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Croquettes of Lamb, Macedoine
Pick off all the meat from the leg of lamb left over from yesterday and cut into very small dice pieces. Hash very finely one white onion, place in a saucepan with one and a half ounces butter and gently cook for five minutes; then add two ounces of flour; stir well, pour in one pint white broth; mix well, and when it comes to a boil add the lamb; mix well. Season with one teaspoon salt, half teaspoon white pepper and a saltspoon grated nutmeg; stir well and cook for fifteen minutes, mixing occasionally. Add one tablespoon chopped parsley and three raw egg yolks; briskly mix and cook again for five minutes. Remove the pan from the fire, add two ounces bread crumbs, mix for one minute; then transfer it on a cold dish and let cool off. Divide the preparation into twelve equal parts. Lightly flour a corner of a table, gently roll out each piece into croquette shape, dip them in the whites of two beaten eggs, then lightly roll in bread crumbs; place in a frying basket and fry in boiling fat for five minutes. Remove, drain thoroughly. Dress on a hot dish in crown form. Fill up the centre with a hot macedoine and serve.
A standard croquette formula: a very thick béchamel bound with yolks, chilled until sliceable, then breaded and deep-fried. Everything depends on the panade being stiff enough to hold.
- The hinge is the chillThe mixture must be spread thin on a plate or tray and refrigerated until genuinely firm — two hours at minimum, overnight is better. A warm or soft mixture will burst in the fryer no matter how carefully it is breaded.
- White brothA pale unbrowned stock — veal, chicken or lamb bones simmered without roasting. Any light chicken stock works; avoid dark beef stock, which muddies both colour and flavour.
- Weights to volumeOne and a half ounces butter is 3 tablespoons; 2 ounces flour is about 7 tablespoons (a scant half cup); 2 ounces breadcrumbs is roughly a cup of fresh crumbs, less if dry. A saltspoon is about a quarter teaspoon.
- Frying temperature"Boiling fat" gives no number; in practice it is usually taken to mean fat in the region of 350-375F. Five minutes is generous for something already cooked through; two to three minutes to a deep gold is enough, and frying in batches keeps the fat from cooling too far.
- The yolks need the full five minutesThree raw yolks are stirred into a hot base and cooked briefly. Keep the pan moving over low heat so they thicken without scrambling, and do not shortcut the time — the mixture should be stiff enough to hold a spoon upright.
- BreadingFlour, then beaten white, then crumbs. Two egg whites alone are thin; whole beaten egg thinned with a spoon of water is a common modern alternative for better adhesion. Let the breaded croquettes rest 15 minutes in the fridge before frying.
- MacédoineA dice of mixed vegetables — carrot, turnip, green beans, peas — cut to a uniform quarter inch, cooked separately so each keeps its colour, then tossed in butter or a little cream. It fills the ring of croquettes and is the whole point of the garnish.
- YieldTwelve croquettes, serving four as a main course or six as a first course.
This is a leftovers recipe dressed in restaurant French, which is exactly what croquettes were for. The technique — bind cooked meat in a stiff sauce, chill, crumb, fry — was a staple of nineteenth-century professional kitchens as a respectable way to serve yesterday's roast, and the opening line here says so outright: the leg of lamb left over from yesterday. Macédoine, a mixture of small-diced vegetables, is generally explained as a reference to Macedonia and the many peoples of Alexander's empire — a joke about variety, though the explanation is traditional rather than documented. Serving the croquettes in a ring with the garnish heaped in the middle is classic en couronne presentation, which the recipe itself calls "crown form."