Rissoles Arising

Today is another slow day in the office and since I managed to get some rissoles this week, I might as well talk about this snack that may not be so familiar locally. Being a Malay of Indonesian heritage, rissoles or otherwise known as croquettes is not something strange to me. In fact my late auntie made some of the best rissoles that I have ever tasted and my sister recently lamented the fact that she did not manage to get the recipe from her before she went off to London. So that is another recipe heirloom that bit the dust.

Rissoles are basically fried bread parcels with various types of fillings, sometimes smoothered with breadcrumbs. Introduced to the Indonesians by the dutch, it has now become a common Indonesian snack. Our favourite filling are mixed vege with corned beef, usually beansprouts, julienned carrots and cucumber and sometimes with diced potatoes lightly fried together into what I guess some people call a ragoute before being filled into the thin pancake like wrappers and fried. Nevertheless there are many types of fillings available according to one's fancy. The ones I had recently was filled with mixed julienned veges but no beef while the ones I bought yesterday was filled with mashed potatoes mixed with eggs and was interesting in texture. The funny thing was the stall keeper said she learned this type from a Bangladeshi, so I guess rissoles has travelled far and wide.

Their shapes also varies as shown here and some may even be confused with sardine rolls, soft-skinned fried popiahs or even samosas. But the way it is made in my family is either rolled as the picture on the left or oblonged shaped like the photo in the middle. The last photo provides a good description of the various fillings and shapes that rissoles are made, even with cheesy or creamy fillings. The re-appearance of rissoles into the Malaysian food market as I believe it was widely popular previously as even my wife's auntie in the kampong knows how to make it indicates that the Malaysian palate, specifically the Malays has now accepted such food into their diet again, although these can still be difficult to find.