Arancini Aromatics

The other week I donned my dark black trousers, cardboard collar shirt, dress shoes, scarf and smart black jacket. In other words it was the look of the middle-aged rock star,

think Mike Rutherford of Genesis on their recent tour and you get the feel of the outfit. Through the rain I travelled and rendezvoused at the Pedlar Market with two people I first met 27 years ago. We marked time by sampling an exotic range of food as the Autumn rain thudded down onto the roof of our executive table. 

Top of the taste list that I sampled comprised of some Quesdillas, of which more on another post, and some Arancini Balls. The last time I had anything remotely similar to this was when I had Mini Kievs as a young Kidd. The ones I sampled at the Market contained Risotto Rice, a few Chicken pieces and golden butter and herb sauce. They were an inspiration for today's blog post.

After the intensity of the week and some intriguing ways getting presented to forward my career that were chucked at me, there was a kind of stillness on the sunny Saturday. While I was waiting on the rain to clear, and my tag team partner to appear, I decided to experiment with the cooking by making some Arancini Balls of my own.

Keeping in line with the Genesis theme I banged onto the player perhaps their most controversial work, 1974's "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway". It was a record that saw the departure of longtime lead singer Peter Gabriel following the supporting tour. There is a feeling throughout the album of the band simultaneously reaching a creative peak as they're about to fall apart. The story that is meant to be told on the album makes no sense, but the music and lyrics have a power and beauty that make this essential listening. 

The first job was to get the ingredients together to make this dish and they are as follows:

For the filling: 

One White Onion, chopped finely after first being topped, tailed and peeled. 

One finely sliced Garlic Clove. 

Three Hundred Grams of Risotto Rice.

One fresh Cayenne Pepper from my garden that was de-seeded and sliced thinly. 

0.1 litres of Red Wine or Port Wine.

One litre of Chicken Stock.

One hundred and thirty grams of Riocah Flavoured Cheddar which I obtained from the ever growing and ever wonderful Stretton Hall Farm Shop | Facebook

For the coating:

Three Beaten Eggs

100 grams of Gluten Free Self-Raising Flour 

100 grams of Gluten Free Breadcrumbs 

The method goes like this:

1. Fry in Sunflower Oil in a deep frying pan or Le Cresceut dish the White Onion. Fry on a medium heat for around fifteen minutes until they are translucent. 

2. Add the Garlic Clove and Cayenne Pepper and fry for another five minutes while stirring.

3. Add the Risotto Rice and stir in for one minute.

4. Add the Red Wine or Port Wine and simmer until the Rice is absorbed by the Wine. 

5. Add the Chicken Stock and simmer vigorously for around twenty-five minutes until the Risotto Rice has absorbed all the stock and the Rice is soft. 

6. Add the Riocah Cheddar and mix in until it has been absorbed by the rest of the mixture. 

7. Leave the mixture to cool. Once cooled shape the mixture into balls a little larger than golf balls.  Put a piece of cheese, I used Arran Cheddar into the middle of each of the balls. 

8. Put the eggs, self-raising flour and breadcrumbs into three separate bowls. 

9. Put each ball into the eggs, then the self-raising flour and then the breadcrumbs so that they are totally covered by the mixture.

10. Fry in a lot of Olive Oil turning frequently for about five to ten minutes. 

The richness of the Red Wine and Riocah Cheese together with the melted Arran Cheddar gave the Arancini a luxuriant taste and the breadcrumb coating, the author's first attempt at making this type of coating, was of a crunchy golden consistency. Thank you to Pedlar and to my friends in inspiring me to make this dish. 

Aubergine d'Genius

It was the week after the cricket season had ended. It had been another memorable one for me with a finish comfortably inside the club's top twenty bowlers in terms of wickets taken and my bowling average and a finish inside the top five for my bowling strike rate. In some ways that first weekend after the end of the cricket season can feel like a bereavement, as with it comes the feeling that shorter days and hostile weather are on their way. In turn with that comes a new way of living until cricket training picks up again in the New Year. 

That's one way of looking at the end of the season. Another way of looking at it is that you can use the weekend to look back at all the memories you've made on the cricket field, and beyond, over the summer just gone. With the arrival from the courier of two Rugby games to play on my PS3 during upcoming the dark nights, a game of snooker at a nearby club and some heavy rain on the Sunday morning, I could quite easily have taken the former view upon the weekend. 

However I took a short walk with the Dogg into my conservatory and then the back garden. The Pumpkins glowed like a dimly lit streetlight in the morning fog, while the Peas and Runner Beans dangled daintily from their host plants. In one corner of the conservatory the Aubergines we had cultivated since the frosts of January had swelled into deep purple and noir vegetables that were ripe for the picking. The Bell Peppers were scrunched and twisted in quirky ways while the Cayenne Peppers were sharply pointed like colourful fangs.

It was looking around the conservatory and garden at the plentiful supplies of fresh vegetables that we had worked hard to prepare over the year that gave me perspective and understanding. It was a realisation that for all the adventures on and off the cricket field over the summer, sometimes it is good to stop and appreciate all that you've achieved and bask on that to make more memories during the Autumn and Winter. 

A way of appreciating the vegetables we had nurtured was for me to take something special for us both to eat and something to share with you all to help inspire you readers in your own cooking recipes over the coming months. I made an Aubergine and Sausage Casserole using the following ingredients:

Four Aubergines, diced and cubed sourced from those grown in my conservatory. 

Two Red Bell Peppers, diced and sliced thinly from the crop grown in my conservatory. 

One Green Bell Pepper, diced and sliced thinly from the crop grown in my conservatory. 

One Cayenne Pepper, diced and sliced thinly from the crop grown in my conservatory.

Five fresh Basil Leaves from my back garden.

Six fresh Marjoram Leaves from my back garden. 

Three Heads of Fresh Parsley from my back garden.

Eight Tomato and Pork Sausages- sourced mine locally from the ever wonderful Stretton Hall Farm Shop. Check out their page at: Stretton Hall Farm Shop | Facebook 

Six Tomatoes cut into small cubes.

Two diced cloves of Garlic.

A tin of Chick Peas.

A White Onion, peeled, topped, tailed and diced. 

Half a pint of Beef Stock. 

A teaspoon of Chilli Powder. 

As I began work on preparing the dish, I slipped onto the player Morcheeba's 1996 offering "Who can you trust?". The album is another one in a long line of memorable British Trip-Hop albums from the 1990s and every bit as good as Massive Attack's "Blue Lines", "Dummy" by Portishead or "Maxinquaye" by Tricky. 

The method goes like this:

1. Shallow Fry the Sausages on a medium heat for around five minutes until they are slightly browned. Then leave to one side. 

2. In a Le Cresceut sweat the Aubergine, , Garlic, Peppers and Onions for around ten minutes or until the Onions are translucent, whichever is the sooner. 

3. Add the Tomatoes and stew for another ten minutes. 

4. Add the Basil, Chilli Power, Marjoram and Parsley plus the Chickpeas and stir these in. 

5. Add the Sausages and stir in with around three quarters of the Beef Stock.

6. Cook in the oven on Gas Mark 3, or 275 degrees Fahrenheit or 170 degrees Celsius, for ninety minutes. 

7. After ninety minutes remove the Le Cresceut from the oven, stir the contents and add the remainder of the Beef Stock. Return to the oven and cook for a further thirty minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and serve.  

From a health fitness point of view the Sausages provided plenty of iron, while the Chick Peas had lots of nutrients and fibre and the Aubergine contained lots of minerals and potassium. From a taste point of view the herbs added much flavour and the homegrown vegetables were much sweeter and tastier than their quasi-manufactured supermarket counterparts would have been. 

One pot to rule them all

 We recently returned from adventures in Arran and the Lake District and brought with us some recipes from our travels. One of the great things about travel is visiting various restaurants and hotels to see how they approach their cooking. That way you can incorporate these skills into your own cooking. It's a little like what Mark Knopfler said about stealing a few guitar licks from other artists he worked with so that he could incorporate these new licks into the music he made with his own bands.

For our stay in the Lake District we stopped at a place marketed as a Vegan Retreat where no non-vegan food, bar that for our Dogg, could be brought onto the premises. We had a lovely stay there and the Dogg loved to run around the expansive back garden. The owners seemed pleasant. However on examination of  surprising public comments made after our departure; they came across, much like characters in a Bond film, as not all that they first appeared.

Although their plush luxury coupled with subtle and not so subtle attempts to convert us to be vegan failed, they certainly gave us some food for thought to try a variety of new vegan recipes. Those of you who have followed this blog for a time will know that I write about, and cook, a lot of vegetarian, fish, meat and vegan recipes. My outlook on life is that a balanced diet is the most important thing and not all vegan recipes I have seen give enough protein to be standalone meals. They are better as side dishes.

When we arrived at the Vegan Retreat, we took the opportunity to eat out at places that had ostensibly Vegan dishes on the menu so as to immerse ourselves fully in the experience we had signed up for on the two days at the end of the holiday. On the first night of our stay we went down town with the Dogg; she conquered her nerves to allow us to relax at a restaurant called the Round. Together with its sister restaurant Fellpack, of which more later, it offers quality dining alternatives to meat dishes. In this case we had a burger made entirely of Beetroot while I relaxed my nerves and kept in holiday mode by consuming a large can of Hawkshead Pale Ale. 

The next night we were outside at the Fellpack itself as the clouds battled and bled lukewarm rain onto us occasionally. Having quickly polished off a bottle of Keswick Gold, these days I will only drink the finest craft beer, cask ale, real Whisky, Gin and good wine the world has to offer, it was time for our main meal. 

The Fellpack specialises in Fellpots and these are essentially a local take on Onepot recipes. This and more from the menu can be glimpsed at: Fellpack - Fellpack 

I quickly consumed their Lentil Mixed Bean chilli that also contained Quinoa and enough protein to create a full main meal. The sour cream and chive mixture was livened by strong Jalapeno Chillies which were extinguished by another stein of golden bitter. This filling recipe inspired me on my return home to make a meal inspired by this dish. 

On the player was some newly discovered mellow trip hop in the shape of Morcheeba's excellent "Who can you Trust?" from 1996, which alternatively floats, bites, stings and impresses with its range of sounds that make it a lost classic. 

The ingredients for the recipe were as follows:

One White Onion, peeled, topped, tailed and then diced. 

One Spring Onion, this one was homegrown, tailed and cut into thin pieces. The leaves should be used as well. 

One Green Sweet Pepper, this one was homegrown too, topped, de-seeded and sliced thinly.

Two Hundred and Twenty Five Grams of Quinoa.

A tablespoon of Cajun Seasoning. 

One Hundred Grams of Quorn Mince. 

A tin of Red Kidney Beans in Chilli Sauce. 

The method goes like this:

1. Simmer the Quinoa in a saucepan of boiling water for around twenty-five minutes then drain and leave to one side.

2. In a Le Cresceut with some vegetable oil gently fry the Onions, Pepper, Cajun Seasoning and Quorn Mince. Do this for around twenty five minutes.

3. Add the Red Kidney Beans in Chilli Sauce and the Quinoa to the Le Cresceut and warm through before serving. 

The key to a good Vegan Dish is Protein and more Protein coupled with Spice and extra Spice. That way the dish is lifted above being a simple side dish. In this recipe the Quinoa and Red Kidney Beans give the requisite protein, although I would substitute Quorn Mince for Pui Lentils next time to give more genuine protein. The Chilli Sauce, Cajun Seasoning and homegrown produce meanwhile make the flavour rise above the ordinary.