"Disney Land" fish croquetas. Woman with a mission, again

Originally French, the croqueta (Spanish for croquette) is a brown and crisp cylindric made of chopped meat, fish or vegetables bound with a white sauce or béchamel and coated with breadcrumbs. It is fried and eaten hot.

There is not a Spanish house where someone isn't making croquetas. For the same reason, in any bar in Spain you will always find a tapa or racion of croquetas. It is a classic in the Spanish cuisine. Croquetas de jamon, fish or the pollo, popular amongst children and adults, they have one golden rule: eat them with your fingers while they are hot, but not too hot that you burn your fingers (and your tongue!).


Nick and the kids are coming back from Hong Kong this afternoon. I am so excited that I woke up this morning at 5am and made a hundred things. Cooking is back again because I will share it with my family. I was sick of eating toast for dinner.

I feel like a woman with a mission again.

Recipe, step by step, of the croquetas de pescado.

• Warm 1/2 l of whole milk to low heat and add half of an onion stud with a laurel and 3 cloves to infuse the milk that you will use for the béchamel. 
• When it is warm, place a large piece of white fish (don't use oily fish). Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes until the fish is done.
• Drain the milk in a colander with a bowl underneath. Remove the fish and set it outside.

• In a small frypan, fry a chopped onion, until soft (do not brown it).
• In a non-stick pot start making the béchamel or white sauce: make the roux by frying 3 tbsp of unsalted butter with 1 tbsp of olive oil (the oil avoids the butter to get burnt) and 4 tbsp of plain flour. After a few minutes, add the "fish" warm milk, little by little, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon to achieve a smooth sauce. 
• The white sauce is done when is sticking out from the walls of the pot. Taste for season and nutmeg.
• Add then the soft onion and the cooked white fish.

•  Spray oil in a tray and add the warm mixture.
• Cover it with a plastic film, touching the filling to stop forming a dry and hard surface.
• Let it cool and settled for a couple of hours in the fridge or overnight.

• Separate the beaten eggs and the homemade breadcrumbs in two bowls. Sprinkle the flour on the table.
• Cut the mixture, already settled like jelly, in long rectangles and place them, by one one, on top of the flour.

• Shape each rectangle into a cylindric shape and cut then into 10cm long (like making gnocchi)..
• Make sure each piece is well coated in flour before dipped into egg and then in breadcrumbs.

• When you are done, place the croquetas in a plastic container and leave them outside for 30 minutes. Or place them in the freezer and use them when needed.

• Heat a large pan with enough vegetable oil to cover the size of the croqueta. 
• When hot, add 3 or 4 at the same time, but not more because otherwise the temperature of the oil will be reduced and the croqueta will absorb the oil and be greasy and soggy.
• Drain on a kitchen paper over a rack.
• Eat them hot with a green salad

Buen provecho!