🇪🇸 En español: Croquetas de Jamón Serrano
This easy croquetas de jamón Serrano recipe proves that the true trick to Spanish ham croquettes is time, patience, and a great arm for stirring the bechamel sauce!
Is There Any Cheese
Contrary to popular opinion, Spanish ham croquetas do not contain any cheese! They are an essential part of any self-respecting tapas spread basically because they taste so good!
So, are they filled with a ham and potato mixture or ham and cheese?
The answer: Neither.
Croquetas dough is a chilled bechemel sauce with bits of ham, usually, either serrano or Iberico added. Croquetas originated as poor mans food made from simple commonly available and cheap ingredients so they would through in whatever bits of cured ham they had.
Other Recipes You Maybe Interested in …..
Authentic Ham Croquetas
Ingredients
- 60 g butter unsalted
- 60 ml olive oil
- 120 g flour
- 1 onion medium, finely diced
- 1 litre full-fat milk at room temperature
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 225 g jamón serrano diced into small pieces
- flour for breading
- 2 eggs eggs beaten
- bread crumbs for breading try Panko for non-traditional extra crispy croquettes!
Instructions
- Melt the butter and warm the oil in a heavy pan over medium high heat.
- Add the diced onion and sauté for a few minutes, until it just starts to color.
- Add a pinch of salt and the nutmeg. Don’t add too much salt as the Serrano ham is already salty.
- Add the diced ham and sauté for 30 seconds more.
- Add the flour and stir continuously, until the flour turns a light brown color. You must not stop stirring or the flour will burn!
- When the flour changes color, add the milk little by little, always stirring until you incorporate the entire amount. It should take about 15-20 minutes to add it all.
- Turn off the heat and let the dough cool to room temperature.
- Butter the sides of a large bowl and place the croquette dough inside, covered directly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
- To make the ham croquettes, shape them into little logs (or use a pastry sleeve if you have one.)
- Next, while heating a pan full of olive oil on the stove, pass the croquettes through the three step breading process. First, cover them in flour, then in egg, and, finally, in the breadcrumbs.
- Fry the ham croquettes in the hot oil for about five minutes (making sure to turn halfway so they brown evenly) and then let them cool for a few minutes before enjoying!
Nutrition
Croquetas can contain any kind of filling really. Iberico ham seems to be the most common but spinach and mushroom also taste really good.
For those of you, that really must have ham AND cheese then here is an alternative recipe using a different technique. Not really much quicker as the 4-hour chilling time is the same but still very tasty.
Ham and Cheese Croquetas
Ingredients
- 75 g butter
- 100 g flour
- 500 ml full-fat milk
- 50 g breadcrumbs
- 90 g ham chopped
- 50 g cheddar grated
- 50 g mozzarella torn
- 2 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley chopped
- flour for rolling
- 1 egg beaten
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a pan and whisk in the plain flour. Over a gentle heat, gradually whisk in the milk until you have a very thick white sauce. Add the fresh breadcrumbs, chopped ham, grated cheddar, torn mozzarella and the chopped parsley and stir until melted. Chill for 4 hours.
- Scoop up spoonfuls of the mixture and roll into 18-20 oval shapes. Roll each first in plain flour, then coat in beaten egg, then roll in dried natural breadcrumbs. Deep fry until golden.
Nutrition
You may also like one of my other recipes …
Grandads Cookbook may reference or include sections of text and images reproduced courtesy of:
- lidl.co.uk
- spanishsabores.com
- theguardian.com
- today.com
