Risotto Cakes

Risotto is basically a creamy rice recipe that is made with arborio rice, wine, onion, garlic, chicken stock or broth, and cheese (usually parmigiana cheese) - I used nutritional yeast. Here is a recipe to make your basic risotto. My ratio is 1 cup rice to about 3 cups of warmed stock. I've used either a wide, deep skillet or a large sauce pan - it doesn't matter. If you want to have risotto one night, then make the cakes another night, I suggest doubling the recipe so there is enough.

Usually with leftover risotto, aranchini is made. You basically form the rice into balls, stuff cheese in the middle - then you flour, egg, bread and fry them. I've always wanted to try this, but didn't want to go through the hassle of rolling into balls and doing the whole flour, egg, breading, then frying them (I don't like frying round things).

We had risotto last night and I made extras with the intention of making these patties. The risotto needs to be chilled before you can make the cakes, the chilling helps bind the cakes when they are cold.

First I put some brown rice flour into a pie pan and added some garlic and onion powder and some pepper. I wet my hands, then scooped a fair amount of risotto into my hands and shaped it into a patty. I coated the patty well on both sides with the flour mixture and placed in a non stick skillet with heated olive oil. I let it fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side till it was nicely brown. I made 3 patties to try and only ate 2, I'll save the other for later, toasting to crisp up again.

The risotto cakes were crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. The only thing I would do next time is add some more nutritional yeast before forming into patties, you could add your cheese of choice. This was very yummy, I love the crunchy/soft texture and I plan to make this again - real soon, tho I am plan on making risotto cakes out of the entire batch of risotto.

So next time you make risotto and have some leftover, try and make some risotto cakes, I bet you'll love them as much as I do.

Happy frying!!

Comments or questions are always welcomed. I would love to hear what you think of this recipe. Thanks!