The Penalty Box

…plus the pre and post games in between, all the games are Canadian teams, Jim Hughson is doing the Canucks game and it’s already started at 11 in the morning.

Today will be a good day. I love Hockey Day in Canada.

This was a recipe I saw while watching the Food Network, so I thought I’d give it a try. On TV they put the end product in a deep fryer, but since I don’t have one of those or a dutch oven to do stovetop frying, I decided to put them in the oven and bake them. So here’s the stuff you’ll need:

• 2 cups of rice
• 1 tbsp of minced garlic
• 3 cups of chicken stock
• 1/4 cup of grated parmesan or romano cheese
• handful of parsley, finely minced (or about 4 tbsp of the dried stuff)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups of breadcrumbs (panko would be nice, but plain old breadcrumbs does the trick)
• 1 and a half farmer sausages (or 3 of the smaller brats, whatever you can get)
• As much mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese as you like (at least 1/4 cup)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.
2. Cook the rice like you would a risotto. As in, rinse the rice, drain, cook the garlic with some vegetable/olive oil until fragrant (add shallots if you want), add the rice, stir, slowly add chicken stock until all absorbed. This should take about 15-20 minutes. You want the rice in a firm consistency for easier handling. If that’s not how you cook a risotto, then just do what I wrote.
3. Mix in the grated cheese and parsley. Transfer to a bowl and stash in your fridge for 15 minutes (or freezer for 10) to cool it down.
4. Beat the eggs in a bowl and set aside. Put the breadcrumbs in another bowl.
5. Meanwhile, take the sausage out of its casing. You can use ground meat here if you wish, just season it to your liking. Sausage is already seasoned, so that’s why I used it. Cook it in the same pan you cooked the rice in. Might as well wash less dishes.
6. When the meat is done, take the rice out. Wet your hands with some water so the rice is easier to handle. Spoon some rice into one hand and make a bowl-like shape (cup your hand to form the shape). Put some meat and cheese in the bowl area. Wrap the rice around the meat and cheese, adding rice as necessary to cover completely. Use your hands to form the ball. The ball should be about the size of a small orange.
7. Dip the ball into the beaten egg bowl and roll it around. Then roll it around in the breadcrumbs.
8. Put on an oven sheet that’s been sprayed with non-stick or covered with aluminum foil.
9. Repeat until you’ve used up both rice and meat.
10. Put the rice balls into your oven for 25-30 minutes (or until the cheese starts bubbling out).
11. This should give you about 8-9 rice balls.

The first time I ate these I didn’t have any sauce with them, which meant they were a little on the dry side. I think this is where the deep frying part keeps the moisture in. Two options to solve this problem: more cheese or use sauce. I took some marinara sauce I made earlier this month and poured that over the rice balls. A little more parmesan cheese on top and they turned out better. These are pretty filling, so you won’t need more than one and a side unless you have a big appetite. One and a half filled me up pretty good. Happy eatings!

With the Superbowl not too far away, I came across this article about football. As with any other sport, football is a spectacle, but is there any other sport where the social aspect of the spectacle is bigger than the spectacle itself? (Boy I used spectacle a lot in that sentence. Spectacle spectacle spectacle.)

I knew football had really short bursts of action, but I didn’t think out of a three hour production only eleven minutes consisted of the ball in play. No wonder there are so many other things synonomous with football besides, you know, football. Not a bad excuse for a party, but it makes sense why football just isn’t all that fun to watch by yourself. Unless you hear those voices too.