It is with a heavy heart that today we say goodbye to Tablespoon. You have served us well and, on occasion, served us. You have scooped many an ingredient but, sadly, rice croquettes were literally the death of you. You will be missed.
I'm not going to lie. I was just a bit more than devastated to hear and feel the cracking of my tablespoon as I pulled up some rice mixture. Making these little nuggets was already a test of my patience. They did not want to stick together on their own and the stickier my hands became, the harder it was to form the balls. Then the tablespoon snaps in half...a truly sad moment. I've had that tablespoon for YEARS. What made it even worse was that I thought back to my very first tablespoon, a tablespoon that is still living comfortably in my mother's kitchen. It's part of a multicolored set of measuring spoons that came with my very first cookbook Kids Cooking: A very slightly messy manual. How can a set of measuring spoons that must be at least 20 years old by now have lasted longer than the tablespoon of only 8 years? Probably because I would never dare use that precious set to scoop rice balls. Whenever I cook at my mother's I go for those measuring spoons immediately. I love those tablespoons...they may go "mysteriously" missing the next time I visit. I'm going to have to move on now, I'm getting way too nostalgic over baking utensils.
Rice croquettes!
Let's just say there is a reason I do not fry anything...and it's not for health reasons. My fry skills are less than stellar. Maybe it was the tightness of my rice balls, maybe it was the temp of the oil, or maybe it was the amount of time the rice balls spent in the oil. Whatever it was, it produced a comedic show of me desperately trying to rescue disintegrating food from a vat of bubbling oil. I did manage to rescue several that could sort of be considered croquettes. Thankfully, as happens in these situations, they tasted better than they looked.
Rice Croquettes Roman Style
Crochette di Riso alla Romana
Ingredients:
2 c. rice
3 Tbsp tomato sauce
4 Tbsp butter - melted
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese - grated
2 eggs - beaten
1 c. mozzarella cheese - diced
1 c. bread crumbs
2 c. vegetable oil
Directions:
Cook the rice in salted boiling water until they are tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool. Once it's cool enough to work with, mix in tomato sauce, butter, Parmesan cheese, and eggs.
Shape into an oblong croquette by spreading 1 tablespoon of rice in the palm of your hand,
place a piece of mozzarella in the center,
top with another tablespoon of rice, and firmly press it all together.
Roll in the bread crumbs.
Repeat until all the rice is used. I was able to make 34 croquettes. Fry a few at a time in hot oil until golden on all sides.
As you can see, I was not lying. These guys came out looking less than amazing. Thankfully, they tasted great. The ones that did manage to stay together held up well. They were firm but soft inside with a nice surprise of mozzarella cheese in the middle.
If you choose to make these or anything similar, ever, I wish you well! I think it will be a long time before I tackle croquettes again.
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