June 11th, 2009

carrot_arrancini

Confit Carrot Arancini Canapes with Roasted Carrot Houmous

Congratulations to Maria Elia for writing The Modern Vegetarian cookbook. It’s beautiful and truly outstanding. A few weeks ago I went to a cooking demonstration hosted by Maria to promote her new book. I found Maria’s demonstration truly inspirational. She is a wonderful and passionate cook, her sparkly personality is infectious.

The roasted carrot houmous recipe is inspired by Maria as she had demonstrated a similar dish. She made carrot pancakes with the houmous and served it with a delicious feta salad. Maria kindly reminds us that we do not necessarily have to eat meat everyday and that vegetarian meals can be approached with a modern twist.

On my cookery journey I have fallen in love with the functions and capabilities of the Thermomix. It’s a brilliant piece of finely crafted German perfection however it took a lot of persuasion to convince me that I could successfully make a risotto in it.  I experimented and I was completely stunned!

The first time when I made the risotto in the thermomix I took a tray and spread the cooked risotto rice as thinly as possible. The reason for this act of madness was to inspect each grain of rice in search of a broken grain. I thought if I could find one broken grain then I would have been satisfied and could then happily say it does not work. I have to confess  and hold my hands up and say ‘Yes, it works! ‘ Would you like me to say it a little bit louder? IT WORKS a treat!!! No broken grains providing you follow the instructions correctly and set the machine to stir the risotto on reverse blade at the spoon setting.

I’m secretly very pleased as it means that I now have more time to sip on my wine and do not have to stir the risotto!

I made a double batch of arancini balls and froze them for when they are needed. I do recommend that you make the houmous fresh, but it does last for up to three days in the fridge. This recipe is ideal for a drinks party or for a starter. By baking the arancini balls in the oven and not deep frying them, makes them healthier and less fatty, but if you insist you could deep fry them .

carrots3carrots2carrots1

Confit Baby Carrots

  • 100g baby carrots, average weight of each carrot is 10g grams
  • 40g olive oil
  • Sea salt

Peel the baby carrots. Place them in a vacuum bag, add the oil and salt. Seal the bag on hard vacuum. Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil, place the sealed bag with carrots in the boiling water, reduce the heat to a simmer and confit the carrots for 20 minutes. Cool the carrots in ice cold water.

Remove the carrots from the vacuum bag, drain and cut them in 1cm pieces, set aside.

Roasted Carrot Puree

  • 300g carrots, peeled and sliced in 1 cm pieces
  • 30g olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Toss the prepared carrots in the olive oil and season.

Spread the carrots on to the baking tray and roast for 40 minutes, until the carrots are tender to the touch.

While the carrots are warm puree them until smooth in the thermomix.

Roasted Carrot Risotto

  • 20g Parmesan cheese
  • 10g olive oil
  • 40g chopped banana shallots
  • 50g white wine
  • 10g unsalted butter
  • 100g arborio risotto rice
  • 200g vegetable stock
  • 80g roasted carrot puree
  • 40g mascarpone cheese

First grind the Parmesan cheese. Cut the cheese into 3 even size pieces. Place the TM31 jug in position and secure the lid, turn the machine on to speed 10 and drop the cheese onto the running blades and grind for 30 seconds. Place the cheese in a container until later.

Weigh the olive oil and chopped shallots into the TM31 jug. Set the timer for 4 minutes at 100°C speed 2.

Add the rice, butter and the wine ,set the timer to 3 minutes at 100°C reverse blade spoon setting.

Add the stock set the timer to 12 minutes 100°C reverse blade spoon setting. Please stop and stir the risotto half way through the cooking.

Taste the risotto after the suggested cooking time, add  two more minutes if needed.

Add the mascarpone, roasted carrot puree and the ground Parmesan cheese stir and let the risotto rest for 1 minute with the lid on in the jug.

Spoon the risotto into a clean container, cover with cling film and let the risotto cool completely.

Roasted Carrot Houmous

  • 200g Roasted carrot puree
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/4 tsp sumac
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 120g cooked chickpeas
  • 1 tbs tahini
  • 2tbs extra virgin olive oil
  • 50g cold water
  • Juice of half a lemon

Place all the ingredients in the Thermomix and blend the houmous at speed 8 for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides down and repeat the process until the houmous has the desired texture. I like my houmous to still have some coarse bits.

Spoon the houmous into a serving dish, garnish with extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of sumac.

Roasted Carrot Arancini Balls

  • Cooked risotto
  • 50g Panko Honey Bread Crumbs
  • confit carrot pieces

Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Divide the risotto in to 32 even size balls. Insert a piece of confit carrot in the centre of each risotto ball, roll to smooth and compress the risotto balls.

Roll each ball in the Panko honey bread crumbs, roll to compress.

Place the balls on the baking tray and bake them in the oven for 20 minutes, shaking the tray once to roll them over to ensure an even golden brown colour.

Serve the warm crispy arancini balls with the roasted carrot houmous.

Makes 32 balls

Food Fanatics Tips:

I cook this risotto in the Thermomix and have all the trust in the world that it will be perfect. Please remember to use the reverse setting. You can if you wish  cook the risotto in a saucepan on the cooker, add the stock ,bits at a time. Stir the risotto continuously to ensure a creamy glutenous texture.


Print Recipe Print Recipe with Photo


9 Comments to “Confit Carrot Arancini Canapes with Roasted Carrot Houmous”

  1. Reading sooner than means of your enjoyable list inform, will help me to do so sometimes.

  2. 徵信社 says:

    Love pancakes but I’m strictly a lemon and caster suger girl, I can eat 3 small pancae as breakfast

  3. keep up this good work. Excellent post

  4. Glenn Haass says:

    fine subject , search this from blogsearch plus good luck for you.just tally up the rss feed to my reader,keep bring up to date!

  5. Carolyn says:

    Hi – have just dicovered your fabulous site as Thermomix forum seems to be down – can you explain vacuum bags in carrot arancini recipe? Can I confit them in some other way if I dont have sous vide? Thanks for the wonderful recipes

  6. Madalene says:

    Dear Carolyn,
    Yes you can confit the carrots in a saucepan, unfortunately you will require more oil, but you can keep the oil after confitting and use it for cooking. Place the carrots in a small saucepan and covert the carrots with olive oil and sea salt. Cut a circle of parchment paper that fits direct onto the carrots and oil. Gently heat the oil to 58 degrees C using a thermometer, you do not want the oil to be so hot that it deep fries the carrots, keep the carrots at this temperature for about 20 minutes until the carrots are tender but not mush. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool in the oil, drain the carrots, keep the oil for further use and continue the recipe for making the arancini.
    Happy Cooking
    Madalene

  7. Errin says:

    This is the second time I have clicked over to your page from tastespotting lately…so i have decided to take matters into my own hands and now have a permanent link to your site on my computer. I really appreciate all of the creative things that you post here and share…especially that some of them are vegetarian! Very insiring. Thanks.

  8. Trish says:

    Risotto, in my relatively new Thermomix was a revelation. It was the first thing I tried, fully expecting to find fault with the result. I sat nervously with my glass of wine feeling redundant without the ritual of the stirring and adding stock. The results were fantastic and I have tried various other varieties of risotto, all excellent.

    Yesterday I made a lemon oil in the thermomix – strips of zest plus
    olive oil, whizzed at full blast. I then added lemon juice, salt and pepper and some grated parmesan cheese to make a delicious dressing for some Romaine lettice and salty bacon bits. A nice alternative to a Caesar salad type dressing.

    I love your site Maddy, it really is an inspiration – well done and I look forwad to all your new recipes.

  9. sandie says:

    Have recently been given a Thermomix for my birthday and was like you not quite convinced re: risotto – but having just read your comments will give it a go this weekend. Thank you for all your great recipes and comments

Leave a Comment