London Arancini Balls

Mine and the 'award winner' D's rice balls. Unfortunately we didn't add salt to the rice and didn't know how to turn the inside yellow like it is when you buy it in Italy but they weren't too bad for a first go! I also realised that in my original recipe I forgot about the beaten egg to mix in with the rice which keeps the balls intact (oops-but I fixed it now -thanks Sal for pointing it out).

D's winning an award this week (no cash accompanies it -there's a credit crunch you know) but she is a wonderful soul and a great sous chef. She makes a great breadcrumb mixture with a mortar and pestle. I don't know anyone who actually has a M&P and uses it, most people have them in their kitchens as decorative pieces, non?

Anyhoo to compensate for the lack of salt we used the tomato sauce and peas as garnish and sprinkled it all with salt and pepper from their AUTOMATIC salt and pepper grinder. A big no-no as the thing broke several times during dinner -that is a gadget that our parents would look at and it would reinforce their sentiment that our generation is lazy.

I actually like the sound and action of grinding your own pepper. This automatic one sounded like a kids toy stalling or chugging in overdrive for only a microscopic piece of pepper-too noisy. Sorry M, I know you like it but I think you should return it before it breaks open into your pasta carbonara dish this week. The unsalted balls with the home made bread crumbs - we toasted a lot of slice bread for them!
We burned the bottoms of the first ones as the oil was too hot, but got the hang of it with the rest. See recipe in my original post, will try it again and try and make it just like they do in Sicilia, practice makes perfect - D's kept the oil for our next attempt.