Italian Potato Croquette

Hub was kinda surprise when I asked him to pick up a packet of potatoes last weekend from the grocery store. I had in the past told him that I am banning potato from my diet after experiencing weight gain right after a potato dinner! I do love potatoes, in many ways. I grew up eating lots of fries during Mcdonalds take out (perhaps it is the reason why I was so round). I also love them stewed in chinese dishes and curries or having them baked, in soups and whatever method you can think of. To me, you will not go wrong with a potato in any dish because it absorbs every flavour you cook them with, or even good on its own.

This dish was inspired by David Rocco´s Dolce Vita. Do you still remember him? He is the grinny canadian guy whom leaved for Italy with his cute wife to shot this wonderful, cool cooking program while touring around the country. Watching the program really does make me wanna take the first train connection to the South, really ... and bask in the mediterranean sun, sea and all. Back to his program, he made this wonderful italian style croquette which looked so tempting that I just had to put aside my i-do-not-touch-potato-attitute.

And I had no regrets at all for it turned out really, really yummy ... nothing like the ones we get from frozen department or other homemade ones I´d tried. I think the parmesan cheese and parsley were really a wonderful touch to this simple croquette and I do urge you to try! The other thing that really stood out was how fresh the potato taste were and its because I was fortunate to have a pack of the 1st german potato harvest for this year with us. The only thing I find difficult was frying them. I did not want to use so much oil frying them and than having to figure what to do with the reused oil - hence only pouring a cup in the wok to get it sizzling. And naturally, there were some hit and miss part, some parts browned and some parts still light .. but I figured, this is how a homemade potato croquette should look like!

So, here´s the recipe

• 6 large potatoes, peeled, slice to small pieces and cooked them in a pot of water for 20 minutes (or until it is fully cooked)
• When its fully cooked, set aside to cool.
• Mash the potatoes to almost fine texture, leaving a tiny winy bit of pieces and place in salt and pepper to taste, a handful of italian parsley, parmesan cheese shaves and an egg to bind them all together. Mix the mixture with your hand.
• Divide them into portions you desire and shape them into the oblong shape as shown. If you like them sinful, you can even slide in the middle a slice of mozarella before closing the croquette together. This is the original recipe, but since I did not have mozarella at hand, I had to skip this out.
• At this time, bring your wok out and heat them up with oil. Prepare your kitchen towels for draining.
• Drop them croquette into egg yolk mixture and coat them thoroughly with breadcrumbs. Shape the croquette one more time if needed as it tends to get out of shape quickly.
• In goes the croquette for frying, roughly about 2 minutes each side or until it is golden in colour. Done.

Serve them while its hot. While my hub love to eat them as it is, I simply love them with a kick from Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce! Yum!