Spanish Croquetas – My favourite tapas!
If you love these gorgeous balls of heaven, then you'll be surprised to see how easy it is to make them! The only problem is you'll want to make them every day!!
Ingredients
- 120 g plain flour
- 350 ml whole milk
- 100 ml stock – chicken or vegetable
- 75 g butter
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg optional
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder optional
- 100 g cheese, ham, spinach, etc… you decide!
- 2 large eggs – lightly beaten
- breadcrumbs Tip – I use panko breadcrumbs
- oil for frying I use rapeseed oil
Instructions
- Put the milk and stock into a saucepan and heat until warm
- Meanwhile in another saucepan, add the butter and heat until melted. Add the flour and stir continuously for around 2-3 minutes until the flour has cooked through. Be careful not to let the mixture brown.
- Start to gradually add the milk/stock mixture to the butter/flour roux. Keep stirring – the mix will start to coagulate but as you continue to add more liquid and keep stirring it will become more liquid and you should end up with a silk smooth, thickened sauce.
- Add the nutmeg and/or chilli powder and salt and pepper to taste
- At this point you can add any extra ingredients you want to the sauce – I usually add cheese, mushrooms or ham but you can add anything you like! PIne nuts, spinach, sweetcorn – anything you like!
- Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed
- Pour into a shallow dish, ensuring the contents are in an even layer and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or overnight. The thinner the layer, the quicker it will cool so if you are in a hurry you could use two dishes!
- Pour the breadcrumbs and beaten eggs into two separate, wide bowls
- Cover your hands in flour and divide the mixture into balls of around 2-3cm and put on a plate
- Dip the balls into the egg mix and then into the breadcrumbs. Place the crumbed balls onto a baking sheet lined with paper. Pop into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
- At this point you can choose to refrigerate the croquetas for up to a day before frying them or freeze (if freezing, open freeze first before transferring the frozen balls to a container and putting a lid on)
- Once ready to fry, pour the oil into a medium frying pan to around 2cm deep. Place the croquetas in the hot oil (around 180ºC) and fry for a couple quickly turning from time to time until golden.If preferred, use a deep fat fryer and fry for 1-2 minutes or until golden
- Remove the croquetas with a spider/slotted spoon and trasfer to a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
- Serve immediately with your choice of sauce or transfer to a warm oven. I use mayo with sriracha sauce or mayo with paprika or even some straight up hot sauce! Clearly the sauce does not need to be spicy!
Notes
They’re warm, crispy and delicious. Simply the best type of food!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!