It seemed like a good idea to make croquetas on a rainy afternoon, as they are a bit labour intensive and I wasn’t going anywhere. Plus, it had been a long while since I’ve made croquetas, so wanted to be sure I still knew how. I should say that I have a different idea of croquetas than the average Sevillano (and many Spaniards in general) in that I like mine to taste of something other than bechamel. There are many points of view about what constitutes the “perfect croqueta” and I actually don’t care that much. The ones I like best are full of flavour, soft and creamy on the inside and with a good solid crunchy outside. Anyhow, today I opted for cheese croquetas, which in the end is like making a thick cheese sauce, breading and frying it. Which is amazing! My recipe has maybe three times the cheese as I’ve seen elsewhere – you can decide how cheesy you want them.
Ingredients and instructions below…
- 15 gr salted butter
- 1/2 small onion, minced
- 1 tbsp flour (slightly heaping)
- 250 ml whole milk
- 150 gr grated semi-cured manchego cheese
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- fine breadcrumbs
- oil for frying (I use a light olive oil)
Melt the butter in a small saucepan or frying pan, then add the onions and cook on a low heat until soft and translucent (10 mins or so) making sure to stir often so neither the butter or onions brown.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir that in for awhile. It’s important to “cook” the flour a bit before adding the milk to avoid that raw flour taste in the bechamel, but again, don’t let anything brown.
Turn up the heat a bit and start adding the milk poco á poco, whisking it until smooth and silky. Then start adding the grated cheese, one small handful at a time, mixing it in well before adding more cheese. Once you have what is basically a nice thick bechamel cheese sauce, pour it into a flat bowl (I find a soup bowl works best) and put in the fridge to cool for at least an hour (it needs to be fairly solid to form the croquetas – you could also leave it overnight).
Beat two eggs with the dijon in one bowl, put the fine breadcrumbs in another. Working as quickly as possible so the cheese mixture doesn’t get warm, form spoonfuls of the cheese into balls and roll them in the breadcrumbs. Then dip each ball in the egg mixture, roll it around in the breadcrumbs (this can get messy) and keep going until they are all done. And THEN… do it again. This makes for a good solid coating that (hopefully) won’t break apart while frying with cheese gushing out everywhere (see more about that below). Put the finished breaded croquetas back in the fridge to set (approximately an hour). You can also make ahead and leave in the fridge overnight (lightly covered so the breading stays dry).
NOTE: make the balls a bit smaller than what you see here. You should get about 12-14 croquetas in the end.
Heat up the oil and when it start to shimmer start adding the croquetas. Don’t overcrowd, so best to do these in two batches. When they are nicely browned all over, drain on paper towels and serve while still crisp and warm.
IMPORTANT: They only need frying until the breading is nicely browned as the cheese sauce melts fairly quickly. If you notice any cheese leaking out that means you should get them out of the oil STAT as this could cause spattering of very hot oil. If spattering does occur, turn the heat off immediately and, as soon as things calm down (or if you have really long tongs) remove the croquetas to the paper towel to drain.