In my sometimes quixotic quest to find quick and tasty recipes using basic food storage staples, I get inspiration from odd sources and then take a few twists and turns to arrive at a delicious destination. While watching yet another Korean drama, I again saw the actors eating some rice balls. Duh. The main ingredient is rice. I figured I’d look them up on Food.com.
All the recipes also called for seaweed, not something that most of us normally stock. (Or maybe that’s just me and all the rest of you have a good supply of it.) No go. However, a few other recipes also popped up in the search results and one caught my eye: Italian rice balls.
I took a look at a few recipes, and they were all basically the same. And totally food storage friendly. I made them up for dinner on Tuesday night and soon wished I’d doubled the batch.
In a small bowl, combine eggs, cheese, and seasonings well, and then stir in rice until it is well coated. Place bread crumbs in a shallow bowl. Form the rice mixture into 1-inch balls, roll in bread crumbs until covered, and set on a platter.
Heat 1 inch of oil in a skillet or frying pan to 350°F. (A kernel of popcorn will pop when the oil reaches 350°F. On my stove this was somewhere between medium and medium-high heat.) Fry about six rice balls at a time until they are a crispy, golden brown, about 1 minute. Remove and drain on paper towels. Serve warm alone or with marinara sauce or ranch dressing for dipping. Yield: About 20 rice balls; serves 4.
Notes. I was quite surprised to find that Lydia had used up all our fresh eggs making breakfast tacos the other day, so there weren’t any for making these rice balls. I thought about using dehydrated eggs, but I’d read that they impart an off taste when used in meatballs so decided against that idea. As I had some freeze-dried eggs, I used those and they worked perfectly.
Most of the rice ball recipes call for using Arborio or short-grain rice. I don’t store either of those, so I just used regular long-grain rice, nothing fancy. The mixture held together perfectly, though some people recommend adding a little water if the balls don’t stick together.
A cube of mozzarella is sometimes pushed into the center of the rice ball before frying. That seems like a terrific idea and one we’ll probably try out in the future, but for this first attempt I wanted to limit the recipe to basic food storage staples.
One of the comments on the original recipe suggested adding some cooked sausage to the mixture. As I had a little left over from Lydia’s breakfast tacos, I added some to half of the rice balls. We didn’t really notice the sausage in there, so I wouldn’t do that again. Another reviewer suggested substituting quick oats if bread crumbs weren’t available. I didn’t try that but will perhaps do so next time to test it out.
Family
reviews: Aaron, Lydia, Becky, and I
really liked them. I had pizza sauce
already prepared, so I thought I’d use that for dipping. We all agreed that marinara sauce would taste
better. We also tried ranch dressing,
and that was ok but wouldn’t be our first choice. The rest of the family also thought ketchup might work for dipping. And this is something that children will also really like.
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