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Lenten Croquettes
Soak one-half cup lentils and one-fourth cup dried lima beans over night, in cold water to cover; drain, add three pints water, one-half small onion, one stalk celery, three slices carrot, and a sprig of parsley. Cook until lentils are soft, remove seasonings, drain, and rub through a sieve. To pulp add one-half cup stale bread crumbs, one egg slightly beaten, and salt and pepper to taste. Melt one tablespoon butter, add one tablespoon flour, and pour on gradually onethird cup hot cream; combine mixtures, and cool. Shape, dip in crumbs, egg, and crumbs again, fry in deep fat, and drain on brown paper. Serve with Tomato Sauce I.
A pulse croquette that stands or falls on how dry and how cold the mixture is before it goes into the fat. Everything else is straightforward.
- Chill it hardThe recipe says only "cool," but the mixture must be refrigerated until firm — an hour spread on a plate, or longer. Lukewarm croquette paste splits open in the fryer and absorbs oil.
- Dry the pulpAfter sieving, return the purée to the pan and stir it over low heat for a few minutes until it holds a shape. Lentil and lima pulp carries a great deal of water, and the bread crumbs alone will not absorb it.
- Three pints of waterSix cups, which is generous for three-quarters of a cup of dried pulses. You are cooking them loose and draining, not making a thick pot; drain thoroughly and press the pulp in the sieve.
- Cooking timeSoaked lentils and dried limas want roughly half an hour to an hour at a bare simmer, the lentils collapsing well before the limas. The limas are the slower of the two, so judge doneness by them.
- Rub through a sieveA food mill or a few pulses in a food processor does this in seconds. Avoid over-processing to a smooth paste — a little texture helps the croquettes hold.
- One-third cup hot creamThe recipe does not specify which cream. The butter, flour and cream make a thick panada that acts as the binder; add the hot cream gradually, as the recipe directs.
- Deep fat375°F, in enough oil for the croquettes to float free. Fry a few at a time so the temperature does not drop, three to four minutes to a deep brown.
- Brown paperBrown paper was a usual drain in kitchens of the period. Paper towels or a rack over a sheet pan do the same job.
- YieldAbout eight to ten croquettes, enough for four as an entrée with the tomato sauce.
"Lenten" here means meatless rather than austere: the croquettes still carry an egg, a tablespoon of butter and a third of a cup of cream, dairy and eggs being treated differently from flesh under many observances of the fast, though the rules varied. Fannie Farmer's entrée chapter is full of these shaped, crumbed and fried mixtures, the standard way a kitchen turned a purée of almost anything into a course that could be served on a platter with sauce. Lentils and dried limas were cheap pantry staples, and putting them through a sieve with a butter-and-cream panada was the technique that made them presentable at a dinner table. The cross-reference to Tomato Sauce I is typical of the book's method: recipes are built as components, and the reader is expected to turn to another page rather than be told the same thing twice.