Rice Balls

My husband and I recently got back from a trip to Washington with his family. We had a great time staying at Guemes Island Resort. We had a lot of fun kayaking, beach combing, puzzling, and, of course, EATING!

We had so much food. Seriously. I think I gained ten pounds.

But I was most excited about making rice balls! I had never had them before meeting my husband and I've added them to the looooong list of why I'm thankful I married him.

Also...if rice balls weren't exciting enough...this is the first post that I will have SEVERAL pictures of the process and the chefs. My wonderful mother-in-law was a very diligent photographer.

Rice Balls

Rice mixture

• 4 cups dry rice
• 2 eggs, egg yolks only (reserve whites for the breading)
• 1-1.5 sticks of butter
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp parsley flakes
• Salt and pepper

Meat mixture

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1-1.5 cans water
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 Tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 Tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
• 1/3 cup raisins, minced (optional)

Breading

• 2 eggs, plus remaining egg whites
• 2 cans Italian flavored bread crumbs

Cook the rice. Once cooked, combine rice with other "rice mixture" ingredients. Refrigerate overnight.  

Rice mixture that has been refrigerated overnight.

Saute the onion and then add the beef and garlic. Once the beef is cooked add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer until most of the liquid is gone.

Dicing onions! And crying!

Dan came to help us cook!

Cooking the meat mixture

Make a rice ball assembly line: rice mixture, meat mixture, beaten eggs, and finally, bread crumbs.

Rice ball assembly line

To make the rice ball you first make a "nest" with a heaping tablespoon of the rice mixture in your hand. Once you have a "nest" put a little more than a teaspoon of the meat mixture into the middle of the rice "nest".   This is the part that is hard to put into words...you have to work the rice around the meat mixture. Cup your hand closer and closer together while pushing the edges of the rice towards one another with your other hand.

Making the nest for the meat mixture

Make sure to fill in any holes with rice!

Shape the rice blob into a ball. Make sure there are no "holes" for the meat mixture to escape. Next you dip the rice ball into the egg, followed by the breadcrumbs.

Dip in the egg 

Bread the ball

Place the breaded rice balls on a plate and heat the fryer to 350F. Do not crowd the fryer, make batches of 3-4. Fry until golden brown.

Breaded rice balls

Below is what the rice balls will look like after coming out of the fryer!

Finished product! 

Enjoy! Some people...like to take a bite and then add a pat of butter to the rice ball. But they are absolutely delicious without any butter, sauce, condiments, etc!

James, Jonn, Dan, and Fletcher enjoying rice balls! Men of the buttered-balls persuasion :)

Cody, Andy, and Claire enjoying that first bite!