As I was sifting through my gramma's recipes, I found one for rice balls, but they were stuffed with meat. I've updated her version, and this is what I came up with. I like my version better!
I used short grain brown rice, the original version called for white rice. I did a little research and found some people even use leftover risotto. Here's what I did:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup short grain brown rice
fresh mozzarella balls, about 7
fontinella cheese chunks, about 1/4 lb
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 eggs, 4 are for breading
1/2 cup flour, for breading
2 cups panko bread crumbs, or cracker crumbs, for breading
olive oil, for frying
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Directions:
Cook the rice in broth in a covered sauce pan. After the rice is cooked, spread out on a plate or cookie sheet to cool. I cooled mine in the frig. After the rice has cooled, transfer to a bowl and add 2 eggs and grated parm cheese and mix together. Add a sprinkle or two of salt and pepper. Set up breading station: a bowl with flour, a bowl with scrambled eggs, and a bowl with cracker crumbs. Preheat oven to 200, just to keep the balls warm after frying. To assemble the balls, take a large pinch of rice and form it in the ball of your hand. Put a chunk of cheese on the rice, then cover the cheese with another pinch of rice. "Roll" into a ball shape and dip in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Mine turned out way bigger than I expected. I will use mozzarella "pearls" the next time. They are smaller than the Ciliegine I used today. The Fontinella cheese was just cut into chunks. Repeat the breading process until all the rice has been used. Heat about 1/4 cup olive oil in a large frying pan. When the oil is hot, place some of the balls in the pan to brown, being careful not to over crowd them. You will have to turn them to brown on all sides. Keep adding oil as needed. When they are all browned, place on a cookie sheet and keep warm in the oven. You could deep fry them if you want. I don't own a deep fryer, so mine turned out sort of triangle shaped. Serve with warm marinara.
