The Betterbal — A Dutch Classic Enlargened, Reimagined and Veganised

The Dutch classic, the bitterbal, the younger cousin of the kroket has graced many a plate sat between a circle of beers accompanied by a variety of mustard. This golden, crispy and spice-encrusted piping hot ragout offers a heavenly crunch with a molten savoury centre is what I come back to as my favourite dutch all-rounder in terms of food.

But its small.

I’m talking around a golf-ball sized bite. Absolutely suited to bar-food, sharing plates and platters, sure, bitterballen are champion here. But if you want that bitterbal to be the main event, have just the one glorious bitterbal to end all bitterbal there may be only one option. Lets make the bitterbal into a Betterbal.

The Ragout

• 5g dried mushroom soaked and finely diced
• 200g non-sweetened soy-milk
• 1 veg stock cube
• Olive oil
• 150g white onion finely diced
• 6g garlic finely diced (3–4 cloves)
• 300g oyster mushrooms pulled apart into threads (Oesterzwammen)
• 100g plant-based butter
• 100g white flour
• sprinkling of salt, black pepper, nutmeg, thyme

The Wash

• 100g fine-ground flaxseed/linseed
• 100g near boiling water
• 50ml cold water

The Breading

• 8 slices whole wheat bread toasted slowly (120 degrees for 20 minutes) then blended (but not too fine)
• 200g cornflour / maizena
• sprinkling of salt, garlic powder, dried dill

The Recipe

1. Add milk to pan with sliced and soaked dried mushrooms, bay leaf and stock cube and bring to gentle simmer on low heat
2. Fry onions over medium heat in olive oil until translucent and add garlic for another 2–3 minute until aromatic
3. Add oyster mushrooms and turn up heat to high stirring until they turn light gold, turn off the heat and set aside
4. Drain the milk mixture into an easy to pour container
5. In a metal based saucepan (safe for a whisk) add the butter over medium to high heat until melted and starting to turn brown
6. Start adding sifted flour a tablespoon at a time and whisky constantly until you have a consistency that is almost un-whiskable but still just about releases from the whisk when tapping the side. Keep whisking until it turns gold
7. Lower heat slightly to medium and start adding the milk mixture a bit at a time until you have a thin ragout consistency which is just about pourable as it will thicken when cooled (think of a heavy leek and potato or peasoup (erwtensoep) thickness). You may need to add more milk to get there
8. Turn off the heat, add the mushroom mix into the ragout mixture, then into a lidded container with a piece of baking paper on the surface to prevent drying out into the fridge for 5–6 hours to cool completely
9. Put the cornflour into a light bowl
10. Using two spoons, spoon out the ragout into a rough ball shape and place on top of the cornflour, move the bowl around trying to coat the ball mixture all over before picking up, shaping into a more precise ball shape and placing on a tray for the freezer. Repeat until mixture is finished.
11. Place in the freezer for 4–5 hours until solid
12. Put the hot water and flaxseed/linseed together in temperature safe bowl and leave for 10 minutes. If needed, just before breading, add more cold water to the mix to become slightly more liquid than slimy
13. Prepare another light bowl with the breading mixture
14. Carefully add a ball to the flax mixture ensuring the surface is coated (if not add more water to the flax mixture until it sticks to the cornflour coated ball)
15. Gently lift the ball and place on the breading, use a spoon to cover the ball in breading fully, move the bowl around to ensure an even and complete covering and set aside in a clean tray for the freezer. Repeat for each ball
16. Put the balls back into the freezer for another 2–3 hours
17. When ready to eat, take straight from the freezer and put into the fryer of choice. I used an airfryer which worked out excellently and the slightly-smaller-than-tennis-ball sized one took 25 minutes while the pool ball sized ones took around 15 minutes, both at 200 degrees. The litmus-test in the airfryer is when you just about see a bubble of molten ragout attempting to escape

Some notes

The point at which you are trying to judge the consistency of the ragout before it goes into the fridge can be daunting. Try to get it just about pourable. It will solid up when cooled. Trust me.

I omit mace (as I think the nutmeg is enough) and add garlic (because… its garlic). I also added bay leaf and left out the thyme because I wanted a bit more of a rounded flavour rather than a woody-herbal one (although I don’t think you can go wrong with either).

This roux-to-ragout method I learned when I worked in a busy Italian kitchen. This is nothing more than what I was taught and have never changed since. I know this may not the best way to do it, but I love using it and the flavour and texture at the end is incredible.

As an air fryer-first recipe, the wholewheat bread ensures you get the golden crust in the end, but you may want to not get too dark bread as this will be difficult to keep from looking too brown while still cooking fully the middle of the ball.

If you want to deep-fry this, I suggest using a low temperature around the 140–160 depending on the size of your ball and definitely go for white bread. This may take around 6–9 minutes, just keep checking the colour of the breading doesn’t go too dark

Serve with wholegrain or dijon mustard, really whatever you prefer.