Arancini

Arancini is an Italian appetizer. If I were to deconstruct it – it is just rice balls with a chessy filling and a crisp exterior.

I must say I was pretty excited to try this. The hubby is very fond of all things cheesy and we have a lot of mozzarella currently in my refrigerator waiting to be used.

I read somewhere that Arancini are pretty bland, but I decided to up the spice quotient to suit our palates. Here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients

1 ½ cup cooked rice,

1 tsp oil + oil for deep frying,

1 tsp minced garlic,

Salt to taste,

Chilli flakes to taste ( I used them pretty generously),

Powdered black pepper to taste,

A large pinch of dried rosemary,

A large pinch of dried parsley,

¼ cup parmesan cheese,

Mozzarella cubes as required,

1 egg,

2 tbsp refined flour or as required,

2 tbsp breadcrumbs or as required

Method

Ensure the rice is soft. Heat a tsp of oil and add the minced garlic and saute for a few seconds. Switch off the heat. Add the rice, salt, red chilli flakes, powdered black pepper, rosemary and parsley. Mix this well using your hands. It is a good idea to mash the rice a bit to facilitate easy binding.

Now add in the grated Parmesan cheese and mix well.

Divide the rice mixture into equal sized balls. Roll the ball into a uniformly shaped ball and insert a mozzarella cube in the center and roll again. Ensure the cheese does not peep out from any side. Make all the balls similarly and refrigerate for sometime. I refrigerated it for about 2 hours. This is an extremely important step as this hardens the balls and it is easier to roll in the coating. It is less messy this way.

Beat the egg in a shallow dish.

Place the refined flour in another shallow dish.

In a third shallow dish place the breadcrumbs and mix in some salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a pan for deep frying. Take a ball dip in the egg mixture, then roll in the refined flour and finally in the bread crumb mixture.

Drop it in the hot oil and fry till golden brown. Repeat for all the other balls.

Best had hot or warm. Since I made it spicy we didn’t require any dip with it, but you can serve it with ketchup.