Recipe: O Tama Carey’s Cheesy, Crunchy Risotto Cakes Topped With Fennel Dressing

As the co-founder of Darlinghurst’s popular
Lankan Filling Station (now closed), O Tama Carey may be best known for Sri Lankan food. But the Sydney chef also worked extensively in French, Chinese and Italian cuisine before opening her eponymous restaurant in 2018. In fact, it was while working as head chef at now-shuttered Italian restaurant Berta that she developed her take on risotto.

“I made it up,” she says of the dish she dubs a risotto cake. Drenching the short-grain rice dish in herbs and tangy dressing, plus topping it with sneaky mix of cheeses, Carey also lets the risotto firm up overnight before frying it the next day to replicate the oily crunch of fried rice.

“The inspiration came from all those excellent dishes you get where the crispy rice is the best bit,” she says. “And the dressing is really aromatic and beautiful and almost soupy. You can have quite a lot of it, so you get a good amount of flavour and sauciness. And the risotto cake is a good vessel for the herbs and the dressing.”

Here, Carey has perfected a dish that only takes an hour’s work to prepare and cook. “It’s got texture and body, and it’s nice and filling without being too heavy,” she says. “And all the herbs give it a beautiful counterpoint, so it’s fresh and light as well.”

Risotto cakes with fennel dressing and delicate herbs

Serves 6
Preparation time: 20 mins (recipe needs to be started the night before)
Cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients

1L chicken stock (you can sub in veg stock or use half stock, half water)
360g sushi rice
50ml olive oil
1 small brown onion, finely diced
3 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
100ml white wine
110g grated fontina cheese
60g grated parmesan cheese
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt flakes and white pepper for seasoning
Vegetable oil for shallow cooking

Dressing
20g fennel seeds
200ml grapeseed oil
50g eschalots, finely sliced
2 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp salt flakes, plus extra for seasoning
250ml verjuice
100ml red-wine vinegar

2 cups picked basil leaves
100ml extra-virgin olive oil
Black pepper, to season

Herb mix
½ cup picked chervil
½ cup picked dill
½ cup nasturtium leaves and/or flowers
1 cup picked watercress or rocket
1 cup seasonal micro herbs (chervil, chives, dill etc.)
1 bunch chives, cut into 1cm batons
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt flakes, to season

Method

To make the dressing, place a small saucepan over a medium heat and add the fennel seeds. Dry-fry them, stirring, for 1–2 minutes or until you notice a sweet aroma and they start to darken. Add grapeseed oil, eschalots, chilli flakes and salt. When they begin to fry, turn the heat down low and gently cook for 5 minutes so the flavours infuse. Add verjuice and vinegar, and bring the mix to a boil again before removing from the heat. Give it 5 minutes to cool, then stir through the basil. Let the mix sit overnight in a cool spot.

The next day, strain this mix through a fine strainer, making sure to press out all the goodness from the seeds and leaves. Whisk in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Set aside. This will make more dressing than you need, but it will last a good week or so in the fridge.

For the risotto cake, warm the stock in a saucepan on the stove. Put the rice and olive oil in another saucepan on medium heat. Warm it slightly and then gently sweat the onion and garlic for about 5–6 minutes or until softened, stirring occasionally. Be careful as you don’t want any colour.

Add the rice, season well and mix to combine. Pour in the wine and cook, stirring occasionally until there is no more liquid in the saucepan.

From here, add the stock in batches, allowing each batch of liquid to cook off before adding the next, stirring occasionally. Continue until the rice is cooked; it should take 27–28 minutes. The mix should look creamy but not wet, the rice cooked but still with a hint of chewiness.

Remove from the stove and stir in the cheeses and lemon zest. Your mix should be fairly thick and a little sticky. Check for seasoning.

To set the rice you will need two trays, approximately 20cm x 30cm, one lined with baking paper. Ideally they should fit snugly one on top of the other.

Spoon the rice into the lined tray and even it out with a spatula. Place a sheet of baking paper over it and then another other tray on top. Weigh the second tray down firmly and evenly – tins are good for this. Leave the rice like this in the fridge overnight.

The next day, once it has set, turn the rice onto a chopping board, peel off the baking paper and cut your rice slab into 6 even pieces. Wet your hands a little and use them to shape the cakes. You want rounded corners, a bit like a hash brown. Set aside.

You will need to cook the risotto cakes in batches. Add about 2cm of vegetable oil to a large frypan. Heat the oil to 150°C and gently slip two of the risotto cakes into the fat. Give the pan a little jiggle as you do, so the cakes don’t stick to the bottom. Gently fry and carefully baste until the bottom and sides crisp up and turn a nice golden brown. Turn the cakes and repeat on the other side, about 5 minutes in total. If the oil isn’t hot enough, your cakes may melt and go mushy. Rest the cakes in a warmed oven while you do the next batch.

To serve, place each risotto cake on an individual dish. Whisk your dressing again and pour a generous amount over the cakes – you want them to be swimming in it. Add all the herbs together in a mixing bowl and season gently with just a hint of oil, lemon juice and a little salt. Adorn the top of the cakes with the mixed herbs and serve immediately.