Ham Croquettas
The Best Spanish Ham Croquetas
These croquettes are ideal for parties, prepare them in advance or have them ready deep-fried stored on a baking tray at room temperature and warm up in the oven.
Ingredients
- 100 g Serrano ham finely chopped, or other meats
- 45 g butter
- 45 g flour
- 400 g milk
- Salt and pepper
For the coating
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 eggs
- 150 g breadcrumbs
for frying
- Oil
Instructions
- Chop the Serrano ham very finely.
- Use your blender to chop the Serrano ham into very small pieces. If you don’t have one,
- Next, in a saucepan, over medium heat, add the Serrano without extra oil and sauté for 20 seconds or so to extract flavours from the ham pieces.
- Add the butter and stir to melt the butter, next add the flour and cook stirring constantly to create a roux.
- Slowly add the milk to the mixture, stirring again consistently until a smooth creamy bechamel mixture is achieved.
- Season with salt and pepper and pour onto a dish. Cover with cling film on contact with the mixture so no skin forms.
- Once cooled, transfer in the fridge and let it set for 2 hours minimum or ideally overnight.
- Once cooled, roll the mixture into small bite size ball. Preheat the deep-fat fryer to 160˚C.
- Prepare the pane mixture by sprinkling flour with some salt and pepper in one dish, 2 eggs beaten in the second dish, and seasoned bread crumb in the third dish.
- Dip each bechamel ball in the flour, then beaten eggs, the breadcrumbs then dip again in egg and breadcrumb to create a thicker mixture. Place in the fridge until needed.
- Once the oil is warm, deep-fry for 2-3 minutes depending on size until the bechamel is just warm. Remove form the fryer and drain excess oil on paper.
- Sprinkle immediately with salt and serve while hot.
