- [Andrew] This episode is sponsored by Bright Cellars.
With the holidays rapidly approaching,
it's a great time to try Bright Cellars if you haven't yet.
Here's how it works.
You take a quick seven-question quiz
and they match you with wines
from all over the world based on your taste palette.
Then they send those wines directly to your door,
so you don't have to go label shopping at your local store.
You can get $50 off your first six-bottle box
of Bright Cellars by using the link in the video description
and you're gonna need it 'cause today
we're making arancini.
Let's get down to basics.
(upbeat music)
All right, so any conversation about arancini
usually starts with risotto.
That's the last time I roll my Rs, I promise.
Now not only have we covered risotto ad nauseum
on "Basics," "Binging," "Anime with Alvin,"
and "FundaKendalls," but due to some very dark stock,
this batch came out pretty brown.
Moreover, most of the professional arancini recipes
we could find do something rather shocking.
They cook the arborio rice just like it's regular-ass rice.
So I'm combining five cups of much lighter chicken stock
with four tablespoons of butter in a large pot,
bringing it to a simmer and in defiance of all the laws
of food, physics, society, and possibly God,
we're gonna add two cups of arborio rice,
move it around, break it up, cover with lid,
blocking any built-in steam holes
and cook the risotto rice to a state of completion
without stirring it once.
It sure fell weird, but here we are,
a lighter, fluffier arborio, which we're gonna keep covered
and let steam for about 10 minutes
before spreading out onto a rimmed baking sheet
and allowing to cool, first to room temperature
then covered in plastic and overnight in the fridge.
There you have it, a slightly more neutral,
less gloopy rice to make our arancini.
Next up, we gotta talk fillings,
and there are three that seem to be the most essential.
First, a simple pork ragu,
sauteing together half a small minced onion,
a rib or two of celery, and a couple small carrots
in two tablespoons of light olive oil until softened.
At that point, we're gonna add a pound of ground pork,
perhaps in a small clearing at the center of the pan
so it gets direct contact with the heat.
Crumble up and cook over medium-high until no longer pink.
Grate a little of my very favorite,
half a teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg,
the only bay leaf you got in the house,
little guy, and three tablespoons of tomato paste
that we're gonna saute together for one to three minutes,
until the tomato paste starts to stick
to the bottom of the pot.
Then we're gonna add a 14-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
plus a can's worth of water.
Bring it to a simmer, lower the heat,
and cook for about an hour until it's reduced and thick.
You don't want too loose a ragu,
otherwise it will leak out of your cini.
Let it cool room temperature.
Optionally, refrigerate overnight.
Next up we have the alla Norma varietal,
which, fun fact, was actually named
after someone named Norma.
In a couple tablespoons of oil, we are sauteing
one small peeled and diced eggplant
three to five minutes or until brown
and a fond is beginning to form.
Scoop aside and then right into the way-too-hot pan,
we're dumping a 14-ounce can of crushed tomatoes,
frantically lowering the heat and scraping up that fond
off the bottom of the pot.
Bring this to a simmer and cook until reduced
and no longer raw-tasting, at least 20 minutes.
Add the eggplant back to the situation,
along with a half a cup of chopped fresh basil,
and once it's cooled off a little,
about two ounces of graded ricotta salata.
Mix that in until combined but not melted,
and once again, spread it out in an aluminum thing
as its rapid heat dispersal will cool it off faster.
Just watch your fingers.
Last but not least, the one I'm most excited for, al burro.
This starts with a roux made from
three tablespoons each flour and butter,
into which we're gonna start slowly adding
splashes of whole milk, about one cup's worth,
rapidly whisking to fully incorporate
before adding the next splash,
repeating until all the milk has been transformed
into a bechamel, which we're gonna cook
for about three minutes until starting to thicken,
seasoning to taste with kosher salt
and bechamel's most essential familiar, nutmeg again.
Now we're gonna pass this through a fine mesh sieve
into another aluminum thing, in order to catch
any errant chunks, and we're cooling the bechamel
to room temperature before optionally fridging.
All right, so we got our rice, we got our fillings.
Now it's time to shape with wetted hands.
This helps to prevent the rice from sticking.
For the first one, I've got about 110-gram ball here
which I'm gonna start using my thumb
to press a significant divot into.
One deep enough to comfortably hold
about two tablespoons worth of stuff,
I'm gonna start with the alla Norma filling
carefully shuffling into the middle of this,
and then just like a Scotch egg, you just gotta kind of,
you gotta sort of pull it up around the fill?
(stammering) No, this can't be right, Andy.
What you're doing can't be right.
Please stop this, 'cause you know that you're wrong.
So let's go reassess, watch a video on the matter
and discover that you gotta set aside a little bit of rice
to turn into a little hat so that you can create
an uninterrupted shell of rice around the filling.
For the alla Norma, I'm going with a time-tested classic,
round, and then for the pork ragu filling,
which I forgot to add frozen peas
and freshly grated Parmesan to,
I'm going with the slightly more
interesting-looking Sicilian cone formation.
This starts very much the same way,
albeit with a little bit more rice,
maybe like 150 grams worth filled with
the same two tablespoons of stuffing
and topped with the same rice hat.
And then by, let's face it, cradling it in your hands.
Sort of pat the bottom with your fingers
and let the heels of your palms form the top into a cone.
I would love to see what I would've made
if I had only read that technique instead of watching it.
Then last but not least, the big bad al burro,
the only R I'm still gonna roll.
We're adding the bechamel to about four ounces
of chopped ham and four ounces
of cubed, low-moisture mozzarella.
So yes, this is going to taste good.
How'd you guess?
Mix it together and stuff, same as the spheres,
but this time pressing it into a more ovular
egg-like shape for oval-shaped arancini al burro.
Now we're gonna fridge all of these
so that they firm up a little bit
before breading and frying.
But first, something's been eating at me.
I can't deny myself any longer.
I have to make a cube-shaped arancini.
I'm sure that this is problematic to somebody,
but I just gotta follow my gut on this one.
So I'm sacrificing one of the alla Normas,
and fashioned into the best cube that I can make rice be.
Then, like I said, fridge for about 20 minutes
and then they're getting passed through
a three-stage pre-deep frying system.
That is flour, then egg, then plain breadcrumbs.
Now if you don't utilize the wet hand, dry hand technique,
you're gonna end up with breaded fingertips,
but I did discover that breaded fingers still work
on modern capacitive touchscreens.
Now for my cubed cini.
Since I am already criminally deviating from tradition,
might as well go Panko, am I right?
Now these guys are headed into
some 350-degree Fahrenheit vegetable oil
for four to six minutes, until deeply golden brown
and hopefully cooked through.
We're draining these on paper towels
so as to retain their crispness.
Rinse and repeat with the remaining arancini,
two or three at a time so you don't overcrowd the pan
nor bring down the temperature of the oil too much.
Last but not least, I got my arancini tesseract,
and with that, it's finally time to enjoy.
I'm going for one of the al burros to start,
'cause I'm hoping the filling will be melty and it's not.
Sometimes if the oil's too hot or if the arancini
are too big, they won't cook all the way through,
so adjust the heat is necessary, and worst case scenario,
throw 'em in the oven five or 10 minutes so you get this.
(bleep) Ow.
That's usual. Watch your fingers.
Thanks again to Bright Cellars
for sponsoring today's episode.
Like I said before, the holidays are a great time
to try Bright Cellars so that you have some wine on hand.
Don't feel like cooking for Friendsgiving?
Bring wine instead.
Visiting your great aunt's big family gathering?
Bring a bottle of wine as a hostess gift
or just make some arancini and grab a bottle
that pairs best with it.
In this case, it's the Azuli Sauvignon Blanc,
a dry, acidic white wine that's perfect
for both cooking and consuming arancini.
Each box comes with wine education cards
so you know what food to pair the wines with,
what temperatures they should be, and other tasting notes.
For me, my favorite part is the convenience.
I can choose to receive wine on a schedule
that works for me so I don't have to run to the store
if I'm hosting or cooking.
You can get $50 off your first
six-bottle box of Bright Cellars
by using the link in the video description.
(upbeat music)