Sweet S'more Dessert Arancini

I just love when I have a 'Eureka!' in the kitchen. It’s that moment when you come up with an idea and just need to test it out to see if it works. I am sure I have not reinvented the wheel and somewhere this has been done before, but it is new to me! I am talking about making a sweet version of a classic Sicilian Street food: Arancini.

I have made many versions of arancini. If you have never heard of them before, the simplest explanation would be they are breaded and fried, stuffed risotto balls. Arancini literally translates to “little oranges.”  They are traditionally a savory treat to be enjoyed as a snack or an appetizer, but if you are like me you can make a meal out of them! Saffron, ground meat, peas and cheese are the usual suspects when it comes to flavorings and fillings. These delightful treats are a wonderful use of leftover risotto from a previous meal and work best for assembly when the rice is cold and sticky. The arancini recipe below was from my very first “Chef Dinner” at The Chopping Block, which was Italian Cicchetti or small plate Italian tapas. I served them with a fontina fonduta but you could also pair them with your favorite marinara.

Herbed Arancini

Scroll down for a printable version of this recipe

Yield: 2 to 3 dozen mini pieces

Active time: 30 minutes

Start to finish: 50 minutes

3 1/2 to 4 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, small dice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup arborio rice

1/4 teaspoon saffron threads soaked in 1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup parsley, rough chopped

2 tablespoons fresh oregano, rough chopped

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 pound provolone, cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

2 cups vegetable oil

1. Place the chicken stock in a saucepan and heat over medium-low heat. Keep handy off to the side.
2. Heat a heavy-bottomed pot over medium low heat and add the butter. Gently sauté the onions until softened, about 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute.
3. Add the rice, and cook, stirring constantly, until the rice is lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Add the white wine and saffron threads to deglaze, and then reduce until the pan is almost dry.
4. Pour in one ladleful of the warm stock and stir until the pan is almost dry. Continue in this fashion until the rice is cooked to your liking. It should be soft but still al dente.
5. Sprinkle in the herbs and remove from the heat. Fold in the cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread the cooked risotto out onto a sheet tray and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
   
   

1. Take a large scoop of the cooled risotto and place it in the palm of your hand. Press a cube of provolone into the center, pinching the risotto over it to conceal the cheese. Set the rice balls on a parchment-lined sheet tray.
2. Place the flour, eggs and breadcrumbs in three separate bowls.
3. Dredge each rice ball through each of the bowls, starting with the flour, then the eggs, then the breadcrumbs. Place the breaded croquettes on a parchment-lined sheet tray.
4. Heat the oil in a saucepan or deep skillet over medium heat until it reaches 370°. Fry the arancini in the oil in batches, until golden brown on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel lined plate.

Let’s back up and talk about the risotto itself. It is an Italian rice dish that is served as a pasta course or side dish in Italy, and often as a main course in the United States. A perfect risotto is creamy and flavorful, with separate grains of tender yet chewy rice. To make risotto, you need Arborio rice, a short grain rice that comes in several varieties. The most common is labeled simply “Arborio” and is widely available. We also recommend the “Carnaroli” variety, which creates a risotto with more distinct grains of rice.

Regular long grain rice does not make successful risotto, because its texture and starch content do not hold up to the constant stirring required during cooking. Arborio rice can also be used to make paella, the saffron flavored seafood and rice dish from Spain.

Delicious risotto also requires rich stock or broth. The type of stock to use depends on the flavor of the risotto and what you are adding to it or pairing it with. You want to make sure your stock is simmering gently on the stove while you are cooking the risotto. If you use cold stock, it will stop the risotto from cooking at each addition, and you will be stirring and cooking much longer than necessary. I always think of risotto as a process as well as the name of the dish. This is the only rice dish that you make by toasting the grain, ladling in the liquid a cup or so at a time and cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid has evaporated and then repeat the process until the rice is cooked. The rice should be slightly chewy or al dente when it is done, which takes about 18-20 minutes. I have “risottoed” oats, farro, potatoes, brown rice, and even barley with this method.

Another favorite rice dish of mine is rice pudding. This dish uses long grain white rice like jasmine or basmati. The process for cooking these types of rice are vastly different compared to the Arborio. The general ratio I use for cooking these types of rice on the stovetop is 1.5 cups liquid to 1 cup of rice. I usually like a sturdier grain, but if you prefer something softer you can go with 2:1 ratio.

The process here is to bring the rice and the water up to a boil together and then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Super easy, right? Even a professional messes up every once and a while! I tell my students in Culinary Boot Camp that rice is the most messed up dish on the planet. Sometimes you still have water on the bottom, or crunchy top, or mushy bottom or burnt bottom… it can be annoying for sure.

But there are some tricks to help prevent this in the future. My top three rules are no stirring, definitely no peeking, and be patient with the rest time. Just recently, I was teaching our Taste of Thailand class when one of the students’ pots decided to boil over and the rice got a tad bit over done and “goopy” for lack of a better term. In this instance, it wasn’t the end of the world because we were able to just add a little more liquid to thin it out, and the sticky rice pudding ended up being deliciously creamy.

Mango and Jasmine Rice Pudding

Yield: 4 servings

Active time: 35 minutes

Start to finish: 1 hour, 35 minutes

1 cup jasmine rice

1 cinnamon stick

2 cups water

1 lime, zested

1 egg yolk

3 cups whole milk

One 12-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh or frozen mangos, cut into medium dice

Toasted coconut, for garnish

1. Soak the rice, cinnamon stick and water in a heavy saucepan for 1 hour.
2. Bring the rice mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 10 to 12 minutes or until the water is almost evaporated.
3. Whisk together the lime zest, egg yolk, whole milk, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.
4. Add the milk mixture to the rice and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until the rice pudding thickens slightly, about 25 minutes.
5. Stir in the mangos.
6. Spoon the warm pudding into bowls and garnish with a sprinkling of toasted coconut.

Hence the Eureka moment! The thick rice reminded me of leftover risotto but much richer. I was totally inspired by this hiccup of sticky rice pudding that I wanted to try a theory of combining my love of arancini with rice pudding to come up with what I am now calling sweet s'more dessert arancini.

I decided to test this idea with the rice pudding method above first. I know for a fact that I could make a sweet version of a standard risotto and the assembly would work because of the starch content, but I was hopeful that with the egg in the pudding as a stabilizer and thickener it would hold. The above recipe is the original recipe found in class, but it wouldn’t be a true test unless I changed it all around to make it my own. So, I swapped out the lime for orange zest and decided on chopped strawberries instead of mangoes folded into the rice. I also wanted to have some without strawberries.

You can use any fresh, frozen or dried fruit or omit if you want to keep the filling as the star. I did find that the fruit brought on extra moisture once added, so my suggestion is to really make sure your rice is super thick and the liquid is reduced enough. Once the rise pudding is done, you want to spread it out in order to chill more rapidly in the fridge.

Standard breading procedure is usually flour, egg, breadcrumbs; for this though, I opted for sweet rice flour, egg, and graham cracker crumbs. I would think that fine ground nuts or even coconut would be a great exterior coating as well - or even ground cookies like Oreos, Nutterbutters, or Biscoff or 'Nilla wafers. I found that for an extra crispy outside, double dipping into the eggs and crumbs works well but isn’t totally necessary.

Before filling, I like to portion all of my rice with a scoop. I used a 1/4 cup scoop but you could always make mini versions with a smaller scoop. Just remember not to overfill. You need the rice to envelope the interior completely.

You can get really creative with fillings. I had s'mores on the brain once I decided on a graham crumb crust, so I wanted to do a chocolate chip and marshmallows filling. Other great choices would be frozen fruit (especially if you don’t add it to the rice) peanut butter with banana, Nutella, cream cheese and jam. The possibilities are endless. Once all of the portions are filled, I wrap the rice around and form them into spheres. If you’ve got extra time, refrigerating or freezing will make it easier to go through the breading process, but I admit I didn’t do that with this test.

Once all of the arancini are breaded, you will deep fry them at 375 degrees for about 3-4 minutes. I was looking for the exterior to be a deep golden brown. What is great about this recipe is you can work smart and not hard by assembling these in different stages instead of doing this recipe all in one day.

My suggestions would be making a big batch of your favorite rice pudding to enjoy as is. Then any leftovers will last in your fridge for a week or so. When you are ready, you can bread and fry them at your convenience. Or you can assemble and freeze the arancini before breading and pull them out and bread and fry. One other choice would be to fully assemble and bread them, freeze them, and fry from frozen at 350 degrees whenever you want. I know there are baked arancini options out there, but I am uncertain if these particular variations would work baked. Eventually I will test them out in my air fryer, so stay tuned!

To get a more in depth knowledge of rice, our Culinary Boot Camp has a whole day dedicated to rice and grains! We have an assortment of other classes that have different styles of rice made in them from Trip to Cuba to Paella Party to Sushi Workshop and more. I hope you enjoy trying to make these at home, and I would love to hear about your filling and breading combinations in the comments.

I am also super excited to be doing another type of chef dinner in September. We have a new chef Tasting Table series where our chefs create their own menus for a demonstration-style class. Mine will be featuring recipes seen on the Hulu hit TV series The Bear! The first session already sold out, so we've added a second session on Monday, September 23 from 6pm-7:30pm. Don't miss out! 

Yield: 2-3 dozen pieces

Author: The Chopping Block

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Herbed Arancini

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 30 MinTotal time: 50 Min

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 to 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, small dice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads soaked in 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup parsley, rough chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, rough chopped
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 pound provolone, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 2 cups vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Place the chicken stock in a saucepan and heat over medium-low heat. Keep handy off to the side.
2. Heat a heavy-bottomed pot over medium low heat and add the butter. Gently sauté the onions until softened, about 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute.
3. Add the rice, and cook, stirring constantly, until the rice is lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Add the white wine and saffron threads to deglaze, and then reduce until the pan is almost dry.
4. Pour in one ladleful of the warm stock and stir until the pan is almost dry. Continue in this fashion until the rice is cooked to your liking. It should be soft but still al dente.
5. Sprinkle in the herbs and remove from the heat. Fold in the cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread the cooked risotto out onto a sheet tray and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
6. Take a large scoop of the cooled risotto and place it in the palm of your hand. Press a cube of provolone into the center, pinching the risotto over it to conceal the cheese. Set the rice balls on a parchment-lined sheet tray.
7. Place the flour, eggs and breadcrumbs in three separate bowls.
8. Dredge each rice ball through each of the bowls, starting with the flour, then the eggs, then the breadcrumbs. Place the breaded croquettes on a parchment-lined sheet tray.
9. Heat the oil in a saucepan or deep skillet over medium heat until it reaches 370°. Fry the arancini in the oil in batches, until golden brown on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel lined plate.

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