Risotto Cakes and Roasted Onions

I made two Barefoot Bloggers recipes this week. Let's start with the Chive Risotto Cakes, chosen by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen. Here's the ingredients:

The line-up

The chives are from my garden, and I had to go out and grab another handful when I decided to make the whole recipe, not halve it. While the risotto is cooking you whisk together the other ingredients minus the panko flakes. After the risotto is cooked and cooled you incorporate it into the wet mixture. Then you chill it. I put mine together Tuesday evening and finished cooking them Wednesday evening.

Gooey

After the mixture is thoroughly cooled you form patties. I used an ice cream scoop as suggested in the recipe to get the right amount, then flattened the patties in my hands. Here's where I had problems though. The patties weren't staying together very well at all. The first few were okay, but after that they really wanted to fall apart. Maybe I should have put the mixture back in the fridge between batches? Anyway, you coat the patties in panko flakes...

Patties on a bed of panko

... and fry them in oil. Mine took longer than the given three minutes per side to become golden.

In the oil

And here they are after frying:

Golden, like hush puppies

I wasn't terribly impressed by this recipe. The cakes are fine, but to me they just taste fried. I think adding more chives and a stronger cheese might help. I do really like using panko for breading since its makes a very crispy crust. Overall, I don't think I'll be making these again. I still have about half the mixture in the fridge. I think I'll make bite-size patties and freeze them before the frying to have appetizers at the ready for the future. I think they'd benefit from a dipping sauce, but I'm not sure what...

I also made the Herb Roasted Onions, chosen by Kelly from Baking with the Boys. I can forsee using this recipe with other roasted vegetables as well. You whip together a quick dressing of Dijon, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Then you toss the onions in it and roast them in the oven. The onions are served with leftover dressing poured on top. Holy moly, these were good! We had these along with the risotto cakes:

Dinner's served!

Together they were a tasty meal. But I think I went to my band rehearsal that night smelling of onions and fried food!