The best fried food ever….Croquetas!

              My Sister Meagan, my bestest Lizi and I went on a cross-country road trip this past month (about 3 years after graduating from higher education we have made the cliché journey to extend our knowledge of our country, or, in our case, knowledge of national parks, places to eat, places to drink and lots of bookstores). There were some pretty fantastical, insane, gorge places we planned to spend serious time in. Boise, Idaho was not one of them. This was simply a mid way point from Cali to Yellowstone. Little did we know how awesome Boise would be. The city was wonderful and clean and small yet big, old and young. There were statues of Lincoln, bikes, fountains, green belts and an amazing Basque district.

Idaho State House

         The Basque community hails from a farm rich area between France and Spain. This culture is traditionally made up of farmers and sheepherders, thus the abundance of lamb on most menus. They also have the unique history of females holding much political and cultural power and decision making, as historically opposed to their neighbors (yes!).

         We went to Bar Gernika, as it was directly across the street from the hotel. We would later learn that this was our dear friend’s Uncle’s bar! This small bar right at the start of the district served amazing Basque food.  We ordered a variety of lamb and sausage sandwiches and an appetizer of croquetas, which none of us had ever had.

         This was the best fried food I had ever had and I’m pretty sure Lizi’s life changed that day and the world is now rose colored. It tasted like fried creamy mashed potatoes…i.e. heaven. You bite into a crusty shell and your mouth is filled with silky, salty, velvety insanity. We made plans to get these as drunken food later on in the night…a very serious plan.

         Alas, our late night state kept us out past croquetas hours…leaving us to demand steak burritos (we think) from a stumbled upon taco truck. As we sat in the middle of a roadway greenery, we wondered aloud if the orgasmic balls of fried artery cloggers would pass through our lips again. We also learned yelling “cabsarehere” will hail you pissed off cabs and ensure you have no self-respect in the morning. While eating breakfast in bed accompanied by the  Women’s World Cup, Lizi and I vowed to replicate croquetas upon our return to Vermont. 

Room Service

         Well, below is our first attempt. Things we agreed upon were leaving out onions and adding less chicken and no broth. We felt that the chicken taste was a little over powering compared to the ones we had at Gernika. I have put the developed recipe we will use from now on, as opposed to what we did use.

Ingredients:

Croquetas:

2 cups milk

Salt

1 stick butter

1 cup flour

1 ¼ lb chicken ground up (We used a food processor and ground up a whole rotisserie chicken (no bone). This was extremely disgusting and phallic looking and our advice is not to taste or smell the playdough chicken. )

Perve Chicken

Breading:

2 eggs

2 cups milk

1/8 tsp salt

Panko Bread Crumbs

Directions:

Croqueta Batter: 
In a heavy pot, heat the milk and stock on the stove and then add pepper, and salt. In a separate heavy pot melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes. Pour in the hot milk and stir until thickened and smooth. Fold in the chicken meat and allow to cool.
 Once cool, you will have a moldable perve looking dough.

Breading Croquetas: 
Shape 3oz portions of croquette batter in the shape of a ball and place on a tray lined with waxed paper. Next make an egg wash from the eggs, milk and salt. Dip the croquettes in the egg wash then finish breading by dipping the croquettes into the panko crumbs, covering completely.

Frying Croquetas:  In a large pot or deep fryer heat vegetable oil to 350 degrees. Drop Croquetas in groups of 5 and fry for 8 minutes. Remove, drain on paper towel and feast!

YES!