Hello team!
A slightly different set up from me today - I had a dinner party on the weekend, and thought it would be fun to take you through the process. Therefore, in this week’s newsletter, you are getting a bumper pack of 5 RECIPES!
On the menu, we have:
To nibble on:
Marinated broccoli and straciatella toasts
For mains:
Prawns with cashews and coriander
Roasted pumpkin with yoghurt and aleppo chilli butter pine nuts
Oniony rice
Seedy focaccia
You’ll also get the low-down on which wines I served, how I decorated the place and my dinner playlist. All of this will be available to my paid subs!
If that wasn’t enough, you’ve also got my recipe for vodka arancini, the next installment of the Feeling Myshelf series, focussed on storecupboard ingredients.
So, let’s get into it!
Sophie x
The Recipes
Feeling Myshelf Episode 2 - Vodka Arancini
1 onion
100g tomato puree
1 tsp chilli flakes
30ml vodka
200g arborio risotto rice
1l chicken or veg stock
80g parmesan
100ml double cream
175g plain flour
125g panko breadcrumbs
125g mozzarella
salt and vegetable oil
Peel and finely dice your onion.
Heat a medium sized saute pan over a medium heat, and add 4 tbsp olive oil. Tip your diced onion into the pan, and cook it for 20 minutes until it is soft and lightly caramelised. Add your chilli flakes and tomato puree, and cook it for about 5 minutes, until the tomato puree has darkened and is sticking on the base of the pan a bit.
Heat up your stock in a separate saucepan.
Turn the heat down to low on your onion pan. Add your vodka, and mix it until it is evaporated. Add your risotto rice, then gradually pour in your stock. Stir all the while to allow your rice grains to absorb the stock before adding more liquid. It should take about 25 mins for all your stock to be added and your rice to be tender.
Once the rice is cooked, add your cream to the pan and grate in your parmesan. Add your cheese to your risotto and give it a mix, then season it to taste with salt and pepper.
Pour your risotto into a shallow dish, and cover the top with cling film. Pop the dish in the fridge to chill for a few hours.
Cut your mozzarella into 2cm cubes.
Once your risotto feels firm to touch, pour 100g flour into one bowl, and 75g flour into another bowl. Add 110g water and a good pinch of salt to your 75g flour, and whisk it to form a batter. Add your breadcrumbs to a third bowl.
Roll your risotto mixture into balls about the size of an easy peeler. Make a hollow in the middle of each, then insert a piece of mozzarella. Seal the gap by pushing risotto into it, and rolling the ball together with your hands again.
Dip them in your flour, batter and breadcrumbs respectively, and arrange them on a large baking tray lined with parchment. You could freeze them at this point.
Heat a saucepan about ⅓ of the way with vegetable oil. With a thermometer, monitor the temperature as it rises. Once it reaches 170°C, carefully add your arancini a few at a time and fry for 5 minutes until crisp and golden. Remove with a slotted spoon, keep warm and repeat with your remaining arancini.
Grate over a little more parmesan if you like, and serve them up.
The Dinner Party Special
Having my friends around for dinner is one of my FAVOURITE activities. I love the leisurely day spent pootling around the kitchen and tidying up in preparation for their arrival, lighting the candles and getting some tunes on.
The style is always very relaxed - no plated food, but lots of hearty dishes to share instead. Plenty of things to nibble on before the main event, and then big platters of things dotted down the table. I love people to be able to help themselves.
I write myself a to-do list the day before, so I can figure out if I need to make a start on anything that day. I try to prep the bulk of the food in the day before people arrive, so hardly any time needs to be spent cooking once the evening has begun. I invite people round because I want to hang out, and I get antsy if I’m away from the action for too long.
Here is the prep schedule for this particular meal, which fed 6 people: