Potato croquettes: the recipe for making them golden

Potato croquettes are a delicious appetizer made with potatoes, eggs and cheese, golden and crispy on the outside and soft and delicate on the inside. They can also be an excellent side dish for meat and fish dishes. Potato croquettes are easy to make: just a few minutes and a few simple precautions, such as potatoes with firm and high quality pulp, to serve a special and tasty dish also ideal as a finger food for your buffets. But here's how to make these delicious breaded and fried potato croquettes and the secrets for perfect preparation.

How to make potato croquettes

Boil the potatoes in abundant salted water with all the peel and cook them for 30/40 minutes after boiling 1. Once cooked, remove the potatoes from the water, let them cool slightly and remove the peel 2. Reduce them to a lump-free puree with a potato masher 3.

Add 2 yolks 4 to the potatoes and mix well. Season with salt and pepper 5. Add the Parmesan cheese 6 and mix it with the rest of the mixture but you can also not add it if you don't want it.

In a bowl, beat two eggs 7 and, in a second bowl, pour the breadcrumbs 8. Knead the mixture with your hands, form small potato cylinders and pass them in the egg 9.

Pass the croquette in the breadcrumbs 10 so that it adheres to all sides and to ensure that, during cooking, the potatoes are perfectly sealed inside. Pour the seed oil into a fairly deep iron pot. When the oil has reached the correct temperature, dip the potato croquettes, no more than 3 or 4 at a time 11. When they are completely golden, put them on paper towels so that they lose excess oil 12. Continue to fry until the croquettes are over and serve hot.

Tips

If you want crispier potato croquettes, and with a better shape, make a double breading: after making the first breading, pass the croquettes in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs. Breading, in fact, is a fundamental step in order not to flake the potato croquettes during cooking. You can also make it with another method, the Viennese breading which involves three steps: flour, eggs and breadcrumbs. You can also add semolina to the flour to give even more crispness to the fried breading.

For the preparation of potato croquettes, use floury potatoes, white ones or red ones, because they are not very watery.

If you want to make slightly more dietetic croquettes, you can prepare baked potato croquettes: put a drizzle of oil on the croquettes and bake at about 200° degrees until golden brown.

If you want to prepare them gluten-free, use a gluten-free breadcrumbs.

There are three secrets to make potato croquettes that do not open and flake:

Very hot oil

The first of these is to use a very hot oil for frying, if possible extra virgin olive oil. The temperature must be around 175° degrees to be measured with a food thermometer or waiting for the oil to start making a little smoke. If the oil has not reached the right temperature, the potato croquettes could open and break.

Not too liquid dough

Another tip not to let the croquettes open when frying is to use a dough that is not too liquid but with a thick enough mass to be able to give it the shape you want. For this reason, you can put the dough in the freezer for about 45 minutes to make it freeze slightly before giving it a shape. Alternatively, you can add a couple of spoons of flour or breadcrumbs to give the potato croquettes more consistency.

Dry and fresh potatoes

At the initial stage of preparation, the potatoes must be dry and fresh. When you start to boil them, let them cool and put them to rest in the refrigerator until they are fried. Another solution may be to boil the potatoes the day before, drain them and keep them in the refrigerator.

The best seed oil to use is peanut seed oil, because it is the one with a higher smoke point, this allows you to have a homogeneous frying and not the first croquettes perfect and the last ones burnt.

Always fry the potato croquettes in plenty of oil, so that they can float, and fry a few at a time otherwise the oil temperature could drop, thus risking not to have a golden and homogeneous fry.

If you want a lighter dish, you can always choose to bake them.

How to store potato croquettes

Potato croquettes should be eaten freshly made, because otherwise they will not be very crunchy. However, you can preserve them perfectly in the refrigerator, closed in an airtight container, for 4 days.

Alternatively you can freeze them raw. When you fry them, dip them directly in the hot oil, still frozen: keep the temperature a little lower, about 150° degrees, to obtain perfect frying.