Whether it’s a home-cooked meal or a restaurant-style tapas feast, no Spanish laden table is quite complete without a few plates of croquetas. These pillowy, fried-to-perfection snacks are usually filled with Spanish ham (jamon), béchamel sauce or (salt cod), but the potential for re-interpretation of the theme is infinite. If are more your thing, don’t hesitate to mix it up and that includes using panko crumbs just like in Guy Grossi's Italian masterpiece, .
Or perhaps, like Madrid-based chef Antonio Madrigal, you prefer your croquetas to be filled with - hold the cucumber?
Salt cod croquettes (crocchette di baccalà) Source: Alan Benson
Bite-sized and round, short, fat and cylindrical or oblong – there’s no set standard when it comes to these golden bliss balls. Just so long as they’re piping hot, crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. In a word: moreish.
Spain’s obsession with croquetas (they’re served at bars and restaurants all over the country) stems from the concept of ‘cooking with leftovers’ – a waste not, want not approach to conserving food in frugal times. Anything leftover from the previous day’s meal would be mixed together with béchamel and left to cool overnight, before being worked into rounds, dipped in flour, egg wash and breadcrumbs and then fried.
As ubiquitous as they are around Spain, the origin story of croquetas actually belongs to France. Marie-Antoine Careme, in the 19th century as “The Cook of Kings” and grandfather of the five world-famous mother sauces of French cuisine, had the good sense to work béchamel sauce into a ball and fry it. Croquettes, as they were called, were a huge hit – and they’re still enjoyed in France today.
And it’s not just the French and Spanish. Croquetas have been given a truly global treatment, undergoing some form of reimagining by all kinds of culinary traditions.
In Japan, they’re known as korokke – fried dumplings filled with potato, chopped meat and seafood. Why not rethink your next sandwich stuffer with .
The Dutch kroket or kroketten are usually cylindrical, filled with beef ragout and eaten with bread, like a hot dog. is all prosciutto, potato and cavalo nero - with aioli, of course. And you'll also find these krokets in Indonesia, introduced during the Dutch colonial rule and typically they're stuffed with chicken mince.
Crab croquette sandwiches (kani korokke sando) Source: John Laurie
Aloo tikki is India’s answer to croquetas. ‘Aloo’ means potato, and ‘tikki’ is a Hindi word for croquette or cutlet. They're a northern Indian vego wonder and you can either stuff them with chana dal (or yellow split peas) or fry them up like a patty using mashed boiled potatoes.
If you’re in Hungary, you’re chowing down on kroketts made with potatoes, eggs, flour, butter and nutmeg. If they contain cottage cheese, they’re known as túrókrokett and are like the perfect potato chip-substitute.
And in Poland, the croquetas are in fact made from a thin rolled crepe stuffed with meat, cabbage, sauerkraut and veg or a combination of ingredients and then lightly pan-fried - these are great for dipping into and sopping up rich stews and soups.
What’s a true blue, Australian version of croquetas, we hear you ask? We’re just going to leave these here:
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