The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Rissoles

The joint of wild boar was excellent. I chose a recipe from the superb Italian cookbook The Silver Spoon as my starting point for the leg joint. Although it was delicious, the sauce was a bit too strong for home reared wild boar (and I left out the vinegar!). The flavour of our joint was good and gently gamey and I’m definitely going to buy it again for a special treat meal. I’ll use white wine for the marinade and post my recipe then.

Meanwhile – what to do with the leftovers? I decided to branch out and try making some rissoles, which would be a good way of padding out the meat. I was planning to research rissole recipes on the Internet but found myself stuck in the kitchen on Min Pin feeding invigilation duty. Inca eats her food in under a minute but the elderly reds like to take their time and savour their food. Inca will do absolutely everything to distract them away from their bowls, so either Danny or I have to become a temporary Sergeant Major to keep her in line.

I don’t even like the word rissoles. I’ve eaten rissoles in other peoples houses and they can be a bit dry. So I’d baked 100g of parsnips (covered in foil) with the joint to add to the mixture. Why cook rissoles then? We’re suffering from risotto-itus. I wanted to make something new and make it as tasty as possible.

The nearest book to hand during the invigilation duty was Delia’s Home Cookery Course – so I used her recipe as inspiration. I was delighted to discover that I wouldn’t be searching for Mincy (the originally named hand mincer) in the barn. The onions and meat can be chopped in the Magimix. Of course I played with the ingredients – upped the breadcrumbs to balance the parsnips and changed the herbs and seasonings.

These rissoles were really quick to make, economical and absolutely delicious. You couldn’t taste parsnips, just a wonderful flavoursome melange of this and that. Can’t wait to try these with lamb and beef.

Easy recipe for rissoles

Ingredients:

225g of leftover Sunday roast meat (whizzed up in the food processor or minced)
100g of red onions (whizzed up in the food processor or minced)
70g of fresh breadcrumbs (just whizz these up in the food processor or grate them)
100g of pre baked parsnips (whizz these up in the food processor or grate them)
I chunky clove of garlic chopped very fine
Half a teaspoon of dried savoury or thyme
Quarter teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
Good long twist of freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg – beaten
Olive oil for frying

Method:

Put all the prepared ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. The mixture should allow you to form balls that hold together – if it’s too dry add a little milk/beer. If it’s too wet add more breadcrumbs. Gently form it into six balls (don’t squeeze you want the mix to be as light as possible). Then with the lightest touch, using your palm, flatten the balls into 2cm rounds.

Fry gently for 5-10 minutes each side until golden brown. Serve with mashed potatoes and a green veg for contrast. We failed on this front as we were eating left over cauliflower cheese from the night before and my favourite floury Rooster potatoes – no need to mash these – just serve with lashings of butter and freshly ground white pepper.