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Potatoes, Christiana
Boil six peeled, good-sized, sound potatoes in two quarts boiling water with a teaspoon salt thirty minutes. Thoroughly drain them, then press them through a potato masher into a sauteuse, add six medium anchovies in oil cut in short pieces, half a teaspoon chopped parsley, half teaspoon French mustard, half a teaspoon salt, two saltspoons white pepper and half a saltspoon grated nutmeg; add two egg yolks, and half an ounce of butter, place the pan on the fire and sharply stir with the spatula while cooking five minutes. Remove from the fire. Divide the puree into twelve even parts, roll them out on a lightly floured table to apple-like shapes, dip them in beaten eggs, then lightly roll in bread crumbs; arrange them in a frying basket and fry in boiling fat until of a nice golden colour. Drain on a cloth, dress on a hot dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A potato croquette seasoned with anchovy, deep-fried and served in a napkin. The whole thing hinges on how dry the potato is before it is enriched.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So the pepper here is half a teaspoon and the nutmeg an eighth.
- SauteuseA shallow, wide saute pan with sloping sides (the straight-sided version is a sautoir). Any heavy pan with plenty of surface area will do; the width is what lets the moisture escape during the five minutes of stirring.
- Dry the potatoBoiled potatoes carry a lot of water, and croquettes that split in the fryer are wet croquettes. Drain hard, return them to the dry hot pan for a minute or two before mashing, and treat the five minutes of stirring over heat as a drying step rather than a cooking one.
- Choice of potatoUse a floury variety — russet, King Edward, Maris Piper. Waxy potatoes turn gluey when pressed and will not hold the shape.
- AnchoviesSix oil-packed fillets, drained and chopped fine rather than in "short pieces" — large fragments make the seasoning uneven and weaken the croquette where they sit. They bring their own salt, so hold back the half teaspoon until you have tasted.
- French mustardDijon, smooth rather than grainy.
- Chill before shapingNot in the original, but the mixture rolls and breads far better cold. Spread it on a tray, cool it, then divide into twelve and shape.
- Frying fat"Boiling fat" means 350–375F. Below that the crumb soaks; above it the outside colours before the centre is hot. Fry in two batches so the temperature holds.
- YieldTwelve croquettes, enough for four as a side or six as a savoury course. Dishing fried food on a folded napkin, as here, absorbs the last of the fat.
Christiania was the name of Oslo from 1624 until 1925 (spelled Kristiania from the late nineteenth century). Filippini, long of Delmonico's in New York, built The International Cook Book out of exactly this sort of geographic tag: a familiar preparation — here the standard French potato croquette, mashed potato bound with yolks, breaded and deep-fried — given a national accent and a national name; the Scandinavian name here attaches to the anchovy. It is worth noting that Norwegian and Swedish ansjos/ansjovis is usually spiced-cured sprat rather than the Mediterranean anchovy, so the seasoning is a French cook's idea of the north rather than the north's own; the nutmeg and white pepper are standard pantry seasonings of the period.