Caitriona Redmond: Two hearty meals to get the most out of risotto

...and the joy of doing a kitchen stocktake, as well as buying the essentials in bulk

Healthy lunch - orzo, green peas, spring herbs risotto and grilled chicken breast on a light background, top view

Have you been hit by an urge to spring clean in the past week? Actually, it’s very normal to get this feeling at this time of the year. Even though we’ve marked the beginning of wintertime with shorter days and longer nights ahead, it feels more like we’ve passed onto another phase. And so, this week, I’ve found myself clearing the cupboards and presses; checking the dates on my foodstuffs and cleaning out the fridge.

It's a very good idea to do this clear-out and stocktake every couple of months, if not more frequently. It helps me plan our meals around what we have, as opposed to what I think we have. I’ve discovered the products we are using a lot of (rice and pasta) and the items we are not (plain sugar, honestly).

I noticed that I’d been adding 1kg bags to the shopping list every second week. Rice in bulk is cheaper than rice in 1kg bags so a short trip to a local International shop later and I had a 10kg bag instead. The quality of this rice is excellent so long as I am a little more meticulous about rinsing my rice out before cooking.

Next, I looked at my pasta stocks. There was a lot of spaghetti and tagliatelle in the press which had been there for some time. The packages were still in date but I had stopped using them in favour of various pasta shapes which were more motor-skills friendly. I’ve made a note not to buy ‘long pasta’ until everything I already have is used up.

Even if the pasta and rice are out of date, they are still fine to use for quite some time so long as they are kept in a cool and dry space. The same for canned/tinned products and items like jams and honey.

When I do my next shop, it’ll be with fresh eyes and new ideas for the cupboards now. In my ongoing quest against food waste and saving money, this week I’ve also been focussing on meals that I can make once and then benefit from a second time around. It’s not necessarily a batch cooking type of food planning, but more a way of transforming my family meals so that people don’t complain that they’ve eaten the same meal 2 nights in a row.

By challenging myself to be more inventive with leftovers we are discovering a bigger range of dishes. This week’s recipes are both budget-friendly and come mainly from my kitchen stores.

Make double the chicken risotto recipe to have enough to make a second meal below. It’s a little family secret that we use pudding rice to make our risotto. Pudding rice can be cheaper than arborio rice. Whichever works out the cheapest is what works for me. Pick up pudding rice in the dessert section of the supermarket near the tinned fruits. The high starch content is perfect for this recipe and you will end up with luscious creamy risotto that tastes like the real deal.

Smokey Air Fryer Arancini

The original arancini recipe calls for the balls to be deep-fried. This recipe is designed for use in the air fryer instead.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 1 hours 40 mins

Cooking Time

 25 mins

Total Time

 2 hours 5 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Italian

Ingredients

• Leftover risotto

• 100g smoked cheese (cheddar works great here), chopped into chunks

• 2 eggs

• 200g plain flour

• Salt & pepper

• 200g breadcrumbs

• 1 bottle of spray oil

Method

1. Dampen your hands to make the first section of this recipe easier!

2. Divide the rice into golf ball-sized sections, take a small chunk of cheese and press into the centre of each ball.

3. Place the flour into 1 bowl, crack the eggs into another, and the breadcrumbs into third bowl. Season the contents of each bowl generously with salt and pepper.

4. Roll the balls of rice first into the flour, then the egg, and finally the breadcrumbs so that they have a breadcrumb coating.

5. Once completely coated place the balls onto a plate or tray, cover and chill for 1 hour (or even overnight is fine).

6. When ready to ‘fry’ spritz the balls with the spray oil.

7. Cook in the airfryer at 190°C for 20 minutes until crispy.

8. Serve with fresh tomato sauce or a green salad.

Money Saving Tips

You probably already know about the chill factor in your fridge, and why you should set your fridge at the midpoint (setting 3) rather than high (setting 5). This saves you money because your fridge is not constantly working hard to maintain the food inside at a cool temperature.

The door of the fridge is most prone to temperature fluctuations and this is why you shouldn’t store items like dairy products there. Instead, they should be stored at the top of the fridge, closer to the coolest section. Food stored at the door of the fridge is likely to go off quickly and rotten food is money lost.

Something most people don’t know though is that the inside back wall of the fridge is where the cold is conducted and distributed. If you have pushed the contents of your fridge to the back wall you might have noticed items getting icy or stuck to the back wall. This causes the fridge to work overtime because the conduction effect is impeded and uses up more energy no matter what the chill setting is on the dial. Keep your food a little away from the back wall to stop the food from spoiling because of being frozen or stuck and also to prevent your fridge from using up more energy than it should.

By the 1st of November in the supermarkets, it was like Elves had transformed everything from Hallowe’en to Christmas overnight. As we brace ourselves for a hectic push from the retail world right up until the big day, now is the time to start thinking about your budget for the three weeks beforehand in December. Don’t leave it until then to figure things out because you may find that you don’t have the money for what you want.

Most products, and their prices, are available online already. Start by browsing supermarket websites to see what you want to buy and where. If the items you would like are on special offer in December, then that’s a little bit more money in your budget for something else.