Molly Makes Arancini

This is our 100th episode?

[Man] Yeah.

Are you just saying that?

No, you're the 100th episode.

Oh my God, celebration station!

Am I truly 100?

You guys. [laughs]

[Man] [speaks indistinctly]

[upbeat music]

Today I'm gonna show you how

to make our arancini, which are deep-fried,

crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, risotto balls.

There's a few steps to this process.

Number one, you have to start with making your risotto,

which isn't as intimidating as it often sounds.

And then you form them into balls,

you stuff them with small pieces of mozzarella,

they then go through a breading process,

and then they get deep fried.

To start our risotto, the base of the risotto

is onion and garlic, so it's one large onion

that I'm gonna dice.

[knife slicing through onion]

We have two cloves of garlic, which I'm just

gonna lightly smash [garlic crunches]

'cause it makes it easier to remove the peel.

I know, seriously, with the Allison comments.

I get it, Brad and his Allison.

I'm not Brad.

Just thinly slicing this garlic.

[knife hitting cutting board]

All my onion into one bowl.

I'll put my sliced garlic into this one,

and then we'll head over to the stove and start the risotto.

[speaking in a foreign language]

I have three and a half cups of stock

on the back burner here just keeping warm

that we're gonna add little by little later on.

But it's important to keep it warm

so that you don't lower the temperature

of the risotto every time you add it.

So just, first things first, get your stock

on the back burner.

So we're gonna start this with two tablespoons of butter,

just melting it over medium heat until foamy.

Every good risotto starts with a base of aromatics.

At the very bare minimum, there's gotta be onions,

so that is going to be the beginning of our risotto.

So put that in first, just stirring occasionally.

This'll just take about five minutes.

The onions are nice and soft.

I'm going to add now my garlic.

So just another minute or so to mellow out the raw garlic.

[onion and garlic sizzling]

This is Carnaroli, which is a short grain Italian rice.

I'm gonna add this, and just start to toast it here

in this relatively dry skillet.

And you'll notice that some the grains

are gonna start to turn translucent around the outside

with a little white dot in the middle.

And that's just them starting to heat

and toast in the fat.

I have a half a cup of white wine

that I'll use to deglaze.

[wine sizzles in pan]

And I'm gonna cook off any

of that super raw alcoholic flavor,

and that's just gonna add a nice acidity

to the finished risotto.

So a couple of minutes just until all

of the liquid has been absorbed

and the alcohol's cooked off.

So now we're gonna start little

by little adding the stock, so I'm gonna start

with one cup of broth, stirring pretty frequently

because that's gonna help for some

of the starch in the rice to come out

as you're beating it around in the pan,

and that'll help make it super creamy.

And I'm letting all of that broth absorb

into the rice before adding another ladleful.

You could listen to an episode

of the Bon Appetit foodcast while you made your risotto.

That would be lovely.

There was actually a really good episode with Samin Nosrat.

I think Carla interviewed her recently,

so why don't you go listen to that one?

So all of our broth has been added,

and there's very little liquid left.

You can see the streaks in the bottom of the pot

as I stir, so it's time to take it off the heat

and add the rest of our ingredients.

So we'll go back over here.

And I'm gonna add in two more tablespoons of butter.

There's really no point in holding back here.

I'm also going to add in a quarter cup of heavy cream,

which is not traditional but, in developing this recipe,

I felt like arancini are often really dry

by the the time that the risotto is cooked,

and then they get breaded, and then they fry,

and I'm not here for dry arancini.

So a little added padding of a quarter cup

of heavy cream really does the trick.

You will see when we break into them.

So I have two teaspoons of lemon zest

and one tablespoon of lemon juice.

So this is brightening up the risotto a bit.

And then obviously black pepper.

And then I'll just add, little by little,

two ounces of Parmesan cheese.

And you can see, as I'm stirring,

this is getting really creamy.

At this point, you could serve it up just as is.

It would be delightful, but we're gonna hold off

and turn it into arancini.

I have a piece of parchment lining a rimmed baking sheet,

and I'm gonna sheet out all of this risotto

and let it cool, spreading it evenly out here.

This'll help it cool off more quickly.

And then I'll throw it in the fridge for about an hour.

Our risotto's been chilling for an hour,

[fridge door slams shut]

which means that we are ready to form the arancini.

So I'm gonna take a 1/4-cup measure

and scoop a quarter cup of this chilled risotto

into my hand, flatten it into a very loose

two-inch patty, and then place one

or two pieces of mozzarella right into the center of it.

And then, just using my fingers

to fold the sides up around it and enclose the mozzarella,

and just gently roll it into a ball.

We now have 12 perfectly formed little orbs,

and we're gonna let them freeze for 10 minutes just

to firm up a bit before we go for the dredge.

It's been 10 min, voila.

[Man] Voila!

So now we're going to go to the breading station.

Okay, so the three-part dredge is important

to get a really good crust that holds

in all of the creamy risotto and the molten mozzarella.

So we start by throwing each one in the flour,

let it shake off, go into the egg wash.

So you always want to have a dry hand and a wet hand.

So this left hand will be my wet hand, let the egg drip.

And then I'll use my dry hand over here for the panko again.

And then onto a fresh sheet of parchment,

and we'll keep going.

[hands clap]

Okay, let's fry.

So there are 12, so I'll do six at a time.

Just gently lowering them into the oil.

You can give these guys a little nudge in the oil

as they're frying just so that they fry evenly all around.

[arancini sizzling and crackling in fryer]

It's been six minutes. [timer beeping]

These look beautiful, and I'm draining them here

on a paper towel-lined plate.

And then just seasoning them lightly with salt.

Since they just came out of the deep fryer,

it'll cling to them.

I'm gonna go plate 'em.

To serve with these arancini,

I'm gonna make a super simple spicy dipping sauce.

So I'm starting with a couple tablespoons

of chopped Calabrian chiles.

These are found jarred.

They're Sicilian, they're super, super spicy,

they're packed in oil and vinegar,

and they're pretty powerful, incredible ingredient.

To the Calabrian chiles, I'm gonna add half

of a grated garlic clove, some lemon zest,

and lemon juice, and then a couple tablespoons

of olive oil, and just stir this together.

It's a really beautiful, vibrant,

super spicy, super vinegary condiment

to serve with the arancini.

I called some friends down for an arancini party.

Ooh, got a little lemon bite situation.

Oh yeah, there's a lot of lemon.

Oh my God.

[chuckles]

Mm-hmm.

My breath is gonna be insane after this.

Yes. [chuckles]

[chuckles with delight]

Wow, it's spicy in a very nice way.

Arancini with Calabrian chiles

are the new mozzarella sticks, basically.

Whoa. You heard it here first.

You heard it here first.

[Emily] Wow.

[Molly] There's so many cheese pulls

to be had in these, it's almost TMI.

[Emily] Yeah.

NSFW for sure. [Molly chuckles]