ARTICHOKE RICE CAKES WITH MANCHEGO CHEESE

This week our Food Matters Project host is Jen from Small Kitchen College. Jen chose Mark Bittman's recipe for Crisp Rice Cakes with Stir Fried Vegetables and Chicken. Using rice cakes as  my inspiration I went on a web search. When I stumbled on a recipe for rice cakes and artichoke hearts I thought how good would that be? Then I read the recipe and found out that these rice cakes were stuffed with Manchego cheese, one of my favorite cheeses from Spain! Perfect.

My husband and I got hooked on Tapas during our time in Spain last year. I thought this might be a nice addition to our Tapas menu. While this sounded delicious, I have to say that this might be the BEST. BITE. EVER.

Artichoke hearts are sauteed with onion and garlic. Rice is added to the mixture along with hot chicken broth. It was like making a risotto. The recipe didn't say what kind of rice to use and I thought about aborio (as in risotto) but decided it might be too creamy so I used jasmine rice. After it was cooked you add Parmesan cheese and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. The rice mixture was firm and sticky enough to form a nice round rice patty. Now the fun part, form a golf ball size patty and fill it with manchego cheese. Flatten it slightly and roll it in corn meal. Be sure to use a fine corn meal, I used Masa Harina. The corn meal gives the outside a nice texture and extra flavor and crunch when fried to a golden brown.

Serve these hot. There are so many layers of flavors in each bite topped off by the melted Manchego. I post many recipe that I think are really good but these are at the very top.

Thanks for a great pick Jen. I don't think I would have ever made rice cakes and this combination will be on my tapas menu forever.

For the other members creative takes on the recipe click here.

Artichoke Rice Cakes with Manchego

1 jar artichoke hearts packed in water (not oil)
2 oz butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
4 oz rice (I use jasmine)
2 cups HOT chicken stock
2 oz grated fresh Parmesan cheese
5 oz Manchego cheese, very finely diced
3-4 tablespoon fine corn meal (Masa Harina)
olive oil, for frying
salt and ground black pepper
fresh flat leaf parsley, to garnish


Rinse and drain artichoke hearts. Finely chop.

Melt the butter in a pan and sauté artichoke, onion, and garlic for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the rice and cook for about 1 minute.

Keeping the heat fairly high, gradually add the stock, stirring occasionally until all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is cooked - this should take about 20 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper, then stir in the Parmesan cheese. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Leave to cool, then cover and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the palm of one hand, flatten slightly, and place a few pieces of diced cheese in the center. Shape the rice around the cheese to make a small ball. Flatten slightly, then roll in the corn meal, shaking off any excess. Repeat with the remaining mixture to make about 12 cakes.

Shallow fry the rice cakes in hot olive oil for 4-5 minutes until they are crisp and golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot, garnished with flat leaf parsley.

Serves 6

Recipe adapted from InternationalRecipes.net