Creamy Ham Croquettes Today we are going to prepare some ham croquettes. But not just any. These croquettes are very creamy and have a lot of flavor. To achieve this, we will see a series of tips and tricks. With them, we will obtain the dreamy croquette, crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside and full of flavor, in this case, ham, which is what we are looking for. To start making these homemade ham croquettes, the most important thing is the quantities so, point
Ingredients
25 croquettes
- 800ml milk
- 200ml of cooking cream
- Bones of a ham
- 90ml olive oil or butter
- 90g wheat flour
- 1/2 onion (optional)
- 250g minced ham
- 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 3 eggs and breadcrumbs
- salt and white pepper
- oil for frying
Preparation method
1.- In a casserole, we put the milk, the cream, the bones of the ham, which are sold like this, loose in any supermarket and a pinch of salt. We heat while stirring. When it is about to reach the boil, we turn off the heat, cover and let infuse, so that the milk takes the flavor of the ham well
2.- In another larger saucepan, put the 90ml of olive oil or butter and heat over medium heat. When it is hot, add the onion and add a pinch of salt. Let cook 5 minutes.
3.- If you don’t want to add onion, skip the step of adding it and go directly to it. Add the flour and mix well. Let it toast for a couple of minutes, always over moderate heat. This way we will remove the raw flavor, but without burning. It is important, to make them creamy, to use the proportions that I give here because if we add more flour and oil, there will be some very hard croquettes. If we add less, they will be too liquid. So much so that they will melt in the fry.
4.- When the flour has been slightly toasted, add the milk and cream mixture, which will already be well infused with the ham flavor. But we do it little by little. We add a couple of ladles and with a rod, so that the béchamel is oxygenated and is very fine and without lumps, we mix well. We hope that the flour and oil base (known as roux) will absorb the milk. At first, there will be a kind of marzote that will stick to the rod. Nothing happens. We return to add two more ladles. We wait for the roux to absorb again and finally, we add what remains to us at once. We mix and we already have the bechamel sauce made. It will be relatively liquid but full-bodied.
5.- It is the turn to add the minced ham, the nutmeg, the white pepper and rectify with salt. Let this bechamel cook over low heat for ten more minutes, while stirring frequently
6.- Once all this is done, we turn off the fire, wait for it to harden for about 30 minutes. Then we cover and put it in the fridge. We will let it cool down and settle completely. Between 4 hours and a whole night
7.- After time we take it out and take a tablespoon of the dough -Although you can give it the size you want-. With the hands we give it a croquette shape and pass it first through beaten egg. Then for breadcrumbs. It is well impregnated with these two ingredients. We reserve on a plate until we have finished with all the dough
8.- Now two options. If you want to fry them right away, put them in the freezer for ten minutes, so that the dough sits on the croquette. If not, you can keep them in the fridge until you fry
9.- Finally fry in abundant oil. Better that the oil covers them completely, so that they do not explode when frying. After a minute or two, when they are golden on the outside and hot on the inside, we put them on absorbent paper, before serving them
