Chicken cakes

Remember the bit of leftover risotto from the other day?  I knew I'd be home alone for lunch today, so I put it in a tupperware in the fridge where it would be quite happy for 48 hours.  I've never frozen leftover risotto, but I see no reason why you shouldn't - generally you can freeze everything except eggs.

A word on storing cooked rice though.  Rice harbours a bacteria which can give you a nasty bout of food poisoning and isn't killed by cooking, just rendered dormant.  Leftovers should go into the fridge or freezer immediately.  Cold rice salads should never be allowed to get to room temperature but served straight from the fridge, and if re-heating you need to make sure it's served piping hot.  Never eat rice salads from a buffet if you don't know how long it's been out of the fridge!  I've been freezing leftover portions of dishes with rice and reheating them in the microwave at work for years and never had a problem.

I have a feeling you'd lose the luxurious texture of risotto if you just reheated it (but you're more than welcome to try) so I knocked up something a little bit more interesting.  First, make some breadcrumbs.  A household of two people generally doesn't get through a sliced loaf before it's past its best, so there's generally some bread saved in the freezer for this purpose (and toast).  Feel free to buy supermarket breadcrumbs if you prefer.  You will also need some flour and one egg, beaten a bit with a fork but whisking is not necessary (egg pictured here before I went at it with a fork for artistic purposes).

Then make the risotto into small balls with your hands (it will stick together much better than yesterday's burgers!) and coat them thoroughly, in this order, with flour, egg and finally breadcrumbs, then fry the cakes in oil.

I find that the easiest way is to put the ingredients into bowls in a line in the correct order (like the picture above), heat the pan on a medium flame, and then make the cakes, coat, and put them straight into hot oil.

It's worth spending the time on preparation so that the actual cooking is a quick and easy production line!

Fry the cakes on a medium heat, turning until they're golden-brown all over.  It doesn't take long, so make the cakes quite small so that they're cooked through in the time it takes to crisp up the breadcrumb coating.

I wasn't very hungry and with rice inside the cakes I don't think this really needs any extra carbs so I just had a bit of salad with them.  They'd be nice in a bread roll if you wanted to bulk it up a bit.

Taste verdict
Just as good as the original risotto, with the added bonus of delicious crispy breadcrumbs!  It's amazing how often leftovers are better than the original dish.

Financial verdict
It's actually quite difficult to say!  The cost of the leftover portion is already included in the 60p per person estimate of the original dish.  I don't ascribe any value to a slice of bread from the freezer, because most people would probably have thrown it away already.  A good quality egg is about 30p, and a couple of bits of salad doesn't seem to amount to much.  I think I'll just settle on Very Cheap.

The Skinny
Put some flour into a bowl, a lightly beaten egg into another, and some breadcrumbs into a third.

Splash some oil into a frying pan and bring to a medium heat.

Make leftover risotto into small balls in your hand.

Completely coat the balls in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.

Fry the chicken cakes, turning so that they go golden-brown on all sides and get heated through.

WeightWatchers ProPoints
Not known and probably not good.  Frying in breadcrumbs apparently isn't diet-friendly (although there is a WeightWatchers recipe for fish and chips which has the fish coated in exactly this way but cooked in the oven rather than fried).