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Croquettes
Hello,
Croquettes are very typical in Spain as a tapa in bars or as an appetizer. There are several ways to prepare them around the world, but my approach will be a very spanish one 🙂
Ingredients ( ~ 16 croquettes)
- 2 eggs
- 100 gr breadcrumbs
- 200 gr flour
- 200 gr ham
- Ground nutmeg
- 100 gr unsalted butter
- ½ litre of milk
Start cutting ham in very small pieces. I used about 200 gr of ham, but you have to use less amount if your ham is too salty. Also you can add other ingredients as for example chicken or tuna.
On a pot add 100 gr of unsalted butter, when butter is almost molten add cut ham, stir it until butter is totally molten. Then add 100 gr of flour, stir while cooking it for about 1 minute until flour is cooked. Then add ½ litre of milk at ambient temperature and a bit of ground nutmeg. Move constantly with a wooden spoon to avoid lumps and it will be ready in a couple of minutes when you can see the bottom of your pot when moving with the spoon.
Empty the pot in a recipient and level the surface. Cover with a transparent film stick to the surface to avoid crust in the surface. Let cold and maintain in the fridge until next day.
Next day with a spoon take portions of the dough and give them a cylindrical shape with your hands. Try to get always a similar amount of dough so each croquettes result in a very similar size. Â Once you have all your croquettes shaped, pass each of them first in flour, then in whisked egg and finally in breadcrumbs.
In a pot heat oil, adding enough to immerse the croquettes. When you insert a wooden spoon in the oil and bubbles appear the temperature of oil is right to fry. Now immerse the croquettes in small batches cooking them about 40 to 50 seconds. Retire them over a paper towel to absorb the excess of oil, and let the oil heat again between each batches of croquettes.
Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.
Spinach and feta cheese pie
Hi,
This recipe is based on a video from Jamie Oliver, but instead of using philo pastry (because I didn’t find on supermarket) I’ve used shortcrust pastry so it will be more similar to a quiche.
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 400 gr feta cheese
- 1 spinach bag
- 1 sheet of shortcrust pastry
- Pine nuts
- 1 lemon
- Grated emmental cheese
- Nutmeg
To prepare this spinach and feta cheese pie, which is very similar to a quiche we will start putting a pan in the fire. When pan is hot add pine nut and keep on fire for about 5 minutes until the are toasted. On the same pan add some oil oil and the spinach bag. Don’t get foolish about how much space they take at the beginning as will reduce a lot. Add some nutmeg to the spinach as well as grate the skin of a lemon. Move them and cook until they get reduced.
On a bowl add 4 eggs, 400 gr of shredded feta cheese, black pepper and some grated emmental cheese. Mix and crush it will with a fork. Then add the toasted pine nuts and spinach. Mix it well.
Cover the mold with a sheet of shortcrust pastry, leaving the paper so it will be easier to unmold. With your hands accomodate the shortcrust pastry to the mold. Fill it with the mix, and distribute well with a spoon. Cut the waste of shortcrust pastry, leaving about 2 fingers above the mix. Cover with grated emmental cheese and cook in the oven at 400º F (200º C) for 25 minutes.
Recipes from Spain 