Risotto is delicious. Risotto is something most people enjoy. Risotto can be a wonderful gluten free or vegetarian option. Risotto making the traditional way is a bit time consuming and fraught with danger.

All of those things are true in my humble (yet authoritatively royal) opinion. Except, the last one (time consuming & dangerous) which can easily be solved with the push of a few buttons on your miraculous Combi-Steam. I’m sure many of my loyal ones are across making risotto in their Combi’s. It’s super easy and virtually fool proof - trust me - I should know! The main reason I am posting this today is to try to help you out with using up some of those wonderful leftovers that you have in your fridge after the Christmas Day extravaganza. It can be a bowl of mixed leftover veggies, some slices of ham or turkey or pork or beef or chopped up sausage, some cheeses or a combination of those things. Really anything goes. And, if you didn’t want to make and eat your risotto today or tomorrow or the next day I will take you a step further to create some delicious arancini that you can then freeze and whip out at a later date when you need a quick meal or to take to work for lunch.

So here we go lovely loyal ones. Combi-Steams at the ready!

Serves 6-8 as a main and makes around 20 arancini depending on size

Ingredients:

2-2½ cups leftover pre-cooked veg and/or meat (roughly chopped)*
1 medium brown onion or 2 stick celery (finely diced)
2 tbs leftover fresh herbs (chopped)*
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 tbs olive oil
200ml leftover white wine, sparkling white or rose
400g arborio rice
1 litre chicken or veg stock
50g butter
100-150g grated/crumbled leftover cheese (feta, blue, goat, cheddar, brie)
grated parmesan to garnish

Method:

1. Place the onion/celery, herbs, garlic and olive oil into a very large, shallow, flat bottomed dish or roasting pan. Season well with salt and pepper. Stir to combine everything.

2. Place dish into the Combi-Steam. Select Combination Steam (Hot Air+Steaming). Variable Steam 30%. Set the temperature to 220°C. Cook for 12 minutes or until softened and just starting to get a little golden in some places.

3. Remove the dish and add the wine. Return to the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove dish and set aside. Turn off the Combi-Steam. Leave the door open and allow to cool.*

4. Stir the rice into the onion mixture. Add the stock. (Note: The rice shouldn’t come up higher than your knuckle if you poke your index finger down to the base of the dish. If it does, the dish is too small.)

5. When you’re Combi-Steam is cool, return the dish. Select Steam. Set the temperature to 100°C/100%. Cook for 25 minutes.

6. After 25 minutes, remove the dish and add the veggies/meat. Stir through gently. Return to the Combi-Steam and cook for a further 10 minutes or until rice is just tender (al dente) and the liquid is almost completely absorbed.

7. Remove and gently stir in the butter and cheese. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Don’t over mix it as it will go gluggy.

8. Serve with extra grated parmesan if desired.

   Optional:

9. To make arancini - allow the risotto to cool for 20 minutes then place into the fridge to cool completely. Remove and roll the mixture into balls (around golf ball size but bigger if you prefer). Place the balls into the fridge on a tray to “set” for at least 30 minutes.

10. To crumb, place 200g plain (or gf plain) flour into a shallow bowl. Crack two eggs into a separate bowl and whisk to combine. Add 1 ½ cups panko breadcrumbs (or GF crumbs) to another shallow bowl.

11. Gently roll one ball at a time in the flour to coat. Shake off any excess then dip into the egg to just coat. Allow any excess to drip off. Roll in the breadcrumbs and press gently to help them stick on evenly. Repeat with all the balls. Place the crumbed balls into the freezer on the tray.* Allow to freeze for 8 hours. Remove and place carefully into zip lock bags and return to the freezer.

12. To prepare the arancini to serve, select Combination Steam (variable Steam 20%) on your Combi-Steam. Set the temperature to 200°C. Allow to pre-heat. Heat some oil in a shallow pan (around 2cm deep of oil) over medium heat until nice and hot. Add the arancini (straight from the freezer) 3-4 at a time. Cook, turning with tongs, until golden brown on each side. Brown as many as you need and place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper as you go. Add the tray into the pre-heated Combi-Steam. Cook for 10 minutes or until warm in the centre. Serve with chutney and salad or as desired. (If you thaw the arancini first you won’t need to use the oven - just brown in the oil and serve)
    
    Notes:

    *leftover veg/meat can really be anything - even things like sun-dried tomatoes, olives etc work well - just roughly chop it all up into sort of bite sized pieces so it blends with the risotto base.

    *in some Combi’s (V-ZUG & Wolf definitely) you can cool quickly by selecting Hot Air, turning the temp to 30°C and leaving the door open all the way. The fan will work to blow all the heat out while it tries to lower the temp. Once the display shows 50°C or less you’re good to go. It’s important to cool before you go back to Steaming so that you get the benefits of the moisture - if it’s too hot the Steam will just evaporate and your result won’t be good. Steam always should be done starting with a cool oven.

    *it’s important to first freeze the balls on a tray or in a single layer, otherwise they will stick together and you will be in a pickle when you want to cook only part of the batch separately.

I hope you like this concept. Use it post Christmas or after any dinner party or even at the end of a week when you have more leftover veg or meat than usual. As a society we are throwing out more and more of what we spend our hard earned pennies on, which is just crazy. This is a wonderful way to cut back on our food waste, save some for your royal coffers and get ahead with some meal prep or make another delicious dinner to enjoy.

I hope you all had a wonderful celebration yesterday, whatever that entailed. And if you’re still to celebrate or your world celebrates differently to mine, then keep this recipe up your sleeve for when it suits you.

Happy Combi-Steaming!

Yours in the kitchen,

The CSQ. x