Carolina Gold Arancini
Crunchy outside with a soft & cheesy interior, these Carolina Gold Rice Fried Arancini balls will transport you to another dimension. I mean, these things are seriously so delicious! Another Fusion dish from Chef Jake White. This might just be the best of the southern united states and Italy in one delectably irresistible bite.
Carolina Gold Arancini, Parmesan & Sesame Seeds
While we might have lost most of our crop variety since the commercial adoption of monoculture, there are still some people out there trying to preserve America’s great heirloom varieties. Marsh Hen Mill, a family-owned farm on Edisto Island, SC is one of them, growing and milling their own heirloom grains like Sea Island red peas, Carolina gold rice, black eyed peas, and Blue Corn.
Carolina gold rice is a staple crop in South Carolina. It’s a long grain flavorful rice and a perfect canvas for tons of classic southern dishes. There are a billion ways to prepare white rice and I'm sure you’re familiar with more than a few. You probably don’t have quite as many recipes for all that leftover rice, though. This is a modern take on a classic but if you don’t like parmesan or sesame, there are so many other ways to play with flavors here. Have at it!
Note: Make sure you use cooled leftover rice. This recipe won’t work with fresh rice.
Ingredients:
2 cups Carolina gold rice, cooked
½ cup grated parmesan
1/8 cup parsley, chopped
¼ tsp minced garlic
3 large eggs
2 cups panko, finely ground
1.5 cups AP flour
1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
s&p to taste
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine your cooked rice, parmesan, parsley, garlic, sesame seeds, and egg.
If more binder is needed, add finely ground panko a little at a time until proper texture is reached
Roll mixture into balls about the size of golf ball
Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and chill in the freezer.
While your mixture is chilling, set up an egg wash station with finely ground panko in one bowl, whisked eggs in another, and AP flour in the last.
After about 30 minutes, remove the chilled rice balls from the freezer.
First, coat the rice ball in flour. Shake off excess.
Next, dunk the flour-coated rice ball in the egg mixture followed by the panko mixture.
Return to your baking sheet and proceed with the rest of the rice balls.
Once all the rice balls have been egg-washed, return to the freezer for 30 minutes or overnight.
When you’re ready to cook, Heat oil in a deep bottom pan on medium high heat.
Once preheated, add your Arancini to the oil. Constantly rotate to ensure even browning. Each one will take about 6-8 minutes in the oil.
While still hot, garnish with salt, parmesan, sesame seeds, and parsley. Enjoy!
Food for Thought: Deploying kindness Pt 1. Patience
Before we dive too here I need to confess something - I have very little patience, myself. Some might say zero. Haters shall hate, but anyways, I share this because I want to preface this conversation by saying being eternally patient is a lifelong practice and takes lots of time and self awareness.
Hi there,
Before we dive too deep I need to confess something - I have very little patience, myself. Some might say zero patience. Haters shall hate, but anyways….I share this to preface our conversation by saying being eternally patient is a lifelong practice and takes lots of time and self awareness. Self awareness comes with experiencing life so take it easy on yourself through this personal journey. If our “perfect self” is always a day ahead of us then we’ll never stop growing and that’s a beautiful thing.
Congrats on being a business owner. If your juggling that with being a mother, father, husband, or wife Mazel-freakin- tov to you. You are truly a miracle worker and might even have more to offer here than i do. For me, being an entrepreneur and owning your own business is truly a balancing act. You have a vision for your company. You know how you want to execute it. You hire a team of fine folks to help you execute it. And they’re doing a great job, by all means….BUT, they aren’t doing as good of a job as you could do, or as you envisioned it in your head. First of all Charlie, hold your bloody horses. You’re the head honcho. You’re the reason everyone is there. It’s YOUR visions and YOUR ideas. Of course no one is going to execute your ideas with the same level of passion as you would. The business isn’t their baby like it is yours. That leads us to our first tip in practicing patience.
Setting the Proper Expectations…
..or better yet, don’t set any at all. Human beings are not robots. They make mistakes and where there is margin for error, of any degree, ultimately and inevitably error will follow. You have two choices: to live in the reality being experienced and “react” instead of “predict”, or live in the altruistic place in your mind that rarely ever comes to fruition in real life. Either way, the burden of those thoughts will weigh only on your shoulders and responding poorly to employee error will only negatively affect how that employee interacts with customers throughout the day.
Accepting the “blame”
Wether you like it or not, everything that happens in your business is your fault. All of it. The employee that rang out a customer incorrectly. The customer that wrongfully yelled at one of your employees. It’s all your fault. Being comfortable in the present means being able to take ownership over every single thing that happens in your business, navigating tough decisions in real time, and being able to live with those decisions. If you made the right decision, great. If you made the wrong decision, adjust your plan and move forward. Once you’re able to accept blame you’ll be able to make decisions for your company much more efficiently and to the benefit of you and your employees.
The umbrella method
I’m quite honestly not sure if this concept has it’s own terminology attached to it, but what I call, “the umbrella method”, is a different way of conceptualizing your relationship with your employees. Instead of looking at a business job model as a hierarchy with the owner at the top, think of it as an umbrella. The owner is the little focal point at the top of the umbrella that supports the larger awning, which is ultimately the part that protects you from rain. Without your employees taking ownership of the brand and fully buying into the company, your umbrella has nothing holding it together and is ultimately useless. If a business owner can accept his/her role as a servant to the greater identity of the company - living to serve the employees that make the company operate - they’ll be much more gracious and selfless leaders and be able to respond and pivot with change more easily.
Hop you picked up some tidbits here! Thanks for tuning in. More to come soon!
Keep spreading love, good people!
Best,
D.B.