INDIAN SPICED BLUE CHEESE ARANCINI (URBAN RAJAH STYLE)
Indian Spiced Blue Cheese Arancini! This streetfood to go snack transcends continents but shares a similar DNA with it’s classic italian sister.. I’ve crossed Italian know how with Indian bravado. Taking inspiration from the home of Gorgonzola with our Father Thames Blue Cheese and parking it in a pilau infused stock arborio rice ball otherwise known as an Arancini de Riso…I’ve gone full tonto with a bout of Ethnic ConFusion…please welcome the Pilaucini.
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Makes about 12 Indian Spiced Blue Cheese Arancini (Urban Rajah Style)
Vegetable oil, for frying
150 g Arborio rice (Risotto rice)
300ml vegetable stock
60g chopped spinach
1 tsp ginger and garlic paste
½ onion, chopped finely
1 tbs salted butter
80g flour
100g breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten plus a little milk
Blue cheese (I used Father Thames from the Marlow Cheese Co)
Water
Spices and herbs
1 tsp turmeric
6 peppercorns
2 cloves
2 green cardamom
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 green chillies, chopped finely
Salt, to taste
STEP 1
To make the rice, boil the stock with the rice, turmeric, cloves, salt, peppercorn and cardamom. Stir until they boil. Turn down heat and cover and stir occasionally until all the liquid is absorbed in the rice and the rice is soft and cooked through. If the pan is looking a little dry, incrementally add some water.
STEP 2
In a frying pan, heat the oil, add the cumin and fennel seeds, once they splutter, add onions and fry until translucent. Add the ginger and garlic cook until the raw smell leaves the pan. Add the spinach, butter and chilli powder. Now add the cooked rice and stir until the mixture is stiff. Pour out on to a flat plate, cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
STEP 3
To make the Pilaucini balls:
Prepare the breadcrumbs, flour and beaten egg in 3 separate plates.
Start by heating up enough oil in a wok-like pan and keep on medium heat.
Now using the cold rice mixture form balls and push in a small piece of Gorgonzola in the middle – reshape and continue to make them into a ball like shape. The size of the Pilaucini balls depends on you.
STEP 4
Make a batch of about 5 balls at a time then dip in flour, egg and breadcrumbs – fry them together, turning them to ensure an even colour of golden brown. Rest on some kitchen paper grate some hard cheese over the top and serve.
Indian Spiced Blue Cheese Arancini timings:
00:00 Intro to Aromatic Arancini streetfood
00:21 Blue Cheese from the Marlow Cheese Company
00:53 Arborio rice into the pan
01:03 Heat up the stock with the arborio rice and spices
01:15 Add the onions and the aromatic spices
01:43 Add the cumin seeds and the fennel seeds
02:08 Add the ginger and garlic paste
02:35 Check the rice, should look lovely and yellow
02:45 Flavors from around the world!
03:00 Add the baby spinach and butter
03:10 Add the spice mix to the arborio rice
03:23 Set the risotto to one side or cool in the fridge
03:33 Rub a little oil on your hands and start to form the rice balls
03:43 Take a little cheese and push it inside the rice ball
04:10 Get ready to panne (cover in breadcrumbs!)
04:20 Into the flour first, then egg, then the breadcrumbs and repeat!
04:45 Into the pan with the arancini to shallow fry them
04:55 Keep an eye of them and move around the pan gently.
05:05 When golden brown, remove from the pan, and place on kitchen towel
05:14 Aromatic Blue Cheese Arancini, ready to eat!!
Indian Spiced Blue Cheese Arancini recipe card available here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EFvuyH47nHTvtqweYXTQzvsmyAHFS27S/view?usp=sharing
I love street food it’s authentic it’s informal it’s super tasty and I’m all about Flavor now speaking of flavor I have this wonderful block of blue cheese from the Marlo Cheese Company oh my goodness this super creamy as well as packing lots of flavor and I’m going to take that flavor and
I’ve been inspired to use kind of Italian street food I love arini those little rice balls that have got this nugget of gooey melty cheese in the middle we’re going to bling it up with some Indian spices I mean this is a marriage made in the kitchen
What we’re going to do is we’re going to add a little bit more Panache to the pan by adding some onions a little bit of chili we’re going to add some other aromates like cumin and fennel seeds to kind of really Infuse some of those spiced flavors into the rice
Mix so I’ve just taken about half an onion now look guys you can check out the full recipe you can download the recipe card but here’s the deal if you like this five subscribe share it and like it we’re going to flavor it with two of my favorite
Seeds cumin seeds why because there’s a nuttiness that you get from cumin seeds and then fennel seeds cuz it hits that kind of floral top note and don’t forget you see when you’re biting into the arini as well you get these little pots of flavor couple of teaspoons of ginger and garlic
Paste when you start to work and create street food generally it tends to be a pinch of this a pinch of that a dash of this and spices that just Elevate that is what I love about street food it’s not conventional all right it’s not an ex science look at that
Color oh my word look at that gorgeous tuck Tuk kind of yellow color you know we’re crossing um continents and countries we’ve got Italy we’ve got India and we’ve got the UK I mean what a brilliant mash up of ingredients and flavors fresh baby spinach leaves just a little knob of
Butter now we add our little spice mix here amazing this now needs to cool however as with all good foodie episodes is one we made earlier and you’ll see that it’s got all of that color but it’s just darkened a little little bit as it’s chilled down little
Hack little bit of oil helps stop the mixture from Sticky now then what we’re going to do so I’m going to take a little bit of our cheese going to just push that into the middle to your left WID something about that kind of size I mean there’re like little planets aren’t they a beauty so what we need to do is now we panate always use one hand it gets messy and you keep one hand that is clean so what we do go in with the bowl of flour some people like to do all
Of them in sequins flour then the egg then the breadcrumbs but you know what I find is that if you do that you get egg everywhere then we dip it in the egg now I’m going to pop it into our breadcrumbs that’s going to give us a really lovely kind of crispy
Texture now you could use an air fryer what I find here though is I kind of like to be in touch with the ingredients a bit more right so I can just kind of rotate them move them around see how they react in with the oil turn it up a
Little bit turn it down a little bit so that’s why I prefer this method yes look Aaron Chini crossed with a pilow stock from India parked together with a blue cheese from Britain this is an absolute street food champion