Imagine a crunchy and fried exterior breadcrumb shell, that reveals, once you bite into it, a creamy, almost oozing center, made of a thickened béchamel sauce, dotted with pieces of fried ham and onion and cheese !

As you know, I’m often in Spain. The country makes me feel alive and connected to everything, because it truly is a place about people and togetherness and socializing without class distinction nor exclusion but rather treating everyone, rich or poor, in the same manner. It is about “community” and equality, that exists with ease.

These croquettes (called croquetas in Spanish) are usually served as “tapas” and have recently obsessed and fascinated me, not only because of the flavor but rather the texture and consistency that is achieved through a thickened and shaped béchamel cream mixture, and not mashed potatoes, which is what I previously thought was always used ?! (see cod & potato croquettes recipe here) ...

I had to give it a try and see if preparing the correct mixture and consistency and then hand-rolling them, would even be possible for an amateur like me, with no prior experience of shaping croquettes that were not made with a mashed potato base. 

Using Spanish ingredients, like Serrano ham and Manchego cheese would be the ideal but you can also give it a try with more local salt-cured hams and cheeses, because every country offers many viable choices, that would work just as well here. Most often, these appetizers are made with leftovers, so you can try it with anything you fancy.

The important technique is binding everything together. It isn’t a thickened béchamel cream in which you add the extras and flavorings at the end, but a process in which the ingredients are cooked beforehand in butter and oil and then you add in the flour to create a very clumpy “roux” and then you add in the milk, little by little, to loosen it up and you keep stirring until it is very thick again and you start over, thicker, then looser, by adding more milk, binding everything together until the perfect consistency is achieved for hand-rolling them. I used 3 ½ cups of milk here but I could have pushed it to almost 4 cups, if I dared, but I was worried the mixture would not be firm enough for shaping, after cooling, but it becomes rubbery and easily shaped if correctly prepared and chilled.

It takes time to prepare the mixture, about 20-30 minutes, then everything must firm up for several hours and then the shaping will take another 20-30 minutes and then the final flour, egg and breadcrumb exterior crust will take another 20-30 minutes. The best and most practical solution is to make many and freeze part of them.

If I may suggest, these could be an excellent idea for your New Year’s Eve festivities, alongside cheese and cured meat platters and seafood and some roasted or fried vegetables and if you can find them, these little “Padron” green peppers to be grilled or deep-fried (which I also brought back fresh from Spain recently and show you in the photos).

Best wishes for the New Year; I hope the world will smarten up soon ! … :)