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Ham Croquettes
2 cups mashed potatoes 1 tablespoon butter or other fat 3 egg-yolks Cayenne 1 cup cooked ham Egg and crums Mix potato, butter or other fat, yolks of two eggs and cayenne, beat until smooth, then set to cool. Chop the ham, mix with the other yolk, set on the stove for a moment, then turn out to cool. When thoroughly cool, take a tablespoon of the potato mixture, make a hole in it, put a large teaspoon of the chopped ham inside, close the hole and shape in a ball. Dip in flour, then in egg, roll in crums, and fry in deep fat.
A leftovers dish built on stiff mashed potato wrapped around chopped ham. The technique is straightforward; the failures all come from moisture and temperature.
- Cool it thoroughlyThe instruction to cool both mixtures completely is the hinge. Warm potato will not hold a seam, and a croquette that opens in the fat empties itself and spatters. An hour in the refrigerator, uncovered, is better than the counter.
- Dry mashed potatoUse potato mashed without milk or cream, or with very little. Modern mashed potato is generally looser than what this book assumed, and a wet mixture cannot be shaped or breaded.
- The three yolksTwo yolks go into the potato, the third into the chopped ham. Nothing calls for the whites, so keep them for the breading or another use.
- "Set on the stove for a moment"The ham and yolk want only enough heat to thicken the yolk into a binder, half a minute over low heat with stirring. Cooked further, the yolk scrambles and the filling turns grainy.
- CrumsPeriod spelling of crumbs. Dry fine breadcrumbs, not fresh, and not the coarse panko sort, which will not seal a seam as tightly.
- Deep fat375F. Lower and the potato soaks; higher and the crumb colours before the centre is hot. Fry in small batches so the temperature holds, two to three minutes to a deep brown.
- HamAny cooked ham, chopped fine rather than diced, so it packs into a compact core. Deli ham works but is wetter and saltier than a leftover baked ham; taste before adding cayenne.
- YieldAbout thirty croquettes, since two cups of mashed potato is roughly thirty-two tablespoons and each croquette takes a tablespoon; the cup of ham divides out at about a large teaspoon apiece.