Note: Sorry this was not posted last night. While waiting for my rice to cool, I painfully managed to separate my toenail from my toe. Accidentally of course, bu instead of finishing up this entry after I ate, I took some serious ibuprofen, ate ice cream, and kept my foot elevated. I am happy to report that it feels a million times better this morning, and I may have even saved my toenail.
Okay, story time. When I was a kid, my grandmother owned a store next to a deli. My mom worked for my grandmother so my brother and I spent a lot of time playing in the back room and behind the store. We also ate a lot of lunches at the deli. They had some many things worth mentioning. Cookies, crumb cake, decent Italian meats, sides, bread sticks, candy that I was allowed to just go over and eat…. I could go on forever. But the one thing I have loved my entire life that came from that deli is rice balls. I’ve only seen a few pizzerias even offer them as a menu item and most of the time they make them wrong.
People tend to put peas in them. I HATE peas. I cannot recall a single time since I was maybe 6 that I’ve willing eaten peas. And to be specific I'm taking cooked peas. Peas in things. Not fresh off the vine peas. Fresh peas from the garden I pick myself and eat right there are a different vegetable all together. Something terrible happens to the taste of peas in the cooking process. Sorry, getting side tracked. The point I’m trying to make is people put stupid things in my beloved rice balls and I have only found on place that makes them even close to as good as the deli from my childhood. Thanks to the internet, I found a recipe for them that I will be making tonight.
Rice Balls
Adapted from Vince Jones’ recipe on allrecipies.com.
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 – 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons salt, divided
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup uncooked white rice
- 1 1/2 cups dried breadcrumbs
- 2 cups olive oil for frying
Directions:
Get your rice cooking. The rice I have is a 2:1 ratio of water to rice. Bring water to a rolling boil, add a little salt to taste (1 teaspoon is recommended but I use way less since I'm not a huge salt person.) and rice, bring back to boil and then turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. You wanna keep a close eye on it though, because for rice balls you need to stop your rice just short of being done so there is still some water in the pot.
While that's cooking out, take two nice size stems of flat leaf parsley, and break off the excess stem.
To chop, I take my parsley in a bunch and fold it over on itself a few times, then thinly slice ribbons of it, then go back through a few more times until it's the size I want it.
In a medium bowl add your eggs, cheeses, parsley, pepper and remaining teaspoon of salt.
Whisk it until it looks like this.
By now your rice should be almost done. When it's ready, remove it from heat and pour your egg mixture in, stirring rapidly. If you do not stir while pouring in the eggs, they will start to cook and that is not what you want. Set aside and cool for an hour or two. (Due to the aforementioned injury, mine sat out about 3 hours. Gave it a quick stir before moving on and they were perfect.)
Now that your rice is cooled, put your fryer oil on. You want it about 350°. Put your breadcrumbs in a bowl, wet your hands and form rice into balls about an inch and a half in diameter. (I could only get through bout 4 before I had to re-wet my hands.)
Gently drop your rice balls in the bowl of breadcrumbs and toss to coat. Once they're all coated, the oil should be at temp. Since I don't have a thermometer for my dutch oven, I take wet hands and flick some of the water in the oil. If it pops and fizzles I assume it’s done.
Put the balls in about 6 at a time. They take about 3-5 minutes to fry up to golden brown, and if they stick out of your oil at all, give them a spin to make sure they get uniformly browned.
Put on paper towels to drain and serve hot. I like them with a dipping sauce of marinara.
Mangia!
