No. 3018

Croquettes of Rice with Orange, Raspberry Sauce

Croquettes de Riz a l'Orange, Sauce Framboise

Blanch half a pound of rice in plenty of water; drain and put it back into a saucepan with sufficient boiling milk to cover, then set it on the corner of the range to finish cooking while stirring it at times with a wooden spoon. As soon as the rice is consistent and dry, work into it eight egg-yolks, two ounces of butter, two ounces of orange sugar, a pinch of salt, two tablespoonfuls of whipped cream and two tablespoonfuls of candied orange peel shredded very fine. Spread this preparation on a buttered baking tin covered over with a sheet of paper and let it get cold. Divide it into balls each two inches in diameter, and draw them down on one end to give them the shape of a pear; dip in beaten eggs, then roll in white bread-crumbs and plunge them in plenty of hot fat to fry to a fine golden brown; drain, sponge, and stick a piece of angelica into the ends to imitate the stalk of a pear; besprinkle lightly with orange sugar, dress on a napkin and serve with a raspberry sauce made with a pint of raspberry juice mingled with as much boiling syrup, and Curacao, straining the whole through a fine wire sieve.

← No. 3017 Croquettes of Chestnuts Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3019 Croquettes of Semolina, Pistachio Sauce →

For the Modern Kitchen

A rice pudding stiff enough to shape, breaded and fried into little pears. The whole thing stands or falls on the rice paste being genuinely dry and thoroughly chilled before you form it.

Orange sugarNot a product you buy. Rub granulated sugar hard against the zest of an orange, or pulse zest with sugar, until the sugar is damp and fragrant; dry it briefly if it clumps. Two ounces is about a quarter cup.
Blanching the riceBoil the rice about five minutes in abundant water and drain it. This rinses off loose surface starch and any raw taste before the milk goes in.
"The corner of the range"The coolest part of a coal range — a bare simmer. On a modern hob that is the lowest setting with a heat diffuser, stirring often. Half a pound of rice will take 30 to 40 minutes to drink the milk and go stiff.
Eight yolks in hot riceTake the pan off the heat and let it drop below a simmer before the yolks go in, then beat them in fast. Straight into boiling rice they scramble. The residual heat plus the frying later cooks them through.
Chilling is not optionalSpread no more than an inch thick and refrigerate several hours, ideally overnight. Warm paste will not take the pear shape and will burst in the fat.
Frying350–360°F. Any hotter and the crumb colours before the centre warms; any cooler and the croquettes drink oil. Fry a test one first — if it splits, the paste is too soft or the crumb coating has a gap.
AngelicaCandied angelica stem, still sold by baking suppliers and cake decorators, green and faintly liquorice-like. A strip of candied citron peel or a short piece of cinnamon stick stands in for the pear stalk if you cannot find it.
The raspberry sauceEqual volumes raspberry juice and hot sugar syrup, with Curaçao to taste. 'Syrup' here means a sugar syrup boiled clear. Strain to remove the seeds. A pint of each makes far more sauce than the croquettes need; a cup of each is plenty.
YieldTwo-inch balls from this quantity give about 14 to 16 croquettes, serving six to eight as a dessert course.

A Little History

Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits in a long run of sweet croquettes — chestnut, semolina, pistachio — that show how a nineteenth-century restaurant turned a nursery pudding into a plated course. Sweet fried croquettes trained on the same principle as savoury ones: a stiff, egg-bound paste, chilled, breaded and dropped into fat. The pear shaping with an angelica stalk belongs to the decorative trompe-l'œil habit of the period, when kitchens routinely disguised one food as another, and a napkin-lined dish was among the presentations used for fried items.