Rissois
Also known as: Rissoles, Risois, Rissois de camarao
Rissois are crescent-shaped fried turnovers filled with shrimp in a thick bechamel sauce, coated in breadcrumbs and eaten hot as a snack across Cape Verde. They came from Portugal and were adopted wholesale. A pair costs under a dollar from any bakery counter, usually with a beer before dinner.
| Dish type | Snack |
|---|---|
| Country | Cape Verde |
| Key ingredients | Wheat flour, Butter, Shrimp, Milk, Onion, Breadcrumbs +1 more |
| Vegetarian | No |
| Spicy | No |
| Typical price | $0.50 to 1 each |
| Also known as | Rissoles, Risois, Rissois de camarao |
| Served with | Cold Strela beer, Piri piri sauce, Lemon wedge |
Rissois arrived in Cape Verde with the Portuguese and never left. The dough is made with flour, water, butter and a little salt, worked into a soft paste, rolled thin and cut into circles. A spoonful of shrimp bound in thick bechamel goes in the middle, the circle is folded into a crescent and crimped shut, then dipped in egg, rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried until the outside is crisp and blistered and the inside is molten. They are served hot, usually two or three to a plate, and they are everywhere: bakery counters, bar snacks, wedding tables, the tray a neighbour brings round.
What separates a good rissol from a poor one is the filling. The bechamel should carry the shrimp rather than smother it, seasoned with onion softened in butter, a little lemon and often a hint of piri piri. Cheap versions are mostly white sauce with a suggestion of seafood; the ones made in Mindelo, where the port lands good shrimp, are dense with it. Chicken and tuna versions exist and are common at parties, but shrimp is the default and the one people mean when they say rissois without qualification.
How It's Eaten
Eaten hot with the fingers, standing at a bakery counter or sitting in a bar before dinner. Two or three make a snack; six make a light meal. Nobody uses cutlery.
Cultural Context
Rissois belong to the category of Portuguese food that Cape Verde absorbed and made its own, alongside pastel de nata and caldo verde. They appear at every celebration, and the ability to make good ones is a domestic point of pride. In Mindelo they are the standard thing to order with the first beer of the evening, long before anyone thinks about dinner.
Variations
Rissois de frango
Filled with shredded chicken in bechamel instead of shrimp, common at parties and children's tables.
Rissois de atum
Tuna filled, using the fish Cape Verde has most of, and the cheapest version to make at home.
Where to Try Rissois
sao vicente
Mindelo bakery counters, Centre bars before dinner
santiago
Plateau cafes in Praia, Sucupira market stalls
Frequently Asked Questions
What are rissois?
Crescent-shaped fried turnovers filled with shrimp in a thick bechamel, breadcrumbed and deep fried until crisp. They are a Portuguese inheritance eaten throughout Cape Verde as a snack, usually with a cold beer before dinner.
Are rissois spicy?
Not usually. The filling is mild, built on butter, onion and bechamel, though many cooks add a small amount of piri piri and most bars put a bottle of hot sauce on the table for anyone who wants it.
What is the difference between rissois and empanadas?
Rissois use a soft cooked flour-and-butter dough, are breadcrumbed before frying and are almost always filled with a creamy bechamel mixture. Empanadas use a pastry dough, are not breadcrumbed, and carry a drier filling. The textures are completely different.
Where can you eat rissois in Cape Verde?
Any bakery counter or bar in the country, but Mindelo on Sao Vicente is the place to eat them, since the port lands the shrimp and the bars serve them all evening. Praia's Plateau cafes are the next best bet.