Rissóis de Camarão (Portuguese Shrimp Turnovers)

Ingredients

• 4 dl milk, for the dough
• 40 g butter, for the dough
• 1 tsp salt
• 300 g wheat flour, for the dough
• 30 g butter, for the filling
• 1 onion, very finely chopped
• 30 g wheat flour, for the filling
• 3 dl milk, warmed, for the filling
• 300 g shrimp, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 2 egg, beaten
• 150 g breadcrumbs
• 6 dl vegetable oil, for frying

Method

1. 1.

   Start the shrimp béchamel — Melt the 30 g of butter for the filling in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and sweat the onion for 5 minutes, until soft and translucent but not coloured. Stir in the 30 g of flour and cook for a minute more, until it smells like toasted biscuit.

2. 2.

   Thicken and chill the filling — Pour in the warm 300 ml of milk a little at a time, whisking hard after each addition, and simmer for 4 minutes until the sauce is thick enough to hold the mark of the whisk. Stir in the shrimp, parsley, lemon juice, nutmeg and black pepper, cook for 2 minutes, then spread on a plate, cover and chill for 30 minutes.

3. 3.

   Make the dough — For the dough, bring the 400 ml of milk, the 40 g of butter and the salt to a rolling boil in a saucepan. Tip in all 300 g of flour at once and beat hard with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides in a single ball, then knead it smooth on an oiled worktop and rest it under a cloth for 10 minutes.

4. 4.

   Fill and seal the rissóis — Roll the warm dough out to 2 mm on a lightly floured surface and stamp out 10 cm rounds. Put a heaped teaspoon of cold filling on one half of each round, fold over into a half moon and press the edge firmly with your fingertips, chasing out any air.

5. 5.

   Bread the rissóis — Dip each rissol in the beaten egg, letting the excess run off, then press it into the breadcrumbs on both sides so the coating is even and unbroken. Lay them on a tray and chill for 20 minutes so the crumb sets.

6. 6.

   Fry until deep gold — Heat the vegetable oil in a deep pan to 170 °C — a cube of bread should turn gold in 40 seconds. Fry the rissóis four at a time for about 3 minutes, turning once, until they are an even deep gold and blistered at the sealed edge.

7. 7.

   Drain and serve warm — Lift the rissóis onto kitchen paper and let them sit for 2 minutes — the filling is molten straight from the oil. Serve warm, with a wedge of lemon if you like.