Croquettes: Cook-Off 37

[Jensen]

Croquettes.

Hmmppphhhh.

When this topic first came up, I sniffed.

I made croquettes in Grade 8 Home Ec, along with Spanish rice and cinnamon toast. Oh, and tea. Must not forget the "how to brew tea" lesson!

So, my first swipe at the croquette pinata was an attempt at making fresh corn croquettes. I thought these would be a great riff on corn fritters. <ahem> And they very well might have been, had they not melted away into crepe-like tentacles in the pan.

Tonight I thought I'd take another kick at the can. (Hey, I'm nothing if not a great source for folksy clichés.) I tried for some chicken croquettes, using tinned chicken, sautéed onions, and peas.

I made my white sauce using 4 T of butter, 6 T of flour, and 1.5 cups of milk. Then I chilled it. After chilling, I put the other ingredients (chicken, onions, and peas) in a bowl with some seasonings and then added in only enough of the white sauce until it was a thick mixture. Back into the fridge for some more chilling.

Before frying, I formed the croquettes, coated them in panko, and then put them back in the fridge for more chilling.

Despite all this care and chilling, some of the damn things STILL fell apart in the pan. This never happened in Grade 8.

Oh what I would give for that Grade 8 Home Ec recipe....

Edited December 20, 2007 by Jensen (log)

[JAZ]

Despite all this care and chilling, some of the damn things STILL fell apart in the pan. This never happened in Grade 8.

Oh what I would give for that Grade 8 Home Ec recipe....

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When I was looking at recipes, some of them called for rolling in panko only, and some called for the more typical flour, egg and panko coating. I tried the panko-only technique, thinking I could save time and mess, and I had the same problem you had -- the croquettes leaked and fell apart. The flour-egg-panko version didn't suffer from that. It's definitely worth the extra time.

[Chufi]

Pam, those look really good.

I haven't made Dutch kroketten or bitterballen (the same ingredients but shaped into round balls) in a long time!! For reference here's the link to the recipe on the Dutch cooking thread: click

I have a recipe somewhere (looking at my pile of food magazines, I think it would take me about half an hour to find it ) for white bean croquettes with chili anchovy mayo. I've always wanted to make them but never got around to it. Now shall I go and dig out that recipe....

Edited December 20, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[helenjp]

dig out that recipe

Do that thing! I have a white bean croquette recipe too (somewhere...) and it was GOOD!

[BarbaraY]

After my first post about disliking croquettes that I've had, I remembered the "Croquetas de Frijol" from the secrets of Mexican Cooking by Elena Zelayeta published in 1963. I made them once when the book was first given to me and the whole family liked them. The kids called them "Bean Balls".

I broke out the book and made them for our dinner last evening. Not bad but I've already thought of ways to perk them up just a little.

The recipe calls for;

2 cups cooked, mashed pink or red beans (I used pintos)

2 tablespooons minced onion

1/2 teaspoon oregano ( used about 1 teaspoon)

1 can peeled green chiles, chopped

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (used more until it tasted right to me)

Salt to taste

1/4 lb. Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese cut into small cubes (mine were about 1/2-inch)

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Bread crumbs (I used Panko)

Mix all ingredients together up to the Jack cheese. Roll a spoonful of beans around the cheese. The recipe says to roll them in crumbs, egg and crumbs again. I did flour, egg, and crumbs

I made 8 croquettes and left them to chill over night. then fried in medium temp oil.

I also made a simple tomato sauce of onion, garlic, and tomatoes cooked with a little chicken stock and seasoned with a pinch of oregano.

Nothing fantastic but they were good. I think they would taste better with fire roasted fresh pasilla chiles. A little garlic other than that in the sauce would be good and I think Black Beans would be good, too.

I would have taken pictures but found the batteries were dead. Sorry.

Edited December 28, 2007 by BarbaraY (log)

[Nargi]

So, last night as part of a meal i prepared, I made a potato gratin (russets, super thinly sliced onion, parmesan, heavy cream, crimini, thyme) and I have a decent amount left over. do you (you being the universal "anyone who feels the need to listen to my ramblings") think I could maybe dice it small (or hell, even mash) and use this as the basis for some croquettes? I've really only made croq's from mashed potatoes or risotto.

[Chris Amirault]

I think that the fat in the gratin from the cheese and cream might make the croquettes a bit difficult to bind, so you'd want to use more flour and egg. But, hey, try it out and tell us what happens. Maybe you've found a solution to leftover potato gratin!

[gfweb]

The solution to leftover potato gratin is to eat it as you clean the table!

[gfweb]

Here's a croquette filling that I like...canned tuna, jalapeno, corn, touch of garlic, handful of ground parm, bound in a thick white sauce. The jalapeno cuts through any greasiness and the whole thing tastes great...to me anyway. My 16 y/o still slops ketchup all over it.

[Adam Balic]

Loosely based on salt cod examples I have had in Spain and Italy, these are pounded Scottish smoked haddock held together with Béchamel sauce, flavoured with a little lemon zest and parsley. I used panko for the crumbs as they were in the pantry and better then regular bread crumbs anyway. I found that using a couple of spoons to make the quenelle and droping this onto a plate of panko was the easiest way of making these.

[menuinprogress]

We made these fish and lentil balls as part of our "Feast of the Seven Fishes" on xmas eve:

They are made using leftovers from a fish and lentil main dish. The crust is gram flour and panko.

[Chris Amirault]

Holy crap, menuinprogress. That ranks among the top first posts ever!

Say more about the interior. The exterior is perfect.

[menuinprogress]

Holy crap, menuinprogress. That ranks among the top first posts ever!

Say more about the interior. The exterior is perfect.

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Thanks!

This is the dish that we used the leftovers from:

In this instance the fish was salmon, but we've used mahi mahi, sea bass, etc.

The base is red lentils and yellow split peas cooked in chicken and fish stock and highly spiced with fresh ginger, cumin seed and cayenne. There is also lemon juice which adds another flavor element (we also squeezed lemon juice on the fish balls just before eating).

The fish gets poached in the cooked lentil mixture.

To make the balls, we mixed the fish and lentils together and added gram flour, panko and an egg white.