"Cheesy Mashed Potatoes" and Mozzarella Sticks Remixed

Yesterday, I decided to make risotto for the first time. I knew risotto was a creamy rice dish that had a reputation of being rather difficult to make, but I was ready for the challenge. I think risotto had that reputation because you have to constantly watch and take care of it; a mother and her baby being a pretty good comparison. My first step was to melt about a tablespoon of butter and saute onions in that butter for roughly two minutes. Next I "toasted the rice" - a phrase I learned while looking up tips on how to make risotto. Toasting the rice means cooking the rice in hot butter (in my case, onions and hot butter) before proceeding to add liquid (chicken broth). Giada's recipe actually called for a little white wine before adding chicken broth, but I didn't want to make my parents buy wine just for using 1/4 of a cup. So it's definitely possible that I didn't get Giada's FULL risotto experience. Anyway, I learned that the key to making a good risotto is to slowly add the chicken broth, allowing the arborio rice to absorb the chicken broth a few amounts at a time. This method cooks the risotto slowly, and is the part that requires much attention. I followed Giada's recipe, and the rice mixture smelled like cheesy mashed potatoes, which is odd considering it contained no cheese (yet), but it was a delicious smell nonetheless. I added parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. The end result came out very good! I was pleasantly surprised and thankful that nothing went wrong. This was just a basic risotto recipe that would be great accompanying a really flavorful dish to balance out the strong flavors. It's also extremely versatile - I can add any vegetables or seafood I want to the riostto. I'd say it was very successful and I'm excited to experiment with it later on.

My favorite picture so far!!

In Everyday Italian, Giada has a recipe that uses basic risotto called, Arancini di Riso. This was a dish I was completely unfamiliar with. It was basically a fried rice ball with a mozzarella center. As I was reading the recipe, I had a really good feeling that it would turn out pretty appetizing. Like I always say, everything's better with cheese! I had to alter Giada's recipe a little, according to what was available to me. I mixed about one cup of basic risotto with seasoned breadcrumbs (while the recipe calls for plain breadcrumbs), an egg, and parmesan cheese. Next, I cut cubes of mozzarella to roll the rice mixture around. I made the rice balls, and rolled them in more breadcrumbs. Since I used seasoned breadcrumbs inside the mixture, I wanted to use unseasoned breadcrumbs to roll them in. The only unseasoned breadcrumbs I had were Panko breadcrumbs - flaky Japanese breadcrumbs. The only difference I thought these breadcrumbs would make is that the exterior of the rice balls would be a little more crunchy and brown. That was fine with me! So I followed the recipe and fried each rice ball. I was right - the end result was delicious! My mom thought some chopped jalapenos in the center would also be even more tasty. I completely agreed. Arancini di Riso would be a great (and unique) appetizer! I'm really glad I used seasoned breadcrumbs inside the balls because it gave a good amount of flavor. VERY successful.


Time Spent: 1 hour and 20 mins