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Rice Croquettes
Wash 1 cupful of picked rice and drain. Put in a double boiler with 1 pint of clear veal stock and cook until the liquid has been absorbed. In the meantime cook together for fifteen minutes 2 1/2 cupfuls of canned tomatoes, I onion chopped fine, 6 cloves, I bay leaf, 1 dozen peppercorns and 1 teaspoonful of salt. Rub through a sieve, add to the rice and continue cooking, stirring lightly now and then with a fork, until it is swollen and no free liquid remains. Add 2 tablespoonfuls of butter cut in bits and cook for ten minutes longer, then stir in more seasoning if necessary, I heaping tablespoonful of chopped parsley and I well-beaten egg, turn out and cool. Form into croquettes, egg, crumb and fry in deep, smoking hot fat.
A savoury rather than sweet croquette, built on a tomato risotto that has to be cooked dry enough to hold its shape. The hinge is the cooling: warm rice will not form and will burst in the fat.
- Chill the mixture properly"Turn out and cool" means at least cooling until cold and firm; spreading the rice in a shallow pan and refrigerating it will get you there fastest. A croquette shaped from tepid rice will slump in the crumbs and is liable to split open in the fryer.
- "Picked" ricePicked means gone over by hand for grit and hulls, which modern packaged rice does not need. A medium- or short-grain rice releases more starch and will bind more readily than long-grain.
- Veal stockClear veal stock was a standard household base in this period and is rarely made at home now. A light unsalted chicken stock is the nearest substitute; avoid a dark beef stock, which will overwhelm the tomato.
- Liquid balanceA pint of stock plus roughly two cups of sieved tomato is a great deal of liquid for one cup of rice, and the total cooking time is long; in a double boiler expect it to take the better part of an hour. Keep going until the mass mounds on the spoon with no free liquid at all.
- The spices are for flavouring onlyThe cloves, bay leaf and peppercorns go into the tomatoes to infuse and are then caught by the sieve. Do not skip the sieving step, and do not chop them into the mixture.
- Canned tomatoes then and nowCanned tomatoes of this period were generally packed whole in their own juice and tended to be thinner and sharper than many modern products. Use plain whole canned tomatoes rather than a thick passata or anything with added herbs or sugar.
- Frying temperature"Deep, smoking hot fat" is older shorthand that runs hotter than is useful; fat actually smoking is past its point. Fry at 365-375F, in batches, until the crumb coating is deep gold, about three minutes.
- Egg and crumbBeaten whole egg thinned with a spoonful of water, then fine dry breadcrumbs. Let the coated croquettes rest in the refrigerator 20 minutes before frying so the crust sets.
- YieldOne cup of raw rice gives roughly twelve croquettes, enough for four as a light main course or six as a side with a green vegetable.
Croquettes were one of the great economies of the American and English kitchen in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: a way of turning cold leftovers, or a cheap starch like rice, into something that arrived at table looking like a made dish. Cookery books of the period devote whole chapters to them, and rice croquettes appear in both sweet versions, served with jam or a sauce, and savoury ones like this. The tomato here is doing double duty as flavour and as colour, and the veal stock reflects a time when a stockpot was a permanent fixture. Economy is the point: a cup of rice, a can of tomatoes, an onion and an egg feed a family, and the deep fat makes it feel like more.