The croquete is a sort of a meat cake and I think we can consider it a national delicacy - everybody loves it and it can be found at every single eatery in Portugal. The most daring like to eat in the morning along with an espresso (definitely not the best breakfast choice!), for some is the central piece in a meal, for many others it´s the perfect appetizer to have at any party, cocktail or even picnic!
Yes, the croquete is that good and, yes, I´ve made it myself!
Never thought I would ever cook croquetes, precisely because they are so reachable in my country. Nothing like missing something so badly to try to do it yourself. I would say the experience was 90% successful, since I couldn´t give the exact shape to the croquete. But the flavor was all there and everybody loved it!
The preparation takes a while and there are different steps that I´ll enumerate. It´s easier.
But first the ingredients:
- 200 grams of minced beef (beef is more common, but you can use pork or chicken and leftovers instead of buying fresh meat)
- a small piece of chouriço (I used the Portuguese one, of course, but you can replace by other that you like)
- 60 grams of flour
- 1,5 dl of milk
- 1 egg
- 1 chopped onion
- 2 chopped cloves of garlic
- 60 grams of butter
- 1 bay leaf
- pepper
- nutmeg
- salt
- breadcrumbs
1- First, melt the butter with the garlic, onion and bay leaf.
2 - Once the onion is soft and brown, add the flour and stir until the mix is homogeneous. Takes about 1-2 minutes.
3 - Immediately, add the milk little by little and keep stirring until the mix gets once more uniform. Another 1 minute.
4 - Then add the meat and the chopped chouriço, as well as the seasoning - salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix up for more 2 - 3 minutes.
5 - Turn the stove off and add 1 egg. Stir once more and let the dough rest for as long as possible. I put it in the fridge for about 5 hours and the dough was still a bit tricky to manipulate (or probably it was my inexperience...)
6 - Now, all you have to do is to shape the dough with your hands, being the most common shape the shape of a cylinder (I did small balls). Dip the croquetes into a beaten egg before gently rolling on a plate of breadcrumbs.
7 - Then put the croquetes in the freezer and deep fry them whenever you want. I froze some, but fried the rest so that I could bring to a birthday party I was going to. And this is what I think I shouldn´t have done, because the croquetes were too soft.
But, like I said, they were a success!
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