Fonds de Plat, Tampons et Croustades (Dish Bases, Pads and Croustades)

Ingredients

• Fonds de plat en pain:
• stale pain de mie
• butter
• repère
• Tampons et croustades en riz:
• 2 kilos Patna rice
• 10 grammes alum
• bards of bacon fat (alternative to the cloth lining)
• lard

Instructions

1. Bread bases: cut the bases, pads and croustades from a stale pain de mie.
2. Fry them in butter and stick them onto the dish with repère.
3. Rice pads and croustades: wash 2 kilos of Patna rice until the water stays perfectly clear.
4. Start it from cold and blanch it in plenty of water for 5 minutes; drain, wash in hot water, and drain again.
5. Put it into a large saucepan lined with a strong clean cloth, or lined with bards of bacon fat, and add 10 grammes of alum.
6. Fold the cloth or bards back over the rice, cover the saucepan, and cook dry in a slow oven or the drying oven for 3 hours.
7. Pound the rice vigorously and work it in a napkin coated with lard.
8. Mould it at once in a utensil greased with lard and let it cool.
9. When quite cold, cut it to the shape wanted.
10. Keep it in fresh water with alum added, changing the water frequently.