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Vegetable Rissoles
Of cooked vegetables, one-half cupful of spinach and two boiled onions, a few lettuce leaves and parsley. Cook the lettuce with two tablespoonfuls of spinach; add one small onion and chop all finely; to one cupful of vegetables add two tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs, one teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, one tablespoonful of melted butter and one egg. Make a pie paste, roll thin; cut into rounds, put on each a large spoonful of the minced vegetables; fold over and pinch the edges together carefully. Brush with milk and bake in the oven and serve hot.
A pastry turnover filled with minced cooked greens — essentially a small vegetable pasty. The original leaves out the oven temperature and the yield, and its ingredient list is written loosely, so a few decisions are yours to make.
- Read the quantities as a shopping list, not a formulaThe opening sentence names what to have on hand; the working instruction is the second sentence, which builds one cupful of chopped vegetables. Cook and chop until you have a packed cup of filling, then add the crumbs, seasoning, butter and egg to that.
- Drain the greens hardSpinach and lettuce both release a great deal of water, and wet filling will steam the pastry from inside and split the seams. Squeeze the cooked greens in a towel before chopping, and let the mixture cool before it meets the dough.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Pie paste of this kind wants 400-425F; 20 to 25 minutes will set the crust and brown it, since the filling is already cooked and needs only to heat through.
- The pepperHalf a teaspoon of pepper to one cup of filling is assertive by modern taste. A quarter teaspoon is closer to current expectations; adjust the filling before you fill anything, as you cannot correct it later.
- Pie pasteAny short crust made with butter or lard will do; a single-crust quantity (about 1 1/4 cups flour) is enough. Roll thin, cut rounds of 3 to 4 inches, and crimp firmly with a fork — an egg-bound filling expands slightly and will push at a weak seal.
- Milk washBrushing with milk gives a matte, pale-gold finish rather than the gloss of egg wash. If you want more colour, a beaten egg thinned with milk will brown faster; watch the edges.
- Yield and servingExpect 10 to 12 small rissoles from a cup of filling, enough for four as a light dish or a side. They are best warm from the oven and are also good at room temperature.
Rissole comes from the French, originally a small fried or baked pastry with a savoury filling, and by the late nineteenth century the word had loosened in English usage to cover almost any small stuffed or shaped morsel — a croquette, a patty, a turnover. Vegetable versions like this one appear in American household books of the period, and they suit the plain purpose of using up cooked leftovers: half a cup of yesterday's spinach, a couple of boiled onions, the outer lettuce leaves too coarse for salad. The egg and breadcrumbs are there to bind.