this point my sister was always round her boyfriends, so once a month on a Saturday night, I started working my way through the local curry house's menu.

As it turns out, I like ALL types of curries – from creamy Kormas and butter chickens, to spicy Jalfrezis. I also love garlic naans, peshwari naans, keema naans, chapattis, parathas, pilau rice, lemon rice...basically there isn’t ONE thing on the menu I don’t like. Sometimes I’ll order lamb, sometimes chicken, sometime prawn and sometimes veggie. No curry is off limits.

Despite saying this, one curry has had a special place in my heart all these years. The Rogan Josh.

I don’t actually remember when this became my “go-to” curry but if we were ordering in a hurry or weren’t ordering a giant Indian feast, I’d simply order a Rogan Josh. I loved the rich sauce with tomatoes and green peppers mopped up with a keema naan – to me it was heaven!

Until my post on a Low Fat Chicken Korma I hadn’t tried recreating my take-away favourites at home. I have no friends or family from India who could teach me all their secrets, and I just can’t justify using ghee in my home cooking (I swear I would weigh a tonne overnight!) So I’ve always steered clear.

But, in my pursuit of delicious tasting healthy foods I decided it was time I tried to crack the Rogan Josh.

Rogan Josh is the signature dish of the Kashmir region and is traditionally cooked with lamb. The sauce or gravy is based on browned onions yoghurt, garlic, ginger and spices such as cloves, bay leaves, cardamom and cinnamon all of which you'll find in my recipe. The red colour of the sauce traditionally comes from dried Kashmiri chilies. These can be replaced by paprika which has a similar flavour - again you'll find this in my recipe below. It is not a really hot dish, but instead should be fragrant with a slight chilli heat rather than a kick.

Indian take-aways in countries such as England also include the addition of tomatoes. This gives it a less traditional flavour but also helps bring out the red colour found in the Kashmiri dish.

My recipe falls somewhere in between the two. It has the tomatoes and green peppers that I know so well from my local take-away, but the spices used are very traditional. I’ve also cut down on much of the oil needed to cook the lamb and baked it in the oven for a tender texture so it’s not as unhealthy for you as the take-away variety.

If you have never tried cooking “take-away style” curries at home before, this is a great recipe to start with! You will get a smoother gravy or sauce if you have a blender to hand but it’s not essential, and this can be served with rice or traditional breads.

Here’s the recipe:

Mincemeat Bread and Butter Pudding

Overdue post alert!!!!!!!!!

Now that’s dealt with let’s move on.

This recipe is one that I have been DIEING to cook since Christmas, but you know what? It turns out you CAN have too much of a good thing, and despite everyone telling me how delicious my mincemeat was, they didn’t want to eat mincemeat leftovers. No-sir-y-bob!

In their defence, I think we only got rid of the last of our Christmas mince pies about a week ago. This is down to two main things. Firstly, most of my family were trying to “be good” this Christmas – aka not stuff their faces with all the delicious treats I had made them. And secondly, we tend to make at least two batches on Christmas Eve. This results in many leftover mince pies as people are far too full after Christmas Day/Boxing Day/all the parties in between, to gorge themselves on these little morsels of joy.

Their loss, not mine.

But hey-ho, you live and learn! Note to self: make less mince pies next year.

If you, like me, have found yourself still left with Christmas leftovers in the form of jars and jars of mincemeat, have no fear, because I have just the recipe for you.

I actually managed to serve this up in front of my parents by NOT mentioning the C-word. No, not that C word, I mean CHRISTMAS! Whenever I had mentioned making a Mincemeat Bread and Butter Pudding before, it had always been as a Christmas dish. Something to replace the Christmas Pudding with, or to serve with brandy butter in the main special dinners that make up the Christmas period. Consequently, as we moved further and further into January my parents didn’t want to hear the C word mentioned again, let alone eat anything that tasted so...Christmassy!

So, I had to disguise it!

Fortunately for me, my mincemeat recipe is choc-full of delicious fruits. I helped lift these flavours from the mincemeat by adding the zest of lemons and oranges giving it a lighter, more vibrant flavour. The light, gooey bread and butter texture was still present, but this complemented the succulent mincemeat within, rather than being dominated by it.

They were half way through their bowls before anyone even noticed what I had done! I had successfully served up Christmas in a bowl exactly 4 weeks after the big event.

Bubble and Squeak

The 27th of December - for me, the first day I finally get to sit down and rest. (Well as much rest as can be achieved while revising for Law School.)

The Christmas period is certainly a busy one. Tonight we are entertaining my sisters new boyfriend who is visiting from Nottingham - aka Christmas 2. Tomorrow I will be at Jon's house for Christmas 3 as his sister and brother-in-law come to stay. On Saturday there's another family party to attend before yet MORE family coming to stay on the 30th! And despite all of this, we still seem to have WAY too much food in our fridge! You'd think we didn't feed our guests.

Taking a little respite today, my mother and I decided to try and make a dent on the leftovers in fridge.

We came across cooked parsnips, peas, sweetcorn, roast potatoes and loads of carrots. This means one thing in our house - bubble and squeak.

For those of you who don't know, bubble and squeak is a traditional English a shallow fried potato cake filled with other vegetables leftover from a roast dinner.

For those of you who believe in the saying "waste not, want not" this recipe is for you!

Leftover Lamb Flatbread

This has to be the ULTIMATE of all left-over’s recipes. What’s more, it is pretty damn healthy! It is the perfect combination of simple flavours and how a little bit of home-cooking can go a long way.

My idea for this recipe came after having yet another lamb roast. My family absolutely love roast dinners, but to be honest, I can take them or leave them! I like the veg, I like the gravy, I like roast meat but as a meal they just don’t do anything for me. My favourite thing about roasts however are the next day’s meals made with the leftovers. I love cooking beef curries, chicken supreme and bubble and squeak – delicious dishes that can be made from what I think is a rather average meal.

So, when dad got another leg of lamb out of the fridge for Easter Day, I decided I had to come up with something new to do with the leftovers. Lamb for me, screams Greek! You can’t beat BBQ’d Lamb Souvlaki wrapped in a pita with tatziki on a beach in Greece, 40 degree heat, and crystal clear waters lapping at your feet! I’ve had many a lovely holiday like this and that was my inspiration for this dish.

Essentially it’s a low fat kebab with homemade flat bread, lean roasted meat with salad and mint yogurt. It’s so tasty and entirely guilt free!

Turkey Supreme Leftovers!

I my house, it is not the turkey curry that reigns supreme the week after Christmas, but...Turkey Supreme!

The rest of the year this is my Mums go to dish when there's chicken in the fridge and she's been forced to cook, but it never tastes as good as it does when it is made with leftover turkey!

It is also a good dish to kick-start those healthy eating habits! Minus the butter in the roux, the rest of the dish is relatively low fat! Especially if you use skimmed milk to make the white sauce.

So if you're still looking for ways to finish off the last of that turkey, this is the recipe for you!

Ps. Don't be afraid to put the dark meat in, that just makes it taste EVEN better!!!