croquette

Cylindrical croquettes.

A croquette is a small fried food roll containing usually as main ingredients mashed potatoes, and/or minced meat (veal, beef, chicken, or turkey), shellfish, fish, vegetables, and soaked white bread, egg, onion, spices and herbs, wine, milk, or any of the combination thereof, sometimes with a filling, often encased in breadcrumbs.^[1] The croquette is usually shaped into a cylinder or disk, and then deep-fried. The croquette (from the French croquer, “to crunch”) was a French invention that gained world-wide popularity, both as a delicacy and as a fast food.

Croquettes in various countries

Circular croquettes.

Two Dutch "kroketten", one cut open to show the beef-ragout filling; Chiang Mai, Thailand

Cylindrical potato croquettes.

Croquetas fritas.

Bangladesh:

Alu chop (Bengali: আলু চপ alu chôp "potato croquette") is a popular croquette served throughout Bangladesh, primarily as an appetizer or snack. The center is traditionally filled with ground beef, peas, or other savory fillings. The potatoes are mashed and mixed with a mixture of minced green chilis, minced fried onions, and bread crumbs^[2]. Each alu chop (formed into a ball or egg-shape) is then breaded and deep-fried. It is often served with a chutney or sauce.

Brazil:

Croquettes^[3] , primarily made from beef, are sold in parts of Brazil as German fare.

China:

Sweet pumpkin-based croquettes are often served in conjunction with the Dragon Boat Festival.

Cuba/Puerto Rico:

Cuban/Puerto Rican croquettes (known as croquetas) are usually made of ham, beef, chicken, or fish. They are generally flour-based instead of using potatoes. A potato-based version is the Papa rellena ("stuffed potato"), which is made from picadillo rolled in a layer of mashed potatoes and then deep fried.

Czech Republic:

Krokety^[4] are small round balls usually made from potatoes, eggs, flour, butter, and salt that are deep fried in oil. This variety can be ordered in most restaurants as a side dish as well as bought frozen and prepared at home.

Germany:

Plain potato croquettes^[5] (Kroketten)^[6] are served as side dish in restaurants and are also available frozen in supermarkets.

Hungary:

"Krokett" is a small cylindrical croquette similar to the Czech variety: potatoes, eggs, flour, butter, seasoned with nutmeg and salt and deep fried in oil. This variety can be ordered in most restaurants as a side dish, and also bought frozen. When made with cheese they are called turokrokett^[7]. .

India:

A potato-filled croquette called alu-tikki^[8] is very famous in Northern India and is typically served with a stew. They are mostly eaten as snacks at home and are also popularly sold by road-side vendors. In the Indian state of West Bengal it is called Alu Chop similar to Bangladesh. Sometimes it is called a "cutlet" and eaten plain or as a fast food variation that is served inside a hamburger bun (like a vegetarian burger).

Indonesia:

The kroket^[9] (Dutch) made of potato and minced chicken is one of the more popular snack items in Indonesia introduced during the Dutch colonial rule.

Japan:

A relative of the croquette, known as korokke^[10] ( コロッケ ) is a very popular fried food, widely available in supermarkets and butcher shops, as well as from specialty korokke shops. Generally patty-shaped, it is mainly made of potatoes with some other ingredients such as vegetables (e.g. onions and carrots) and maybe less than 5% meat (e.g. pork or beef). It is often served with tonkatsu (とんかつ) sauce. Cylindrically-shaped korokke are also served, which more closely resemble the French version, where seafood (prawns or crab meat) or chicken in white sauce (ragout) is cooled down to make it harden before the croquette is breaded and deep-fried. When it is served hot, the inside melts. This version is called "cream korokke" to distinguish it from the potato-based variety. It is often served with no sauce or tomato sauce. Unlike its Dutch cousin, croquettes made mainly of meat are not called korokke in Japan. They are called menchi katsu (めんち かつ), short for minced meat cutlets.

Mexico:

Croquettes are usually made of tuna or chicken^[11][12] and potatoes.

Netherlands:

Whereas previously the dish was regarded as a French cuisine delicacy of varying meat or vegetable content, in the 1800s it became a way to use up leftover stewed meat. After World War II, several suppliers started mass-producing croquettes^[13] filled with beef. The croquette subsequently became even more popular as a fast food; a deep fried meat ragout covered in breadcrumbs. Its success as a fast food garnered its reputation as a cheap dish of dubious quality, to such an extent that Dutch urban myths relate its allegedly mysterious content to offal and butchering waste. The "kroket" is even so popular that it is sold at McDonalds. Besides the common ragout type filling, other popular fillings served in fast food restaurants are whole boiled eggs, noodles, shrimps and rice. A smaller version of the kroket, the bitterbal^[14], is often served with mustard as a snack in bars and at official receptions.

Philippines:

The Filipino 'croqueta' is derived no doubt from the Spanish colonial era, but unlike the bechamel-filled croquetas in Spain, Filipino croquetas are made with mashed potatoes and chopped meat or fish, usually leftovers. Like most Spanish-influenced foods in the Philippines, croquetas ares served mainly in middle and upper class households.

Poland:

Croquettes in Poland^[15] are basically made from a thin rolled pancake stuffed with mushrooms, meat, cabbage, sauerkraut or combinations of those ingredients. Then covered in breadcrumbs, fried in a pan and usually served usually with a clear soup like borscht.

Portugal:

Croquetes^[16] are cylindrical, covered in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. They are usually made with white sauce and beef, sometimes with a small amount of pork, and frequently with some chouriço, black pepper, bacalhau or piri-piri to add more flavour. Seafood, fish and vegetarian (potato) croquetes are also eaten in Portugal, but less often.

Russia:

The widespread котлета^[17] (from French cotelette) is made of minced meat (beef or pork or mixture of both), bread, eggs, white onions, salt and spices, shaped as a meat patty and pan fried. Bread is added in amount up to 25% of meat, adding softness to the final product and also making it cheaper to produce. Another popular variation similar to French cotelettes de volaille is Chicken Kiev, made from boned chicken breast pounded and rolled around cold unsalted butter, then breaded and fried.

Spain:

Croquettes^[18], especially filled with jamón or chicken, are also a typical tapas dish. Unfilled bechamel croquettes are also consumed in parts of Spain.

United Kingdom:

Plain potato croquettes^[19] are available frozen^[20] or refrigerated in most supermarkets.

United States:

"Boardwalk" Fishcakes and Crabcakes, eaten on the east coast of the United States, are essentially croquettes. They consist of respectively chopped fish or crab meat mixed in a buttery dough which is breaded and deep-fried.

In Tampa, Florida, there is a type of croquette made with seasoned crab meat that is traditionally breaded with stale Cuban bread. Locally, this is known as a deviled crab (croqueta de jaiba).^[21]

A traditional New England/Northeastern United States preparation uses leftover holiday ham, usually of the maple-cured variety. Uses a minced pre-cooked potato for the outer roll & that is dipped in crumbed breading & sautéed or fried in a small skillet with butter, not oil.

A typical croquette dish is salmon croquettes, popular all over the American South. These are not called Salmon Croquettes by Southerners but Salmon Patties. The best crunch for a fish patty is crushed Saltine crackers. Any canned fish salmon, mackerel, tuna is mashed with the hands, which break up the fish bones and make the fish smooth before the binder and seasonings are added. These may contain one or more of the following ingredients: eggs, pepper, chopped (sometimes sautéed) onions, and a binder. The binder can be any starch such as flour, cornmeal, matzo meal, ground crackers of any type, even white rice or oatmeal although the last ingredient seems only tobe used in the northern parts of the United States. One then shapes the mixture into rounded patties for pan-frying in an oil, such as olive oil, butter, canola, safflower, or peanut oil. A secret to take the 'fishy' taste out of the patty is to use parsley and parmesan cheese in the binder mix. Margarine and corn oil are used more commonly to fry patties due to their lower cost. They can also be baked at 400 F or "oven fried".

See also

Food portal

• Fritter
• Rissole

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Croquettes

• Recipe for Dutch Croquettes