Jamon Croquettes Recipe - Great Tapas
Croquetas de Jamon, Make in Advance and Fry at the Last Moment
Nov 20, 2008
These croquettes can be made hours or days in advance or even frozen. Make double the quantity to save time and money as well as having a great stand-by in the freezer for those unexpected guests. The croquettes can be cooked from frozen.
Filling and warming, economical and easy - give them a try and they'll become a regular on the menu, a finger food that's loved by all.
Easy but quite time-consuming to make give these little finger foods a try, let the children help to make them, they're great fun.
Croquetas de Jamon - Jamon CroquettesIngredients - makes around 50 croquettes
- 1 litre milk
- 140 ml olive oil
- 125 grams Iberico or Serrano jamon, choppped
- 4 tbsps spring onions, chopped
- thyme, pinch of
- 110 grams plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- black pepper, freshly ground
- 200 grams fine dry breadcrumbs
- 3 eggs, beaten with 2 tsp water or milk
- olive oil or sunflower oil - for frying
Method
- Put the milk on to boil, then set aside, heat some of the olive oil in a pan and saute the jamon for two minutes gently browning it. When done sieve into a ceramic bowl to separate the oil and ham.
- Put the oil back into the pan and add some extra if necessary then saute the onion until transparent but not brown, this should take about two minutes. Add the thyme and flour stirring in well as the flour starts to thicken the mixture.
- Add the hot milk, stirring briskly and cook on a low heat stirring continuously until a thick consistency is obtained, this should take 6 - 8 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the ham, salt and pepper.
- Pour the mixture into a large shallow baking dish or tin and allow it to cool, then put it in the fridge for at least two hours or up to 24 hours.
- When ready remove the mixture from the fridge, put the breadcrumbs in a shallow rectangular bowl or tin and the beaten egg mixture in another bowl.
- Drop a spoonful of the jamon mixture at a time into the dish of breadcrumbs and roll them into the crumbs to make a nicely shaped croquette that measure roughly 5 cm.
- Then with a fork in each end of a croquette lift it out and dunk it into the bowl of beaten egg, shake off the excess and dunk the croquette into the breadcrumbs yet again.
- When coated place on a tray or place nicely spaced apart so they can dry.
- Leave for at least 30 minutes to dry.
- Heat about 2.5cm of the oil in a pan, when hot - do not let the oil smoke - fry the croquettes for about 3 minutes until they are a nice golden brown colour.
- Drain on kitchen paper and serve
Delicious but very hot inside - take care!
See my review for Tapas a bite of Spain.
Recipe from the new Tapas a bite of Spain by Janet Mendel. Available from Santana Books ISBN 978 84 89954 77 9. Used with permission.
See here for more Spanish Recipes
