TRADITIONAL DISH FROM SAN SEBASTIAN: serrano ham croquettes
INSTRUCCIONES
Returning to pintxos, the origin dates back to the 1930s, almost a century ago, when La Espiga bar, located next to La Concha beach in San Sebastián, offered its customers varied and succulent appetizers at very affordable prices. The elaboration owes its name to the toothpick or small piece of wood that was used to hold the main ingredient to the slice of bread that served as the base, as we had already discussed. Today neither the bread nor the toothpick is essential. In addition, you can use practically any ingredient you want, meat, fish, seafood, vegetables, etc. Thanks to this, the combinations, textures, and flavors are unlimited. Today we are going to prepare the traditional serrano ham croquettes:
INGREDIENTS:
100 grams of Iberian ham
Flour
1 clove garlic
1 small onion
extra virgin olive oil
Half a liter of whole milk
parsley (optional)
3 eggs
Bread crumbs
absorbent kitchen paper
Start by chopping the onion and garlic clove into very small pieces. Once everything has been chopped into very small pieces, add a splash of extra virgin olive oil to a saucepan and fry for 6 minutes. Meanwhile, you can continue chopping the ham into cubes or strips and add it to the saucepan so that it mixes with the rest of the ingredients, add 50 grams of flour and fry well until you have a uniform dough. Next, pour in the milk very slowly without stopping stirring, you can use milk at room temperature to avoid the appearance of lumps. You can change the intensity of the fire so that it does not stick or burn. Do not stop stirring, the mixture should not be too liquid or too thick, you can play with the flour until you get the texture you are looking for and add very little chopped parsley. Cook the bechamel for approximately 17 minutes without stopping stirring until you get a uniform dough. Once you have the dough you are looking for, remove it and place it on a flat surface or tray. Expand the dough until it is completely evenly distributed and wait until it cools, about 25 minutes should be enough. Once the dough is cold comes the most fun. You must take small amounts, give them the shape you like best, add a little flour and pass them through egg and breadcrumbs. Repeat the process until you have finished with all the dough. You can make round or elongated croquettes, it is essential to use extra virgin olive oil. In addition, it is recommended to use a large enough frying pan and add enough oil so that the croquettes are practically submerged. Heat the oil and wait until seconds before it begins to smoke. To check if it is hot enough we can add little breadcrumbs and see if it starts to fry. Once we have the correct temperature we can start frying. During this process, we keep the fire at a high temperature but pay special attention not to burn the food. Before serving them, place them on a plate on kitchen paper to drain the excess fat, and ready we have our Basque pintxo!!!
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Thanks for traveling with me, until next week!!
