Prawn Rissois

I first came across Prawn Rissois at Infantaria, Goa. What a lovely place that is, and that it makes some of my favourite things to eat, just adds to the charm. Where else can you enjoy a Goan sausage roll. Sigh, I'm craving for one right now. I loved the idea of a lovely white sauce prawn filling, encased in a sort of pastry and crumb fried. When I tasted it , I knew what I had to do; get to my blog and put it in my food bucket list and so I did.

Next, I did some research online, found out that it has a Portuguese origin, not surprising then, I came across it in Goa. I found what seemed like a simple recipe, but making the pastry sort of intimidated me. I'm not a pastry phobic; I've made enough pastry crusts and pies to know it can be pretty simple and fail proof, but this was a new sort of pastry and I had my fears before I decided to face them. Ah and what a good thing I decided to. This pastry was soooo simple to make. Trust me; whether you're a pastry phobic, lazy baker or plain scared to try out something new, this recipe will work for you !!!! Also with this success, I can tick one more item off my Food Bucket List. The first for this year, is it??? Oopise. I realised I did try out some more items but they didn't quite make it to the success list.. Sigh!!! Then again, like I always say what's a kitchen without some burnt dishes and cakes that didn't rise. . to the occasion.

So let's get started.

I started off by making the prawn filling, so it had plenty of time to cool down. It is basically prawns cooked in a thick white sauce. Letting it cool will also help thicken the consistency of the filling. I made a very regular white sauce filling, using butter, flour, milk ,salt, pepper, stock and tossing in bits of prawn...

Then for the pastry, its just flour, salt and water. That's it. No rubbing butter and flour between your fingertips and no extra fuss over making a flaky pastry. This pastry casing is as simple as it can get.

Here's the recipe and oh I've also made a little video for you, on how to roll out the pastry and shape it into lil crescents. Another very very easy thing that was.

Prawn Rissois

For the Prawn Filling :

1 1/2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup prawn, cleaned, de veined, and cut into tiny pieces

1 1/2 tbsp flour

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

For the pastry :

1 cup water

1 tbsp butter

1 cup flour

salt to taste

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs

1 beaten egg

1. Start with making the filling. In a pan, heat the butter, when it has melted add the bits of prawn. Stir fry for a minute.

2. Toss in the flour, mix it well. Then pour in the milk and stock while stirring continuously.

3. Add in salt and pepper to taste. Stir the sauce, till it thickens and there are no lumps. Set aside to cool.

4. Move on to the pastry. In a vessel , mix the butter  and water and bring to a boil. When the butter has melted, add in the salt. When the water comes to a boil, toss in the flour all at once and stir vigorously till it leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Transfer this dough on to a clean surface and while it is still hot, knead it for a couple of minutes.

5. Place the dough in a bowl, cover it with a cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes.

6. When the dough has well rested, roll out small bits of dough into rectangles. Place spoonfulls of filling on the pastry, fold, and cut into shapes.

7. Dip each cut out pastry in beaten egg, roll in breadcrumbs and deep fry to a golden brown.

8. Serve with mayonnaise or ketchup.

You can also check out my recipe for homemade mayonnaise.

And here's the video for rolling and shaping the pastry

Hope you give this recipe a try. It really is pretty simple and will not let you down...