Preparing the bechamel, shaping them, coating them, frying them... Cooking croquettes can be a laborious task, but there are some tricks that help speed up the process. Karlos Arguiñano, one of the chefs most familiar with traditional recipes, has explained in Open Kitchen (Antena 3) a simple and effective method to achieve this.
While preparing some chistorra croquettes, the cook took time to tell it: "I'm going to explain how to make croquettes very quickly at home, without having to make them one by one," he explained, revealing his trick below. Once the dough is ready, he says that the only thing you have to do is shape it into a churro and sprinkle flour. When we have stretched it well, we cut it into pieces of the same size that are not very large. The procedure is clear in this video.
The next step is to round the pieces that we have obtained from the dough, as long as we want them to be round. If we prefer them with the traditional croquette shape, we must shape them towards the sides. Following this advice we will go faster than shaping each croquette separately. Then all you have to do is cover them with the egg, coat them and fry them. Ready!
To get perfect croquettes, it is also important to take care of the selection of the ingredients, which must be of the best possible quality. As explained in this report, letting the dough rest and choosing the right oil for frying is another key: it should be olive oil, but mild, so the flavor of our croquettes will not be masked.
Before putting them in the pan we must make sure that the oil is abundant (the croquettes must be submerged) and that it is very hot, and once fried, they must be placed on absorbent paper to avoid excess fat.
A few weeks ago, Karlos Arguiñano also explained how to cook some potatoes in just four minutes. The secret is to wrap them in plastic wrap and cook them in the microwave. You can read the full trick here.
Another method of the Gipuzkoan chef that is wasteful is to clean squid at full speed, which you can also consult at this link.
