Party Rice Balls

Bring water and 1 teaspoon of salt to boil in a saucepan and stir in rice. Reduce heat, cover and cook rice until all water is absorbed (according to the timing on your rice package). Fluff rice and set aside until it is warm to the touch. For this recipe you must work with warm rice, not cold.

Mix the eggs, cheese and parsley in a small bowl. Add this into the warm rice and stir well until all rice is coated with the egg mixture.

In a separate bowl, add the cup of breadcrumbs. Keeping your hands wet, roll rice mixture into balls the size of a golf ball. Coat them with breadcrumbs and set the coated balls aside on a tray. Repeat until all the rice mixture is used.

Preheat oven to 200 F if you want to keep the finished rice balls warm while you fry all of them. Heat about 1-inch of oil in a heavy skillet, preferably cast iron. Oil should be about 375 F when it’s ready. Or you can test it by putting a cube of bread in the oil. It’s done when it browns in 1 minute.

Add a few rice balls into the hot oil and brown on all sides. This may have to be done in stages—do not crowd the pan! Fry maybe 6-8 balls at a time so they have plenty of room to move around in the pan. When brown, remove to a plate covered with a paper towel to drain oil. These may be kept warm in a 200 F oven until all the rice balls are cooked. Repeat with the remaining balls.

Makes 24 rice balls.