Author: Emma Hawkins
Oven Baked Arancini with a Spicy Tomato Sauce

Oven Baked Arancini with a Spicy Tomato Sauce

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I kid you not when I say that this is the most delicious savoury thing I’ve ever made. I’m a sucker for Italian food in general so maybe I’m biased but these Italian crispy risotto balls are out of this world – try them yourself and you will not be disappointed! Combine a rich, tomato-y squidgy rice ball, coated in crispy bread crumbs and stuffed with oozying mozerella, with a side of a sweet, sour, spicy tomato sauce and bam, you’ve got one hell of a starter/maincourse/snack thing. Arancini are traditionally deep fried, but as I don’t have a deep fat fryer I decided to try oven-baking them and I think it worked out really well. You still get the crispy, crunchy outside to the arancini but without the added calories and grease of deep-fat frying.

On another exciting note I’m officially going to Italy this summer on an inter-railing trip with some friends. We’ll be starting in Rome and will wind our way north, soaking up the beauty and of course trying all the food we can on the way! Needless to say I’m more than a little excited at the prospect of pizza, pasta, risotto, tiramisu, and mountains of gelato so I’ll come back with lots of Mediterranean inspiration for future recipes. If you have any recommendations for foods to try/places to stop off please ping them my way!

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients

  • 600ml Vegetable stock (or 1 vegetable stock cube in 600ml water)
  • 50g Unsalted butter
  • ½ Large white onion, diced
  • 1 Bay leaf
  • 200g Arborio rice
  • 260ml Bolognese sauce
  • ½ tbsp Garlic puree
  • 50g Parmesan, grated
  • 80g Mozzarella, torn in chunks
  • 2 Egg whites
  • 100g Bread crumbs

For the sauce

  • ½ Large white onion
  • 1 tsp Olive oil
  • 1 tsp Cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp Smoked paprika
  • 75ml Balsamic vinegar
  • 20g Caster sugar
  • 1.2kg Chopped tomatoes
  • 1 Bay leaf
  • ½ tsp Thyme
  • ½ tbsp Garlic puree

Method

  1. In a large pan bring the vegetable stock to the boil and leave to simmer until needed.
  2. Melt the butter in a large pan over a medium heat and then add the bay leaves and diced onions. Fry the onions until they just begin to caramelise, then season with a little salt and pepper.
  3. Add the rice to this pan and cook whilst stirring for around 2 minutes.
  4. Slowly add the stock to the rice, one ladle full at a time, constantly stirring as you do. Keep doing this until the rice is sticky and just overcooked.
  5. Then add the Bolognese sauce to the rice and mix it in. Remove the pan from the heat and set to one side until needed.
  6. Stir the garlic, parmesan and mozzarella into the risotto and then take the bay leaves out of the mixture. Taste to check the seasoning and then pour the mixture into a large tray and leave to cool.
  7. Break the egg whites into a bowl and beat a little with a fork to make it runny. Then pour the breadcrumbs into a separate bowl. Shape the rissotto mixture into small balls – about 1 heaped tbsp for each one. Dip each ball into the egg whites and then the breadcrumbs, making sure they are coated fully and then put them on a tray in the fridge until needed.
  8. Now make the tomato sauce. Peel and then dice the onions. Add them to a pan with the olive oil and fry until caramelised.
  9. Add the pepper and paprika to the mixture and stir. Add the balsamic and sugar and stir them in. Then leave to reduce for a couple of minutes.
  10. Add the chopped tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme, and garlic puree to the mixture and stir. Then leave to simmer for a couple of hours until reduced and thick. (You could boil it for less time but you get the best flavour if you leave it to properly reduce).
  11. Once the sauce is almost ready pre-heat the oven to 180C. Place the arancini on a lined baking tray and bake them in the oven for around 20 minutes until crisp, golden brown and so that the cheese is bubbling.
  12. Taste the sauce again and season to taste before serving with the arancini balls.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Chocolate and Vanilla Rabbit Cookies

Chocolate and Vanilla Rabbit Cookies

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Happy Easter! It might seem a little late to have a Easter-themed recipe, but if like me your whole family’s getting together today and you need a baking activity to keep little people occupied (and use up some of the vast quantities of mini eggs floating around) then look no further. I came across this way of shaping cookies online and it looked so cute that I thought I’d give it a try. Granted mine look a little more quirky than the ones I saw on Pinterest and whilst I quite like the variation in my herd I’m gonna blame this on my gingerbread man cutter. The idea is that you make gingerbread men, then fold the arms over a mini egg in the middle, turn them upside down and poke some eyes in and hey presto you’ve got yourself a rabbit holding an Easter egg! Unfortunately my gingerbread man cutter was very human shaped so the bodies were longer than they should have been and as a result I’ve de-capitated the men to get my rabbits, but hey ho I think it worked.

The best way to make this much easier is to make sure the dough is super super cold. I put mine the freezer before and half way through rolling as it made it easier to get the rabbits from the table to the baking trays – otherwise you end up with some very all-shapes-and-sizes kinda rabbits, which is sweet and endearing in it’s own way, but might not be what you’re looking for. You can also mix up the flavours in anyway you want when you’ve got the hang of the shaping. You could add spices or chocolate chips to the dough and/or dip the rabbits in melted chocolate and 100s + 1000s to jazz them up a bit!

Recipe

Makes 16

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 200g Butter
  • 200g Caster sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 500g Plain flour
  • 25g Cocoa powder
  • 1 small bag of Mini eggs (around 16 eggs total)

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with baking paper or Teflon sheets.
  2. Cream together the butter and the sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until pale and creamy. Then add the egg and beat it in.
  3. Equally divide the mixture between two bowls (roughly 220g in each, but I’d recommend measuring the weight of all your dough then dividing it in 2). Add half the flour to each bowl and then add the cocoa powder to one. Mix everything in each bowl together until you have 2 smooth doughs.
  4. Wrap each dough in cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and then transfer it to a freezer 30 minutes before rolling.
  5. Roll one of the doughs out between two sheets of cling film to make a sheet roughly half the thickness of a pound coin. Then cut out as many gingerbread men as you can. Transfer these to your lined baking trays, fold the remaining dough back into a ball and re-roll. Repeat until you’ve used the dough as much as possible. Then do this for your other flavoured dough.
  6. Once you have all your gingerbread men place a mini egg in the ‘belly’ of each with the pointy end facing downwards (towards where the ears will be).
  7. Turn your gingerbread men upside down and from now on think of them as rabbits. Take the two arms and fold them up over the egg to secure it in place. Then take a cocktail stick and if needed chop off the heads of the ex-gingerbread men and place to one side (you can bake these ‘heads’ alongside the rabbits to make bite-sized biscuits).
  8. Using the same cocktail stick poke two eyes in the top of each rabbit to make some eyes and then press the flat of it into each ear to make indents.
  9. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until just starting to go solid and brown a little. They’ll firm up a lot when out of the oven so don’t worry if they’re not crisp. Leave to cool and then enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Simnel Hot Cross Buns

Simnel Hot Cross Buns

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I’ve never been much of a fan of hot cross buns – too fruity, too dry, too many of them around wayyy too long before Easter. Yet every year between February and mid-late April the hot cross buns hit the shops and before I know it there’s a couple of slices in the toaster and I’m holding a knife at the ready to slather them in butter.

So this year I’ve finally accepted that there is something to be said for this humble Easter bread and have decided to make my own hot cross buns – but trying to correct all the flaws I think the shop ones you get have. Less fruit – still enough to be a hot cross bun but not so much it’s bitter, a wetter dough to make it softer and less drying on the palette and a little ball of marzipan in the middle to give it an Easter simnel twist. Now, all that nerdism over essentially what is just a blob of fruity bread is probably enough proof that I’m a food fanatic who is a) procrastinating and b) stuck for things to say on this despite that putting marzipan in hot cross buns is a pretty fine combination. So eyo, onto the recipe…

Recipe

Makes 15

Time: 3 hours

Ingredients

For the dough

  • 300ml Milk
  • 50g Butter
  • 500g Strong white bread flour
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 75g Caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp Sunflower oil
  • 7g Fast-action dried yeast
  • 1 Large egg, beaten
  • 75g Sultanas
  • 25g Mixed peel
  • Zest of 1 Orange
  • 1 Apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
  • 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp Mixed spice
  • 85g Marzipan

To decorate

  • 75g Plain flour
  • 3 tbsp Apricot jam

Method

  1. Put the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Add the butter and leave to melt/cool down.
  2. Put the bread flour, salt, sugar, and yeast into a bowl and mix together. Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm milk. Then add the beaten egg and mix with a round bladed knife until a dough starts to form.
  3. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Then leave in a warm place to rise for at least 1 hour, until doubled in size.
  4. Once proved turn the dough out onto a work top and knead for 5 seconds to knock out the air. Then add the sultanas, mixed peel, orange zest, chopped apple, cinnamon and mixed spice to the dough. Knead them into the dough and then put back into the bowl and leave to rise again until doubled in size, again covered in cling film.
  5. Meanwhile split the marzipan into 15 equal chunks and then roll each into a ball. Leave to one side, covered in cling film until needed.
  6. When risen divide the dough into 15 pieces and roll each into a circle with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface. Put a ball of marzipan into the centre of each dough disk and then bring the dough up around it so you have dough balls surrounding a ball of marzipan.
  7. Place the buns on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Arrange them so they have room to grow, but close enough so they’ll join when they rise. Cover loosely with cling film and leave to rise for another hour.
  8. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Mix the flour with 5 tbsp of water, a little at a time, to make a paste. Spoon this into a piping bag fitted with a small, round nozzle. Pipe a line across the centre of the buns in one direction, then the other to make a cross. Bake the buns in the oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and cooked all the way through.
  9. Gently heat the apricot jam in the microwave for around 20 seconds to loosen it up. Then sieve it to remove any lumps and brush it over the buns to glaze. Leave to cool and then enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Bacon and Leak Hash with Eggs and Beans

Bacon and Leak Hash with Eggs and Beans

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Did someone say brunch? Sorry it’s been a while since my last post, even on holiday things can be a little crazy. There’s a saying at Oxford that holidays (or ‘vacations’) are not times to stop working and relax but rather times when you just ‘vacate’ Oxford and go and work somewhere else. So much for rest and recuperation eh! At least my degree is basically what I do for fun anyway, so I get to spend my days drawing, cooking and planning various drama projects I’ve got lined up for next term.

So, back to brunch. When you’ve not got a lot of time on your hands what’s better than to combine two meals into one and have a hippy, hearty, filling bowl of comforting deliciousness? Since coming home I’ve basically stopped having breakfasts at all and I really miss starting the day with a hot plate of fried up morsels, so the other I decided to get off my arse and actually make myself a cooked breakfast. This bacon and leek hash might seem like a bit of a paph – especially when you can just fry up some bacon and have it with potato smiley faces from the freezer (and why not – they’re so good!) – but trust me, if you want a fancied-up snazzy brunch try adding it to your classic eggs and beans and you won’t regret it!

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 300g Potatoes (about 2 medium)
  • 1 Leek, trimmed, washed and sliced
  • 3 Rasher of bacon
  • A sprinkling of Paprika
  • 100g Cheddar cheese, grated
  • 4 Eggs
  • 1 Large tin of baked beans to serve (optional)

Method

  1. Wash and chop the potatoes into small chunks. Then bring a pan of water to the boil and boil the potatoes for around 5 minutes until just cooked through. Drain and leave to steam-dry.
  2. Take a large frying pan and put it over a medium heat. Add the bacon rashers (as many as will cover the base of the pan at any one time) and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side until crispy and golden brown. Transfer the cooked bacon to a plate and repeat with the rest of the bacon until all the rashers are done. Leave until needed.
  3. Wash the leek and then cut the ends off it (top and tail). Half lengthways and then finely slice. Add the leek to the pan the bacon was cooked in and fry for 5-10 minutes until soft and starting to caramelise.
  4. Cut the bacon up with a pair of scissors to make small pieces and then add it to the leeks. Add the drained potato and paprika and mix together.
  5. Transfer the hash mixture to a small roasting tin and then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and crispy. If using cheese sprinkle a little of it over the top of the hash 5 minutes before coming out of the oven.
  6. Meanwhile prep the eggs. Spray a little oil into the pan you cooked the bacon in to add a little more grease. Then crack the eggs into the pan and leave to fry until the whites are opaque. Using a fish slice transfer them to a couple of plates.
  7. Whilst the eggs are cooking heat the beans in a pan or in a microwave until piping hot. Serve with the eggs and the hash!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Blood Orange Salad

Blood Orange Salad

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Everything’s a little bit hectic at the moment so I’ll keep this short and sweet like this salad recipe…

Blood orange + Hazelnuts + Feta cheese = an incredible combination!

Recipe

Serves 1

Time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 Blood orange
  • A handful of salad leaves
  • 1 tbsp Chopped hazelnuts
  • A little Feta (around 15g)
  • 1 tsp Clear honey
  • A small drizzle of Balsamic vinegar

Method

  1. Slice the ends of the orange and use a knife to cut the skin off. Then slice the orange horizontally into discs.
  2. Scatter some salad leaves on a plate and then arrange the blood orange on top.
  3. Sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts, crumble over the feta and then finish with a drizzle of honey and balsamic.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x