Hey guys! Hope you've all been well. I apologise for my lack of blogging, been busy running around in Bali and Singapore at different events, which meant I had early mornings, full days and late nights and no time for much in-between.
To beg forgiveness, I'm here to share the croquette recipe mum watched on TV that we've found works really well for us.
That makes my mild absence all good right?
My family's obsession with croquettes (which I always mispronounce, I blame it on my mildly hybrid American accent), started when we visited Barcelona last year and had the most amazing croquettes on our first night. Piping hot, lusciously creamy and absolutely oozing with flavour. Intoxicatingly addictive.
My dad figured since they were deep fried, they won't be too hard to make and thought they would be amazing with duck stuffed in them.
Being a typical headstrong father, he came up with his own concoction to make them…without a recipe. He tried making them with yam and duck. Tasty, but they fell apart and at the end, not quite croquette.
So a couple of months later, croquettes were off the family radar. However, mum was watching her usual batch of cooking shows in the afternoon one day, when 'Good Chef Bad Chef' came on…and Adrian Richardson made some sumptuous looking croquettes.
So my mum and I made them that night. They are surprisingly easy and we didn't realise they were actually made with béchamel sauce. Who would have thought?
The beauty of the croquettes is that elements can be prepped in advance, you can substitute almost any protein in and also add extra ingredients (such as cheese!). They're also fairly interactive, and fun to play with when coating. I had delightfully sticky egg and breadcrumby fingers that my dog discovered he absolutely loved. Oh and they're delicious.
The original recipe was made with smoked salmon, but having just cured some salmon (which you can find a recipe for here as well), we substituted that into them instead.
We also found the amount of protein they wanted to put in…a little too much really. So we just played with the amount as we saw fit. I suggest you make the béchamel sauce first to see the amount you have to work with and adjust your amount of protein from there.
The original recipe can be found here: http://www.goodchefbadchef.com.au/recipes/329
INGREDIENTS
Bechamel Sauce
50g butter
50g butter
50g plain flour
1 cup hot milk (we actually used milk straight from the fridge I realised…)
1/2 onion, diced
Coating
3 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 cups homemade breadcrumbs (or panko crumb)
pinch salt
Some cured salmon
oil for deep frying
METHOD
To make the béchamel sauce:
Melt the butter in a large pot with the flour and onion.
Stir so the flour, butter and onion combine.
Slowly add the milk and stir to create a sauce. (This is an excellent arm workout, it really gets quite thick!)
Empty the pot into a bowl and allow it to cool.
Prepare your protein. Ideally, you want to slice your meaty/vegetable stuff into small pieces.
Add the protein into your béchamel sauce (along with whatever herbs you think nessecary to flavour).
Season with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
Make little logs with the mixture, we used a tablespoon to get the size and shape.
Coat the logs in flour, dip and cover in a bowl with the eggs (which you will have previously whipped), and then cover with breadcrumbs.
Leave the croquettes in the fridge for about an hour (maybe slightly longer if it's really humid and hot outside) and then deep fry until golden brown. This was a very, very, very quick process. Maybe a minute or two.
This should leave you with croquettes which are delightfully crisp on the outside and absolutely oozy and creamy on the inside.
Have some fun with the recipe! The first time we made the recipe we made it with the cured salmon. Second time was with mum's home made bak kwa (which we found was a bit too sweet) and a third time with chopped up mushrooms, where mum added in a bit of truffle oil in as well. You are also of course, completely free to use whatever herbs you feel like throwing in as well... Mmmhmmm!
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