What’d You Do Last Weekend?
Make your own bitters.
Brown Rice Fritters - Parmesan Style
Out of the May 2008 Saveur came an inspiration for an Italian-style comfort dinner...brown rice fritters topped with melted mozzarella, swimming in tangy tomato sauce. This is a great vegetarian dish, for those who still eat eggs and cheese.
This is done in two stages - you make the brown rice fritters first, and then you add the accompanying ingredients to make it Parmesan-style.
Brown Rice Fritters
2 c cooked short-grain brown rice (this should be fairly dry in consistency, but not dried out - if you pull it pre-cooked from the fridge, you'll want to soften it in the microwave a little first)
1/2 c grated parmigiano-reggiano (I'll admit to using a 4-cheese mix here)
1/2 T fresh oregano (I used dried from our garden - Greek oregano, not Mexican)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshbly ground black pepper
1 beaten egg
- Mix the all of ingredients together - it should be dry but sticky.
- Using a cookie cutter as a guide (or you can use your hands), form 8 fritters on a sheet pan.
- Place the sheet pan in the freezer for 30+ minutes to allow the cakes to firm up.
- Remove from the freezer and dredge in flour.
- Heat 1/4 c olive oil and 2 - 3 T butter in a skillet until the butter finishes foaming.
- Add the rice cakes, working in batches, and turn only once each. You can cook each side for about 2 minutes until they're brown. Turning more than once makes them fall apart. Don't worry about cooking the sides.
Adding the finishing touches...
- Set the cakes aside and pour out the grease from the frying pan.
- To that same oven-proof skillet, add tomato sauce (we had jazzed it up a bit with some herbs, some cooked onions and garlic, and pappadew peppers) and let it come up to heat.
- In went the fritters, we put a spoon of tomato sauce on those, and then a nice slice of mozzarella.
- The whole thing went into the oven at 415 degrees to melt, turn up the heat to broil for some nice color.
