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Rissoles
These are practically little turnovers, filled with a highly seasoned mixture of chopped chicken and ham or other delicate meat moistened with white sauce. Roll puff-paste very thin and cut in circles. Place a teaspoon of the mixture in the center of each circle, moisten half the circumference with cold water, and fold the other half over, pressing the edges closely together. Dip in slightly beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of water. Fry in deep fat, and drain thoroughly.
A leftovers dish dressed up as pastry: the success of it rests entirely on how stiff the filling is and how well the edges are sealed.
- Make the filling thick and coldThe white sauce should be a heavy binding sauce, roughly 2 tablespoons each butter and flour to 1 cup milk, stirred into the chopped meat until the mixture holds its shape on a spoon. Chill it thoroughly before filling; a loose or warm filling will burst the seams in the fat.
- Puff pasteStore-bought all-butter puff pastry works well. Roll it to about 1/8 inch and cut 3-inch rounds, which take a rounded teaspoon each. Work quickly and keep the cut rounds cold so the pastry does not soften and stick.
- Sealing is the hingePress the moistened edges firmly with the tines of a fork and check every one before frying. A single unsealed spot lets fat in and filling out, and one leaking rissole clouds the whole pan.
- The egg dipThe beaten egg and water form a thin skin that helps the pastry hold together in the fat. There are no crumbs here, so shake off any excess: pooled egg fries into ragged tags.
- Frying temperatureThe recipe says only "deep fat" and gives no temperature; for pastry of this kind something in the region of 370-375F is usual. Cooler and the paste absorbs grease before it puffs; hotter and the outside colors before the filling heats through. Two or three minutes a side, turning once, and fry in small batches so the temperature holds.
- DrainingDrain upright on a rack over paper rather than flat on paper alone, so steam does not soften the underside. Serve hot; they are poor once cooled.
- Yield and servingAbout a pound of puff paste gives roughly 18 to 20 small rissoles, taking something in the region of 3/4 cup of filling at a rounded teaspoon each, enough for six as a first course or four as a light main dish with a green salad.
- Seasoning"Highly seasoned" is doing real work in this recipe. Cooked chicken and a thick white sauce are bland; salt firmly and add mustard, mace, cayenne or lemon, and taste the filling cold, when seasoning always reads weaker.