Cheese Croquettes

Scuse the photo quality :-/

Would you believe I have never made these before and Belgium is undoubtedly the land of croquettes. Potato, cheese, brown shrimp, ham.

Only once did I make potato croquettes and that was eons ago, but last summer I got very excited about beetroot croquettes that I saw here , I had a go and they were the bees knees. YumYum.

But now I was stuck with loads of cheese - camembert style and goats cheese - from christmas.  Couldn't stand the smell anymore and I didn't feel like eating cheese morning, noon and night, so what better way to use all the cheese than in croquetes.  I made 60 of the little blighters, they freeze well and are gorgeous.

Ingredients (for 15 to 20 croquettes)

• 100 grs butter
• 150 grs flour
• 500 ml milk
• 1 tsp English mustard
• 250 gr cheese (if using Camembert, remove the white skin as it doesn't melt)
• 4 eggs
• extra flour for coating
• breadcrumbs
• Salt, black pepper, nutmeg

Preparation

• Make a thick bechamel sauce with the butter, flour and milk. Stirring all the while.
• Add the mustard
• Separate the eggs, add the yolks to the sauce and let it come to the boil again, stirring. Keep the whites for coating the croquettes afterwards.
• Add the cheese but don't let it come to boiling point anymore. If using hard cheeses, they need to be grated before you add them.  Stir until the cheese has melted into the sauce.
• Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
• Tip the sauce onto a floured tray and spread out eavenly.
• Store away in the fridge for a couple of hours
• Cut the paste into 4x4 cm squares.
• First coat them in flour, then into the beaten egg whites, and lastly cover with breadcrumbs.
• Put them on a clean tray next to each other.
• Another cooling off period will benefit the end result. I did put them straight into the freezer.
• Heat up about a cm of sunflower oil into a deep-ish pan. Or you can use a deep fat fryer - 170°C
• Fry the croquettes in batches (depending on how many you have)until they are golden brown on both sides (you might have to turn them over halfway through the cooking proces, obviously)
• When they are done, scoop them out of the oil and drain on kitchen paper. 
• Ready to be served with salad, dipping sauce of your choosing.

It is not my favourite dish to make, but let me tell you they were worth the effort.

Enjoy.

Patricia xxx...x