Risolles

While CS was blogging away, I did some cooking for tonight. Before doing the groceries yesterday we discussed what to have for dinner. I realised it has been a long time since I made Risolles, not to be confused with the irish "rissole", even though the preparation method and the end result seem to be quite similar.

Risolles is an Indonesian snack or dish. Imagine a pancake filled with a thick ragout consisting of chicken and mushrooms, mixed in a butter, flower, milk and water basis. Actually it is not that weird that indonesian recipes have european equivalents or origins. Indonesia has a long history of occupations by several nations, ranging from the Portuguese, through the Japanese to the Dutch. Both my parents were born and partly raised in Indonesia. My father was born in Bandung, provincial capital of West-Java, my mother was born in Cirebon on the North Coast of Java. That's where my love for Indonesian food comes from. I grew up on it!

Anyway, I spent almost 3 hours in the kitchen to prepare our dish for tonight and once you're on it, it's worth while to prepare more than you can eat. Considering the long hours of preparation you'd better use it and freeze some of it for the days where you don't feel like cooking or simply lack the time to cook. If you're interested in trying it yourself, then have a look at the recipe below (thanks mom!). I tried to describe the steps as clearly as possible. Basically, I wanted to write down some of my favorite recipes for quite some time already, but somehow I never got to it. As I promised Sal to come up with a few, I decided this was the perfect moment to start the compilation of my personal cook book. So, be ready for some more recipes in the coming time! If you decide to try this recipe, go ahead and try. it's easier than it looks.

RISOLLES

Ingredients for approximately 12 pc. of risolles:

4 Chicken legs with thigh
150g mushrooms (take small mushroom, diameter 3 – 3,5 cm)
3-4 eggs
1 onion
Butter
Flower
Milk
Water
Cream
Bread crumbs
Salt, pepper and nutmeg
Sherry or whiskey
Preparation time: 2 ½ - 3 hours

Preparing the filling

Salt and pepper the water and boil the chicken in it. Boil the chicken for approx. 10 minutes to half done. Take the chicken out of the water and let it cool off. Keep the broth to add in the preparation of the filling. After the chicken has cooled off, cut it in small cubes.
Clean the mushrooms and cut them in thin slices (3-4 mm thick). Cut the onion in quarters.

Now start preparing the basis for the filling. Melt butter in a pan, add the onion quarters. The butter should take the taste of the onion. While the butter melts start adding flower bit by bit to create a thick paste. The paste should be thick and firm as it will be used as filling for crepes. Keep stirring the butter to mix the flower with the butter. Add milk and water (50/50) and keep on stirring the paste to a thick equal mass. Add the chicken cubes and mix them with the ragout while stirring. In case the mass gets too thick or lumpy, add more milk and water. After all the chicken has been added, add salt and pepper to taste. Now add the sliced mushrooms and stir them into the ragout. Make sure the ragout doesn’t get stiff. If necessary, add more water and milk. After the mass has been stirred to a homogene mass, add a touch of nutmeg. Taste the mass and add salt, pepper and/or nutmeg to your likings. After this step add 1 egg and stir the egg through the mass until has been taken in completely. Once the mass is equally thick pour a bit of sherry or whiskey and stir it into the mass. After adding the sherry of whiskey, take the filling from the stove and let it cool off.
NOTE: Sherry will give a slightly sweet taste to the mass, whiskey will give the filling more “bite”.

Prepare the crepes

Mix flower, milk or water, a touch of salt and 1 egg to a thin dough. Use the dough to make thin crepes. Don’t let the crepes get too dark like pancakes. The crepes should stay middle brown as they will be filled with the mass and pan fried in oil afterwards. Let the crepes cool off before continuing.

Preparing the risolles

Take one crepe at the time and put a part of the mass in the middle of the crepe. Model it to a rectangular shape and then fold the sides of the crepe to the middle, creating a rectangular shape. The size of the risolles depends on the size of the crepes. Don’t overfill, otherwise the crepes will burst when fried in the oil! Repeat this until all crepes are filled.

A few pictures to show what it looks like:


Filling the crepe

Modelling the filling into a rectangular shape


Folding the crepe

The way the risolles look after the filling and folding

Pan frying the risolles

Spread the bread crumbs on a plate, beat an egg and put it in a wide bowl or deep plate. Start heating a frying pan with a good layer of sunflower oil until the oil is hot. Take the first risolles, roll it through the egg and then through the bread crumbs. Put the risolles in the pan on the side where you’ve closed the crepe first, and turn it now and again until it has been fried golden all around. Once fried, take the risolles from the oil and let it drip dry on paper towel. Keep them in the oven at 80-90° when you want to serve them afterwards. Fry all risolles until done.

Pan fry in oil

Turn the risolles to get brown all around

Serving the risolles

Risolles should be eaten warm. As sauce you can add either a sweet chilli sauce or mustard.
Risolles which has been prepared and fried can be kept in the freezer. To warm them up after taking them from the freezer heat up your oven to a 150°C (hot air oven) or a 170°C ( gas oven).


This is what risolles looks like after frying,
while drip drying on paper towel

Bon appetit!