[Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

[Claire Clarke]

Hi all,
Having some issues with my frictelle de riso. The first time I tried them I
only had one egg in the house, and I thought that might be enough, also I
didn't cook the rice for quite long enough. They were a bit of a mess really
and stuck very badly in the pan. So the next time I put more eggs in, and
cooked the rice properly. But if anything, they stuck worse. So I got out
the non-stick frying pan (to which I otherwise have an aversion), and they
worked reasonably well in that. So while I have functional fritters, I don't
really have them functional via a period method (ye olde mediaeval Teflon).

The thing I noticed is that the fritters are quite fragile when half cooked,
so if they are not easy to turn over, they disintegrate very easily. I
didn't put any flour in as I thought the rice would provide starch enough,
but now I'm wondering if the gluten would make them a bit tougher. Any
thoughts?

Recipe follows:
Fa’ cocere il riso molto bene ne lo lacte, et cavandolo fora per farne
frittelle observerai l’ordine et modo scripto di sopra, excepto che non gli
hai a mettere né caso né altre lacte.

Cook the rice very well in milk and remove it in order to make fritters
following the directions and method written above, except that you do not
need to put in either cheese or extra milk.

The previous recipe is for curd or junket fritters and the relevant part (to
my mind) reads:

...et con un pocho di fiore di farina, di bianchi d'ovo secundo la quantita`
che vol fare, col zuccharo et dell'acqua rosata mescolarai queste cose bene
inseme...

...and with a little flour of wheat, of egg whites according to the quantity
that you would like to make, with sugar and rose water mixing all these
things together well...

1/2 cup Arborio rice
1.5 cups milk
1.5 tablsps sugar
1 tsp rosewater essence
3 egg whites
Cook the rice in the milk until it is very soft. Stir in the sugar and
rosewater and leave to cool. Mix in the egg whites and drop dessertspoonfuls
onto a hot (non-stick) frying pan, greased with a little olive oil. Makes
about thirty fritters.

Angharad
(All of this from Libro de Arte de Coquinaria BTW)