As Samanta reminded us in his post, on December 13, in Palermo, he makes himself low of oranges. Whether bought in a rotisserie or homemade, no one can avoid from eating at least one and, traditionally, the 14th is the day of comparisons on ingested quantities trying to overcome the record of our interlocutor… well, as usual, at home Constantine Senior, prepare the homemade oranges! Managing to extort the secret of the preparation of this magnificent "ball of rice" to my mother, I can immediately proceed with the publication of the recipe so that everyone can taste these delicacies. Below we will prepare the two most classic versions but remember that you can stuff them as you want.
-For the risotto:
1 kg of rice for oranges
1.5 L vegetable broth
2 onions
1 Sachet of Saffron
50 grams of grated Caciocavallo
1 knob of butter to whisk
-For the sauce:
500 ml of sauce
800 grams of minced meat
500 grams of peas
-For Béchamel:
500 grams of milk
4 tablespoons of flour
50 grams of butter
Salt and pepper to taste
-For the batter:
200 grams of flour
Water to taste
1 Pinch of salt
-Other Ingredients:
1 handful of grated Caciocavallo
300 grams of mozzarella in dough
200 grams of cooked ham
1-2 bottles of seed oil
The preparation of the oranges, is linked to various steps that involve the cooking of the different elements that compose it, at different times:
- We start to make a good risotto with saffron that, just ready, we will let cool allargandolo in a baking dish.
- Prepare the ragout (for the Oranges to the meat). Let's start with a sauté of onion, little carrot and celery. As soon as they are ready, add the meat and fry then, smudge with the wine. We add a little sauce and the peas blanched previously. We do not cook too much sauce otherwise, it will no longer have the flavor that we need to season our oranges. Let's cool it.
- For those with butter, we prepare a very soda béchamel to which we will add the ham and mozzarella cut into cubes, a nice handful of caciocavallo and pepper. Let's cool our condiment.
- Meanwhile, we prepare in a bowl a very light batter that must veil the hand, joining the flour of regrind, the water little at a time and some salt.
Prepared all the ingredients and made properly cool, we can begin to assemble our exquisite oranges:
- Let's get some rice and put it in the hollow of the hand.
- We put in the center a little ragout or condiment for those with butter, we wet the hand and begin to close the ball of rice. If the rice is not enough, we add what is needed to close the ball.
- As the rice balls are complete, let's put them aside.
- When we finish all the ingredients, we can prepare for the final part.
- We dip the balls, one at a time, first in the batter then in the breadcrumbs making adhere well the breading and correcting the shape making sure that they are always spherical.
- We take a tall and large container, ler of oil of seeds and fry, little at a time, our oranges making them then dry in the absorbent paper.
Now you just have to taste them.
The filling must be dry then choose ingredients or prepare a filling that is not too liquid or releases water. In the case of mozzarella, for example, it is preferable to use the one in bricks because it lacks water. The oranges should be consumed hot or at the most lukewarm, I recommend, do not let it get cold! And then remember what mother Anna says: "The oranges are fancy, you can fill them as you want enough that the filling is not watery".
Enjoy your meal!!!!!