Homemade croquettes are a very useful resource, especially if you are thinking of making a quick dinner , because the advantage of croquettes is that you can freeze them and when dinner time comes, you just have to fry them without having to defrost them previously.
Another advantage is that you can make them with practically any ingredient: with Serrano ham, with cheese, with tuna, with leftovers from cooking, with leftover roast chicken, with hake or white fish..
Croquettes are known in much of the world and almost any gastronomy has some variant: in Japanese cuisine they are called Korokke, in Dutch kroket. Homemade potato croquettes are very popular in German and Belgian cuisine. Homemade croquettes without bechamel are also made, using in these cases other masses such as boiled potato, sweet potato, rice or cauliflower.
So today we bring you the ABC of the croquette : the best croquette recipes; how to make the perfect bechamel and the secrets of the perfect croquettes , crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.
Home-made croquettes
As we told you before, making homemade croquettes is quite easy, and once you get the hang of it, it will be very fun to try the different variations and flavors.
First we are going to teach you how to make the basic bechamel for croquettes, and from there we will learn how to make other croquette doughs, such as cod, chicken, or ham, just to mention the most popular recipes.
How to make bechamel for homemade croquettes
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- 1/4 liter of milk or a little more
- 1 egg
- 100g breadcrumbs
- Nutmeg
- Shall
Dough for homemade croquettes in 5 steps
- Toast the flour for the bechamel: Put the pan on the fire with the oil. When it is a little hot (quite before it smokes), remove the pan and pour the flour into the pan with a wooden spoon, moving it until you see that the dough is made. It is important to stir it for 3 or 4 minutes so that the flour is toasted and the croquettes do not taste like raw flour.
- We make the bechamel: Put the pan back on the low heat and add the milk little by little; without stopping to move the dough until it is cooked and consistent. Then add the nutmeg, a little salt and the chosen chopped ingredient. Leave it cooking in the pan without stopping to move it until it thickens.
- Chill the croquette dough: Once the bechamel thickens, pour it into a bowl and let it cool outside the fridge for about an hour. Then, put it in the fridge for at least two hours, covering it with cling film so it doesn’t dry out. This until the dough cools completely and is very thick…
- We shape the homemade croquettes: Beat the eggs separately. Once the dough is cold, very carefully and with the help of two spoons, one in each hand, form and mold the croquettes the size of the spoon more or less. Don’t do it with your hands, it’s better with spoons. Go passing them through the egg and leave it in the breadcrumb dish. Now, with both hands, pick up the croquette at the same time as you take a bunch of breadcrumbs with your hands, so that it doesn’t stick to your fingers. Bread the croquette well and shape it so that it is well covered and compact. And so with all. Go leaving them on a large plate. When they are all empanadas, put them in the fridge for an hour.
- We fry the croquettes: They are fried in enough hot oil to cover them. Turn them over carefully and be careful because they burn very quickly. When they turn golden, they are removed and put to drain on kitchen paper.
Baked cauliflower croquettes
A very particular croquette recipe, which does not have bechamel sauce and is not fried…
Ingredients: 400 g of cauliflower; 100 g of onion; 2 eggs; 100 g of cheese (manchego, cheddar, parmesan, to your liking); 70 g of breadcrumbs; 2 tablespoons of parsley; Salt; Black pepper
Preparation: Clean the cauliflower, remove the stems and grate it. We put it in the microwave at maximum power for about 8 minutes (or steam it for about 15 minutes). We take out and mix with the grated cheese and the onion that we chop very finely, the chopped parsley, the breadcrumbs, the salt and the pepper. Mix everything very well and add the eggs. We mix again.
We form balls or croquettes, put them on a baking tray on which we put baking paper. Bake (previously preheated oven) at 180º C with circular heat for about 30 minutes or at 200º C with heat up and down, until golden brown.
How to make tuna croquettes
Another recipe that does not have bechamel; We will give the consistency to the dough using potatoes, you will see that they are fantastic.
Ingredients: 3 or 4 potatoes; 120 g cream cheese spread; 3 cans of tuna (80 g); Salt; freshly ground black pepper; 2 eggs; Bread crumbs; extra virgin olive oil
Preparation: Cook the potatoes and once they cool down, mash them with a fork. Add the tuna and cream cheese, a little salt and pepper and mix well. We shape each croquette with two spoons (as we have seen at the beginning). We pass them first by breadcrumbs, then by beaten egg and then again by breadcrumbs. Fry them in plenty of hot oil until golden brown, remove them and leave them on absorbent paper.
How to freeze croquettes
Before we told you that one of the advantages of homemade croquettes is that you can make them and freeze them, in this way you will only have to fry them when you need them, a very useful resource for children’s dinners.
To freeze the croquettes , once they are done and before frying them, cover the tray with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 5 hours; They will be semi frozen once the time elapses. We remove them from the tray and put them in a freezer bag. We take to the freezer and reserve until the moment that we are going to use.
The trick of the best croquette
When we want to enjoy our homemade croquettes, whatever variety you have decided to make, put plenty of oil in a saucepan and leave it very hot (the oil must be very hot so that it absorbs as little oil as possible and remains crispy on the outside and creamy inside). Fry the croquettes four by four so as not to cool the oil too much and so that they all cook equally.
When they take a nice golden color, remove from the pan and leave on a plate with absorbent paper, so that they are crispy and creamy.
You might be interested in the followings:-
- Eggplant and zucchini in batter, French fries style – Recipes for Kids
- Fish Cake With mashed potatoes for kids at Pet Pooja.
