Spanish croquettes with béchamel and ham, the recipe.
Some time ago I tried to make a Spanish dish at home, the famous croquetas, which I like a lot.
The result was not aesthetically excellent, I admit, but it was decent in taste.
Ingredients
– a piece of raw ham, cut into cubes (you should use Spanish jamon but you have to make a virtue of necessity and make do);
– 80 grams of flour;
– 80 grams of butter;
– half a litre of whole milk;
– salt;
– eggs;
– breadcrumbs.
Preparation
Put the flour and butter in a non-stick pan and mix over low heat, stirring continuously with a whisk.
When the butter has melted and mixed with the flour, add the milk and continue stirring.
Don't be afraid if the mixture seems too liquid because in a few minutes the magic will happen and the mixture will begin to thicken.
Now add the diced ham and a pinch of salt and, once the mixture is well distributed, remove it from the heat and let it cool on a plate or in a container.
Now begins the part that I found most difficult: forming the balls (or knell) and breading them in the egg and breadcrumbs... I read several methods and the one I followed did not lead to excellent aesthetic results; but I'll explain how I did it and how perhaps it should have been done.
Once the mixture reached room temperature I put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to make it as solid as possible and then I created some balls (to tell the truth I used two spoons to create like dumplings) that I coated in beaten egg and breadcrumbs that I fried in plenty of seed oil.
Maybe I should have left the mixture longer, more than a couple of hours in the fridge. The balls remained not quite one with the breading and a lot of the content ended up dispersed in the pan where I fried them. I read that some people make the balls and freeze them and then coat them in breadcrumbs while frozen. Next time I'll try.
The result however, as I told you, was not the best aesthetically but the taste was right. Add your own comment or go to the bottom of the site to read what other visitors have written.
Photo taken with Canon EOS M100 and lens Canon EF-M 22.