What would you call this dish?
Yep- it’s that time of year again. We can hardly believe that it’s almost been a year since we claimed the title of World Porridge Champions in the 2009 Golden Spurtle World Porridge Championship. A few weeks ago, we broke out the boxes of supplies from last year and started sorting through ideas for our 2010 specialty dish. Last year we won with our traditional porridge, which consisted of water, salt and oats. We also competed in the specialty category with our Oregon Orchard Oats Brûlée- a concoction of oats, cherries, pears and hazelnuts topped with a candy crust.
This dish embraces Italian flavors while staying true to the oats.
After some serious taste-testing (ah, life is rough) and a bit of research, we’ve settled on a savory oatmeal dish for our 2010 specialty entry. We’ve based this year’s dish on Arancini, a finger-food that originated in Sicily. Arancini is typically a risotto ball that is coated in bread crumbs and deep fried. The ball usually contains a red meat sauce (Ragù) and mozzarella. In place of a rice-based risotto, we are using an oat-risotto that contains pancetta, Parmesan and porcini mushrooms. If that doesn’t sound delicious, we’ve wrapped the risotto around a creamy Pecorino, rolled the arancine in fresh bread crumbs and deep fried them. Talk about decadent! These little balls of gooey oat goodness pair perfectly with a simple red sauce. Watch for the recipe in a few weeks so that you can try them at home.
WE NEED YOUR HELP! What should we call this fancy dish? Fried oat balls doesn’t sound very appealing. Oat-incini is a bit confusing and doesn’t really tell the judges anything about this dish. Please help us name our entry for the competition. Leave your idea here in the comments or you can contact us through Twitter and Facebook. We’ll accept names until midnight (11:59 pm PT) Thursday, August 12th, 2010. We’ll pick a name from all the suggestions and the winning name will receive a beautiful spurtle pen from the makers of our myrtle spurtles, as well as a myrtle spurtle, a case of our famous steel cut oats and a $25 Bob’s Red Mill gift card.
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What the heck?
I have no idea what these tasty baubles would actually be called in Italian, but I’ll take a quick stab at it:
Avena con le palle
(Literally: “Oats with balls” or “ballsy oats” — Italian slang)
Everything sounds good to me in another language! I might try this again before the deadline!
Ellen in Beaverton, OR
PS. Took your tour today 8/9 with Christie. Thanks so much to Bob himself for stopping by to chat!
Ball of Goods
How about Haute Oat Croquettes Italiano?
the goldball
mouth full of Goods
Piquant Porcini & Pancetta Oat Balls
Aestipilo
My rusty Latin always comes in handy here and there. I made this word up, but essentially it means ‘boiling hot balls’. Pronounced “Iced tea pillow”, kinda.
Mind Your P’s and O’s.
(Since there is Pecorino, pancetta, Parmesan and porcini mushrooms in the oat balls).
Crusted Pancetta Oat Rounds
Rounded Porcini Oat Risotto
Pancetta Fried Oat Rounds
Avena Arancini alla Ragu
How about Papa Bob’s Savory Oat Balls?
Bob’s Savory Americini!
Oat Heaven with Pancetta & Porcini
Bob’s Oat Heaven
Crispy Oat Heaven with Pancetta & Porcini
-Bocconcini d’Bob = (Bob’s Nibbles)
-Polpette Di Formaggio =(cheese balls)
-Oatey Rollies
-Delectable Ballettes
-Crisp Mozarella n’ Oat Pockets
-Golden Mozarel-oat Surprise
….he-he
How about oat-orbs or oatorbs.
Heres a funny one from my son: Bobs Red Haggas!!!!!! No seriously we are thinking about this dish..
Italian Oat Fritters
pancetta e avena palle (bacon and oat balls)
palle de pancetta e avena (a variation)
avenacini (a variation of arancini using avena – italian for oats)
Bob’s Savory Oat Fritters (my favorite, easy to understand, everyone knows what a fritter is, something fried, like a hush puppy)
Fried Oat Risotto Rounds
Spheres of Goodness
Porcini Ris-Oat-o Arancini
Ham and Bacon Risoat–oh!
sorry that’s cheese and bacon risoat-oh!
Sicilian Dinner Bites
Pancetta Tapas
Bueno Cheese Bites
Arancini di Bob
Oatcini
Bob’s Fried Oat-Risotto. Period. Needs no more explanation.
@PortlandBologna Aug 09, 9:40pm via Web
@Bobs_Red_Mill Golden Spurtle 2010 ideas: Arancini alla Molina Rossa (“Red Mill-style arancini”) or Arancini portlandesi
From our Facebook Friends:
Cynthia Ann Axline Zerr Lil bites of heaven….thats what they sound like…
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Crystal Wood Mill-ancinis
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Pam McMahon Bell Yum Balls!!
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Mary La Fever Uncle Bob’s Globs!
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Holly Robbins Crouse Savory Oat truffles
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Kaye Van Valkenburg Oregon Oat-Risotto Arancini
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Micah Varnell Collins Two Cheese Faux Arancini with Porcini and Ris-OAT-o
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Leah Ann O’Shieles Sicilian Sacs? Oat Bloats?
Bob’s Breaded Risoatto Cakes.
Porcini & Pancetta Oat Rissoto Fritters
Oaty Procini & Pancetta Risotto Balls
Arancini di Avena
This would mean Fried Rice balls of Oats in literal translation from Italian. Arancini is the common name for Risotto Balls, so this is Risotto balls of Oats.
Italian Ris-oat-o Palle
(palle is the Italian word for balls)
Cassidy: A possible title for Spurtle entry:
Crispy Ris-oat-to Balls
Good luck in Scotland!
–Carol