On spanish croquetas......

    Croquetas are a typical spanish tapas dish made of a thick béchamel usually containing ground pieces of serrano ham although different variations containing chicken, fish, and meat are also very common. The béchamel and protein mixture are coated in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs and then deep fried. Like  a lot of spanish dishes the croqueta was born out of necessity; when Spain was suffering one of many periods of hunger, resourceful cooks had to come up with ideas for dishes with the little they had available. In this case flour, milk, breadcrumbs, and scraps of ham are constructed together with a pleasing outcome. Many variations of the croqueta exist throughout central and south america, some using potato as the base instead of béchamel.
    Growing up in Miami you could find cuban style ham croquetas in any corner cafe. Anyone who went to middle school with me would remember the little cafe a block away from our school. They would sell pan con croquette which was two thick slices of cuban toast (similar to french baguette) slather in margarin and toasted in a panini press with two croquets smashed in between. I remember they would sell it for $1.25, this was a great alternative to our regular school cafeteria breakfast which wasn't the best to say the least. I decided to recreate these croquetas that I grew up with as a special for the restaurant. Traditionally they are cylinder in shape but I rolled them into little balls. I served them with a pickled pepper aioli sprinkled with some espelette over the top. Its funny how food has the power to bring back so many memories. I haven't had a ham croqueta since I moved up to New York and biting into these béchamel and ham morsels took me right back to when I was a little kid. Here are some pictures of the special.