Traditional cod croquettes, from the Marchioness of Parabere

The Marquise de Parabere says in her well-known book Culinary Encyclopedia, the Complete Kitchen , that croquettes are a delicacy generally appreciated by everyone. How right she is! And today we bring you her recipe for making homemade cod croquettes, traditional, authentic and very tasty.

One of the advantages of croquettes is that you can use leftover meat, poultry and fish from other preparations, thus becoming an eminently leftover recipe. But personally, when it comes to cod, I highly recommend using quality cod. You will notice this in the result of the flavour of the croquettes, without a doubt.

Let's go with her recipe, I hope you find it as practical as she is: the quantities are not exact, because the croquettes are something that you really do by eye and it will depend on the size of the pieces of meat or fish you have in front of you to make more or less.

In any case, practice makes perfect, and in just a few croquettes you will be a master of this delicacy. Because this inexpensive recipe is anything but complicated.

To form the croquettes, discover the croquette tongs , or if you make croquettes in quantity or on a regular basis, you have to see the Millecroquettes

Ingredients

(Quantities are not indicated, as they are made in bulk)

• A fat piece of cod
• Oil
• Onion
• A clove of garlic
• Salt and pepper
• Milk
• 2 yolks
• Breadcrumbs and beaten egg for coating

Preparation

1. Put the cod in a bowl of warm water to desalt. Dry it with a clean cloth, squeezing it with your hands to extract the water.
2. In a frying pan, add some oil and add a little finely chopped onion and a clove of garlic. Before they turn brown, add the cod and fry well, stirring constantly so that it doesn't burn.
3. Add chopped parsley and a little flour (about a spoon, depending on the amount of cod you put in).
4. Cook the flour a little, stirring constantly, and add milk, so that everything is well coated (and there is extra liquid...).
5. Add salt and pepper at the same time and leave on the heat to reduce and make everything well bound and thick. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
6. Add 2 egg yolks (more if you have made a large quantity) and return to the heat. Cook for one minute.
7. To know that the dough is ready, you should see that when you mix it, it falls in flakes (the dough separates into pieces, it does not fall all at once). If this does not happen, it needs to reduce even more and you should keep it on the heat for a few more minutes.
8. When the dough is ready (it falls into flakes), remove it from the heat, transfer the dough to a bowl and let it cool.
9. Once the dough is cold, form the croquettes. Tools such as croquette tongs will be very helpful, or if you make croquettes in large quantities or on a regular basis, you should know about the Millecroquettes or the De Buyer gun .
10. Once the croquettes are formed, coat them in breadcrumbs, then in beaten egg and then in breadcrumbs again, and fry them in a deep fryer with a basket in plenty of very hot oil.
11. To keep their shape, use a skimmer to remove them (you can easily deform them with tongs), and you can also drain the oil off them well.

WMF fine mesh skimmer and De Buyer deep fryer basket

Grades

• It is ideal to fry in an iron pan or iron fryer, because iron gets very hot, and it will help you achieve the high temperature you require in the oil (and it is a 100% natural pan, free of non-stick coatings that do not benefit from high heat).
• A fryer with a basket will help you remove and drain the croquettes without any manipulation, thus avoiding them from deforming and keeping them nice. You can see the cast iron fryers here , but if you don't have one we recommend that you don't use tongs, because you will easily squeeze the croquettes: use a skimmer, with which you can carefully pick them up to remove them from the oil and drain them easily too. You will see the skimmers at the end of this section .
• The book The Complete Encyclopedia of the Marquise of Parabere is a gem that deserves the name and all the adjectives it has earned. It is one of those few cookbooks considered gastronomic "bibles"; I strongly encourage you to check it out here .