Risoles with Ragout Filling

Risoles Isi Ragout
Risoles or Risol is a common snack in Indonesia. In my country, this snack or fingerfood is so wellknown from long time ago, you can easily find it in many food stalls or even bakeries. It made out of rolled crepes(wrapper) and covered with breadcrumbs. The filling is become quite various nowadays. In the old times, I only know two fillings, ragout or stir-fried vegetables.



Ragout, I don't exactly know where this word came from. Could it be related to Ragout from French, or Ragú from Italian? In Wikipedia it means meaty sauce. I don't know if this related or not, but Indonesia did get some influences from European country (especially Holland). The ragout we know is usually chicken or beef with vegetable with very thick clear or creamy sauce seasoned with pepper and nutmeg.



While the stir-fried vegetables filling is more Indonesian-ish. The filling is made by stirred shallot and garlic, added with vegetables like chopped string bean and carrot, and maybe chicken or beef, also sometimes a slice of hard-boiled egg.
Whatever the fillings, we-Indonesian, usually like it HOT! A sachet or a bottle of hot chilli sauce or fresh hot green chilli called cabe rawit are usually stand by the Risoles! Yumm-eeeee!

Ehm.

So I made the Risoles for the farewell share lunch at the kindy. The head teacher was moving to Sidney. Share lunch means every parent bring a plate of food. Any food will do. So I decided to make Risoles, food I had never made before.

The recipe is taken from a this blog. I made it almost the same as the recipe in that blog, but I use frozen mix vegetables for the filling to make it simple. As for the filling, hmm... I remember many snack sellers in Indonesia probably make ragout without milk or cream and with too many flour which resulting pudding-y filling, which I think..eeww! I just don't find it tasty.

I mean, wouldn't it be nicer to imagine that when you bite that crispy yet soft wrapper, a creamy sauce ready to flowing down in your mouth, rather than stick on your teeth? I imagine to have white sauce to be the Risoles' filling. So I made it, by cutting down the amount of flour from the original recipe. But the filling have to be able to scooped and put onto the crepes. If it too liquid, I might get trouble rolling the crepes because the filling can flood all over the place. So I just use about 5 tablespoon of flour and try to get the right consistency. To make sure, I put it in the fridge so I can scoop with spoon later. After it fried, it will be melt again. Unfortunately, I didn't really measure some ingredients.

Well, insyaAllah with this recipe you can't be so wrong, I think. Hehehe. Goodluck!


Risoles

Ragout:
2 pieces of boneless chicken(or more), boiled and cut to small cubes. Keep the boiled water as the broth.
200-300 ml of chicken broth (sorry I forgot how much exactly I pour, but it is around 200-300 ml)
500 gr carrots and string bean or any vegetables, cut to small cubes (I used frozen mix vegetables. Sorry for not really made it from scratch this time :( )
300 ml milk
5 tbsp flour
1 medium onion, chopped
½ tsp white pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
a slice of cheese (I didn't measure it, sorry :( )
Directions:
- In pan stir onion with a little oil until golden.
- Turn down the heat to low.
- Add in flour, stir quick and pour in the milk. Stir quick until the texture smooth.
- Add the chicken, vegetables, broth and cheese.
- Season with pepper, nutmeg, salt and sugar.
- Cook until the sauce is thicker.
- Put aside until completely cool.
- You may keep in the fridge and continue to make the Risoles the day after.

Crepes(wrapper):
100 gr flour
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
250 ml milk
1 tbsp butter, melted
a little more butter for the pan
Directions:
- Sieve the flour in a bowl with salt.
- Make a hole in the flour.
- Add the eggs inside the hole. Stir well with wire whisker.
- Gradually pour the milk and keep stirring until smooth.
- Add the melted butter and stirring until blend.
- Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for about 30 minutes.
- Heat a pancake pan (I use 12cm diameter pan) and smear with a little bit butter.
- Pour the crepes batter in the pan using a large spoon and tilt the pan to spread the batter evenly. You might want to choose the spoon that you think could make a thin crepe and use the same spoon all the time to make the evenly thick crepes.
- Cook about 2-3 minutes or until the surface of the crepe no longer wet/liquid.
- No need to flip to cook the other side of the crepe. Just put it on a plate, and continue to cook another crepe until finish.
- Set aside.
(makes about 25 crepes)

Dipping:
1-2 eggs, beaten
breadcrumbs


Making Risoles:
- Take one piece of crepe and put about 1-2 teaspoon of the filling and fold and roll like envelope or spring roll. Put aside the Risoles with the edge tucked underneath. Repeat until the crepes are finished.

- Dip each Risoles into beaten eggs then coat with breadcrumbs.

- Deep fry them with low heat until golden brown. Better keep an eye when frying, because it doesn't take long until they get brown. Set aside and use the tissue paper to absorb the oil.

Enjoy!