This week on I Made It So You Don’t Have To, I found a great TikTok recipe that is surprisingly easy to make given the description. Tapas are Spain’s way of jazzing up an appetizer and this tapa of the week did not disappoint.
This week, we made Spanish ham and cheese croquettes. They are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, utilizing simple cooking techniques to achieve these great side dishes. This week, I decided to grill skirt steak to go along with these.
Let’s get to the recipe. First, we dice one yellow onion. These are different from other types of onions because they have a sweeter flavor, which makes the filling of the croquettes smoother.
Cut up about 3/4 of a stick of butter and add it to the pan with the onions, sautéing for three to four minutes on a medium to medium-high heat until translucent. Add in your chopped ham or pancetta. I used a combination of pancetta and prosciutto since that has the most similar flavor to the typical “jamon crudo” used in traditional Spanish croquettes.
Let these cook down for about three minutes and mix everything well. Gradually add 80 grams of flour and consistently stir into the mixture. It will start to get dry as you add more, but do not worry. This is part of the process since we can season this combination of butter and flour, which is called a roux.
Make sure this toasts for a minute or two to give it a smoky flavor. Once the roux is ready, lower the heat to medium and add milk in small drizzles and incorporate. As you incorporate it, the milk will mix and then evaporate, so you add more once the evaporation has happened.
Complete using the listed amount of milk and add in your spices. This mixture is now a thicker bechamel, which is a sauce consisting of flour, butter and milk. Taste it to see if you like the blend of spices. Since it is a simple blend, adjusting to taste is super easy.
Add the mixture to a casserole dish or bowl, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for about two hours. I did this in the afternoon, so it was ready for the night. When making this dish, make sure to plan ahead.
When ready to prep the croquettes out of the fridge, take a spoon and shape the mixture into 1.5 to 2-inch spheres. They should be easily moldable after been refrigerated, but if not, sprinkle some flour into the mix. Once the balls have been formed, you should end up with around 15-16 of them.
Prepare three bowls: one with flour, the second with two eggs and a splash of milk and the third with Panko breadcrumbs. Add a dash of salt and pepper, along with the breadcrumbs. In this order, pass each ball through flour, then egg and then breadcrumbs. Fry them in frying oil deep enough that they are half-submerged until golden brown on the outside, with oil kept at medium to medium-high heat.
For the skirt steak, I used roughly six slices of the steak and cooked for about two minutes on each of the sides at medium-high heat with olive oil, salt and pepper. I served the croquettes with a mayo-derived aioli to dip them in, made from one and a half tablespoons of mayo, three teaspoons of lemon juice and 1/8 teaspoon of salt and pepper.
This was an unexpectedly easy recipe to make, which makes it more exciting to share with all of you, as the whole point of writing recipes is for others to make them too! This comfortably fed four people and produced a nice quantity of croquettes.
Bring them to any dinner party; they won’t steal the show in size, but they’ll steal it in taste. Do not be afraid to season for taste when making the bechamel, as this will be the final taste of the croquettes after you fry them.
Ingredients:
130g of cured ham or pancetta, or both
3/4 stick of butter
1 yellow onion diced
80g flour (more for the fry prep)
500mL milk
1 container of Panko breadcrumbs (enough to coat each croquette)
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Vegetable oil
6 pieces of skirt steak
Olive oil
Rating: 4.8/5
Price:
Croquettes: $14
Steak: $13