Croquette/ Kroket

Many variations of croquette across the board. Just in our household alone, we are accustomed with three different ones. According to granny, these croquettes, and many other snack goodies were brought/ introduced to Indonesia during the ruling of the Dutch colonial. Grandmas, of both sides have all these hand written cookbooks (all of which my mom keep and eventually will be mine!!!) , yellowed and brittled, half of them have titles that neither Indonesian nor English. Some funny ingredients that I believe will need extra hunting trip to speciality store. One of these days, I will.

As far as my knowledge, this style of kroket (that I like most) is pretty similar to bitterballen, just different shapes, one is shaped like small balls, the other one is cylinder. It's roux based with minced meat. Deep fried (yummmm!!) and we usually eat these by dunking it to hot sauce. But in reality what savory snack is there that we don't dunk into or slather with hot sauce? Er..almost everything!! :)

What:
- 100 gr flour
- 250 gr combination of chicken and shrimp (we have always used the combination of two, but it's not mandatory, all chicken is fine)
- 2 carrots, very finely shredded
- 75 gr unsalted butter
- 200 ml milk
- 1 egg (separate the yolk and white)
- 6 shallots, slice super thinly
- 2 green onions, finely chopped
- pinch of nutmeg
- salt and pepper

How:
- Heat butter in wok, toss in shallots and fry until soft. Note: It is 'lots' of butter (Paula Deen would just love it), but with it being roux based, well..butter it is.
- Toss in ground chicken and shrimps, stir and slightly 'mashed' with wooden spoon to prevent lumping. Toss in carrots, green onions, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir and mix thoroughly.
- Pour in milk and let it comes to boil. Then, scoop in flour gradually. Turn the heat to low. Cook for few minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool.
- Once batter/ dough is cool to touch, mix in the 1 egg yolk. Stir thoroughly.
- Form dough to oblong shape. First, dip to eggwhite and then roll to breadcrumbs. Then deepfry them until golden brown.
Note: this snack can be made few days ahead, keep in fridge and just reheat in conventional oven/ toaster oven.