Ultimate Arancini Guide
The ultimate guide for making your own arancini. A base arancini recipe, filling ideas, and tips on how to not mess it up. Arancini is one of my favourites, so good job Umberto is so good at making it. It's really not as complex as it seems and hopefully, this guide will help you master it also. I think arancini also makes great party food coming into the festive season (don't @ me) as you can make it in advance and then just pop it in the oven on the night. It's also sooo good for lunches when made in advance.
🛒Ingredients
Base Arancini
800ml chicken stock
250grams of Arborio rice
Large handful of grated parmesan
1 egg
150grams of plain flour
200grams(ish) of panko breadcrumbs
Mushroom
4 large mushrooms cooked in a little butter and parsley, finely sliced. Try and remove any excess butter when adding them.
Nduja
30-40grams of Nduja, depending on how spicy you want it. If you add too much, it will become oily and seep out during cooking.
1 ball of mozzarella, torn into small peices. Be careful to dry the mozzarella before hand.
Bolognese
Using leftover bolognese sauce, just add a couple spoonfuls, too much and the mix will become wet and not stick.
📖Method
In a medium pan, heat your stock until boiling. Once at temperature, add all your rice and leave to cook.
When almost all the liquid has been absorbed, add a lid and remove from the heat. Leave the rice to fully absorb all the stock for a further 10 minutes.
Once all stock is absorbed, and when it is warm but not too hot, stir in your additional filling and parmesan, mixing thoroughly through the rice.
When adding different fillings, just be mindful that you don't want to let the mix get too wet.
When fully combined, add the lid back on and leave the rice to cool.
Once cooled, pop the pan in the fridge. The time in the fridge allows for the rice to set, which is going to make it much easier to shape. Ideally, leave it overnight or a minimum of 3 hours.
Once your rice is set, divide into 6 or 8, depending on the size you would like, equal sections and roll into balls.
In a bowl mix your egg, flour and a splash of water to make a batter, in a separate bowl, pour out your breadcrumbs. Your batter should be thick but still runny.
Coat each ball in the batter mix and then roll in the breadcrumbs until fully covered.
Fill a large pan with a neutral oil, you want just about enough oil in there to submerge the arancini. Heat the oil until it's at 170c degrees, if you don't have a thermometer, drop a little batter in, the oil is hot enough if it floats and begins to fry.
Unless you have an absolutely giant pan, you can only fry a few of these at a time, so pop the oven on a low heat to keep the done ones warm whilst you fry the rest.
A couple at a time, add the arancini to the oil and fry until they are golden and crispy all over (roughly 10 minutes).
Remove from pan and drain on kitchen paper.
Serve with whatever you fancy.