Homemade croquettes

How to make cooked croquettes .

When we talk about croquettes, everyone’s head fills with memories, especially that of our house when we were children.

At home nothing is thrown away and the croquettes are a very worthy way to take advantage of those remains of meat or fish from the previous day. The filling normally depends on the Sunday meal, I have come to eat them in infinite variations that you can see on the blog.

And if you have company in the kitchen you can enjoy the chain production ritual, each with its role in the kitchen: the preparation of the bechamel, the mince of the meat, the molding of the dough, the batter in breadcrumbs and egg , the fry in a good olive oil and the final step, the hot tasting that burns your tongue …

Now in Madrid the story is different, thanks to Jimena’s family I have two great kibble styles. Some seafood by his grandmother Pilar and others cooked by his father Evelio with a very juicy dough thanks to the touch of the onion and a very creamy béchamel.

And it is that the stew has inspired couplets, books and even an opera. Throughout the Spanish geography we find cooked in multiple variants, the Galician , the Basque, the Catalan escudella , the Asturian pot, the famous Madrid stew , the mountain stew, the rotten pot, the Canarian stew , the Andalusian stew with its pringá, the Maragato stew , the gypsy pot from Murcia , the preacher’s dam in Aragon, and one that I am sure I forgot … all variants of the same idea, the stew .

With the remains of each of them we can prepare incredible croquettes. Do not hesitate to prepare them in industrial quantities and freeze the superfluous ones to always have on hand.

Preparation of the base béchamel for the croquettes

1. We sift the flour with a strainer so that later there are no lumps. We put the milk in a saucepan over medium heat for 4-5 minutes without boiling. This will speed up the sauce preparation process.
2. In another saucepan we introduce the butter and heat it over low heat until it melts, it has to turn a hazelnut color and it will remove a little foam that we can remove if we want. Although I have only used butter, you can use butter and olive oil in equal measures. The oil gives it a special touch, try to see if you like it.
3. We add the sifted flour and let it mix until they form small golden-colored doughs, it will help us bind the bechamel (the mixture of flour and butter is called Roux and it is not only used in this sauce but in many others). This roasting process is very important so that the béchamel does not taste much like flour, which will happen if it is raw.
4. Mix the flour with the butter very well with a wooden spoon until it is like a ball. We pour the hot milk into the saucepan with the flour and butter. Add salt, pepper to taste and a little ground nutmeg.
5. Stir continuously with a rod (5-6 minutes). We are controlling the temperature, it is best to leave the fire to a minimum. There will be a homogeneous mixture and most importantly, without lumps. If you have not controlled this sauce and you have lumps, you can fix it with a touch of a mixer, it will be perfect.

We already have the bechamel , the base of some good croquettes now we just need to mix everything, with the remains of the stew.

Preparation of the base of the cooked croquettes

1. The cooked remains that we have used in this case are: chicken or chicken, the chorizo ​​without skin, blood sausage without skin, beef (black pudding) and some ham. The combination will depend on what you have left over from your Sunday lunch.
2. Finely chop the cooked remains, we must take special care with the tern, the chicken bones, the skin of the chorizo ​​and the blood sausage.
3. I recommend a pair of scissors or a knife that is well sharpened. This process is called crumbling or fraying and it is essential to not find any annoying stumbling block at mealtime.
4. Put two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and when it is hot add 1 very chopped onion.
5. We spend about 10 minutes over medium heat until golden brown and add the chopped remains of the cooked. We put everything together with a spoon and taste with salt, rectify with salt and pepper if necessary. In about 2-3 minutes everything will be ready.
6. Add the meat to the béchamel sauce and stir for a few minutes in the cold.
7. In a source greased with butter and sprinkled with flour, add the croquettes.
8. We cover with plastic paper type film so that the upper part does not dry out and once it has cooled we put the source in the fridge. In cold the dough pulls more and is handled better, we must leave it in the fridge for a day, so we can mold the croquettes correctly.

Shape, frying and final presentation of the cooked croquettes

1. For breading, when the dough is cold, they are shaped with two spoons or by hand. We form the croquettes with our hands, giving them the shape that we like the most. The more traditional oval and round oval or round as I have done on this occasion. We pass them by beaten egg and then by breadcrumbs, which is as crisp as possible.
2. If you can prepare it much better homemade, because that way you choose the type of bread that you like the most. Some of the best croquettes I’ve ever had were battered with Cea bread, just amazing.
3. We are depositing them on a plate without them sticking to each other and we leave them for an hour in the fridge. We take them out of the fridge after time and let the croquettes dry a little before frying them so that the batter dries out a little.
4. At this point we can do two things, fry them to enjoy them at the moment or freeze them to be able to do it when we want.
5. They support freezing perfectly. We will only have to remove them from the fridge and put them directly to fry, without thawing, with the very hot oil, when we want to prepare them.
6. If you are few at home, as is my case, I recommend the subject of freezing.
7. In a high-walled saucepan or in the deep fryer, heat plenty of extra-soft extra virgin olive oil for frying. We are frying the croquettes over high heat. Regulating the temperature to avoid burning us.
8. We remove to a plate with absorbent paper to remove excess oil. We serve directly, freshly made. With the measurements of this recipe about 25 croquettes come out

Do not miss any detail of the step by step of this recipe for cooked croquettes prepared by my mother Rosa.