Can anyone think of a creative filling for rice balls?!
Answers: I'm talking about Japanese rice balls. And I don't want traditional fillings. I want to make these for my anime club so they can be really weird fillings.
To serve 4 you'll need:
1 1/2 cups rice
1 teaspoon saffron
1 cup grated Parmigiano (freshly grated, not from a can)
4 eggs
2/3 pound (300 g) ground beef
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 clove garlic
1/2 a small onion
A packed quarter cup dried porcini
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 pound mozzarella or fresh, soft provolone (if you're in Sicily you will want to use canestrato fresco)
1 cup fresh peas, boiled
Flour
Bread crumbs
Salt and Pepper
Oil for frying
Organically grown orange leaves (optional, as garnish)
Begin by preparing the filling:
Finely slice the onion and mince the garlic, and sauté the mixture in the olive oil until it wilts. Stir in the ground meat, continue cooking until it is well browned, and then stir in the wine. While it's evaporating, dilute the tomato paste in a ladle of warm water and stir it in. Season the mixture to taste, and simmer it over a very low flame for a couple of hours, adding more warm water or broth as necessary to keep it from drying out. Towards the end of the cooking time, steep the dried mushrooms in boiling water for a few minutes and coarsely chop them. Stir them into the sauce too; cook it for 15 minutes more and it's done.
While the meat's cooking, simmer the peas until they're tender. Then remove them from the fire, drain them, and let them cool. Dice the mozzarella into half-inch cubes and combine it with the cool peas.
The other thing to do while the meat is cooking is prepare the rice: boil it in abundant, lightly salted water, and while it's cooking lightly beat two of the eggs. When the rice is done drain it. Transfer it into a bowl, let it cool slightly, and stir in the beaten eggs, grated cheese, and saffron. Let it finish cooling.
When everything else is ready, lightly beat the remaining eggs and season them with salt and pepper. Then, preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C). Next, make the first arancino by taking two small handfuls of rice and shaping them into hollow hemispheres Fill the hollows with some of the meat, and some of the peas, and mold the two halves together to obtain a smooth-sided rice ball about the size of a small orange (1.5 - 2 inches in diameter). Roll the arancino in flour, dredge it in the beaten egg, roll it well in the breadcrumbs, and fry it in abundant hot oil. While it's cooking begin with the next, and when the one that's frying has become a golden brown drain it on absorbent paper. When you have finished frying all your arancini, heat them through in the oven for five minutes, decorate them with the orange leaves if you choose to, and serve them piping hot.
the thing that really makes rice balls great is a cheese filled center. like motzerella, chedder, sharp, or like american. they make anything taste better. hope this helps.
you could put some bits of chicken or prawn meat in it
Yummy Japanese-Style Rice Balls
INGREDIENTS
(Use organic ingredients whenever possible)
? 5 cups uncooked rice (organic white
Japanese-style rice is best to use)
? 1 lb salmon, cooked (ask a parent
to help prepare the fish)
? Soy sauce
? Salt (or sea salt)
? 1 package flavored nori
? 2 packages bonito (tuna) flakes
? 5 ume pickled plums, chopped
? Sesame seeds, toasted
? Black sesame seeds
Let's Make It!
Adult/Kid:
a) Place the rice in a bowl and rinse with water. Dump out the water and rinse the rice again. Repeat this process until the water runs clear (about 5 times).
b) Put the rinsed rice in a rice cooker with 5 1/2 cups of water and cook for 20-30 minutes. If you don't have a rice cooker, put the rice and water in a pot. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 20-30 minutes. The rice should be somewhat "sticky" to work well in this recipe.
c) Flake the salmon into small pieces. Add a little soy sauce and a little salt for flavoring.
d) Divide the cooked rice into three bowls. Add the salmon to one bowl, the bonito flakes to another bowl, and the pickled plums to a third bowl. Mix the ingredients in each bowl.
e) Wet your hands and shape a handful of one mixture into a ball, triangle, or log. Roll in sesame seeds or cover with nori. Use the ingredients to make funny faces on the rice balls! Repeat until all of the rice mixture is gone.
Tip: Instead of using salmon, try making rice balls with various chopped-up vegetables (such as cucumbers, pickled daikon radishes, avocado, or thinly sliced carrots). You can also use bits of scrambled egg or boiled shrimp for extra protein!
I think lightly toasted tofu would be good.... with some sesame seeds. If you eat meat.... i think ground turkey(seasoned) would be yummy too! Hawaiians eat a version with fried SPAM in it. Sounds weird.... but it's really good! Good Luck! :)
Salmon maybe.
Tuna and mayo.
Japanese pickled ginger.
Pickled plums.
Bonito flakes dipped in soy sauce.
Smoked salmon.
Cucumber.
Cooked chicken cubes.
I
Tapioca pudding?
Maybe you can try floss (anykind of floss) and dressed with creamy sauce or maybe thousand islands (the simple way..).
Or maybe you wanna do some experiment by fill it with eel meat~~?