Croquetas are little fried balls of bechamel containing something like jamón, chicken, bacalao, cheese and nuts, or in this case, squid with its ink. Almost every little café serves them as a tapa, but usually not the squid ink variety. This is my favorite flavor: the ink gives it a rich "earthiness" (which seems like the wrong word for a sea creature). The proteins are usually diced very small, to provide some texture without poking through the crunchy crust.
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| Croquetas topped with "allioli rapidísimo" |
Sepia and Choco refer to the same species (cuttlefish), while Calamar (squid) is a different beast; both work fine. Many recipes add onions, cooked eggs, wine, nutmeg, etc, but I think those additions would be distracting. This video recipe is quite detailed, but he's using squid already cooked in its ink. Another video makes the bechamel with oil (no butter), and that seems very Spanish to me, I'll do that too. We get squid and separate frozen packets of ink (4 for 0,69€), and we'll cook the squid then its ink in the bechamel's oil. The bechamel is equal parts by weight of fat (oil, butter, or a mix) and flour. The ratio of milk to fat+oil is about 2.5-2.8. I used Squid, an amount I had on hand.
These are easy enough to make, although the shaping/coating can be a little fussy so having a friend speeds the process.
One of my source recipes made an "allioli rapidísimo" which I made, and it turned out well, so I've written that up separately.
Makes about 24, and a tapa-sized serving is probably 3 per person. After cooking and cooling, extras freeze and reheat surprisingly well, baked.
100 g Olive Oil (doesn't have to be Extra Virgin)
150 g Sepia/Calamar, cleaned, body and tentacles, fine dice
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 packets Squid Ink ("tinta"
)100 g Flour 500 ml Milk, whole
to taste Salt
Flour
Egg, beaten
Panko Bread Crumbs
Heat the Oil in a medium sized pan.
Add the Squid and Garlic and cook a few minutes until the garlic is barely golden.
Add the Ink and stir to distribute well.
Add the Flour, and mix thoroughly; cook 5 minutes to ensure there's no raw flour taste.
Add half the Milk to the Squid/Flour mixture, stir until it comes together;
add the rest of the Milk and repeat.
Cook to thicken and intensify, stirring continuously until you have a sauce thicker than cream, perhaps yoghurt-like: you want a stiff mixture when it's cool so you can form them.
Put in a tub, cover tightly with film, cool, then refrigerate; it should be quite stiff.
You can use this time to make an
allioli if you like.
For shaping and coating, it helps to have a friend: one scoops, shapes, and coats in Flour, the other then coats in Egg and Panko.
Set out separate bowls of Flour, beaten Egg, and Panko.
Scoop out a bit and make a bite size ball or cork-like shape; a #30
disher/scoop can help here.
Drop in the Flour, transfer to Egg and coat, then to Panko to cover; this can get messy.
Repeat until all the Squid Bechamel is used.
I like to chill these before frying but it's probably not necessary.
Fry in batches in hot oil, about 190C/375F, until golden all around;
if they soften and leak the filling, remove immediately.
Drain on a paper towel lined plate.
Serve with an
allioli or other sauce.
Eat promptly, while hot.
How it turned out, next time...
The texture was good, creamy rather than liquid or stiff. The filling didn't have enough fishy/squiddy flavor, and wasn't as dramatically black as I wanted. The squid shrank a lot when cooking and was not very apparent in the bite.
Next time, bump up the squid to 200-300 g. Cut it into larger pieces, pea sized, since it shrinks so much. Double the ink to 4 packets.
Consider boosting flavor by adding a seafood stock to the bechamel and cooking it down to intensify.
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