Krokiety Kartoflane – Potato Croquettes

This is another way my mother had of using boiled potatoes – I do not remember her boiling the potatoes especially for these – she would make them with leftover boiled potatoes. (Not that she did not know how many to potatoes to cook for a meal – she would often cook more so she had some for a different use the next day.)

I have given approximate weights below – once you have made them you will know what to expect  – I do not think my mother ever weighed out the quantities – just went by eye and consistency.

Ingredients

This will make around 12 croquettes

• 500g of starchy potatoes – such as King Edward or Maris Piper
• 20g of melted butter
• 1  beaten egg
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of plain flour
• Breadcrumbs
• Vegetable oil such as sunflower for shallow frying

Method

• Mash the boiled,cold potatoes so that they are smooth and without lumps.
• Add the slightly cooled, melted butter and the beaten egg and mix together.
• Add the flour and mix to a soft dough – not too much flour  as a soft dough gives a more fluffy croquette.

Divide the dough into 4 manageable pieces and roll out into a long sausage shape and divide them into 3. You are aiming for equal sizes of around 3cm deep and 4cm wide by 10cm long.

Shallow fry the croquettes in hot vegetable oil in a frying pan, turning them over so that both sides are golden and crispy.

Potato Croquettes – A Variation

The above is how my mother made these croquettes, whilst looking through my Polish cookery books I came across the following variation also which I tried out & I liked these as well.

Method – as above – but instead of just melted butter, fry till golden, half a finely chopped onion in 20 -30g of butter.

Leave this to cool before adding it to the potato mixture.