|
A croquette is a small fried roll containing mashed potatoes, minced meat, shellfish or vegetables, often encased in breadcrumbs[1]. The croquette is usually shaped into a cylinder or disk, and then deep-fried. The croquette (from the French croquer, “to eat hastily”) was a French invention that gained world-wide popularity, both as a delicacy and as a fast food.
Croquettes in various countries
Bangladesh:
Similar to the alu-tikki[2], alu-chop[3] is a common potato filled croquette served throughout Bangladesh, primarily as a snack. Rather than being entirely filled with potato, alu-chop traditionally has a meat-filled center, most often beef.
Brazil:
Croquettes[4] , primarily made from beef, are sold in parts of Brazil as German fare.
Cuba:
Cuban croquettes (known as croquetas) are usually made of ham, beef, chicken[5] , or fish. They are generally flour-based instead of using potatoes. A potato-based version is the Papa Rellena ("stuffed potato"), which is made from picadillo rolled in a layer of mashed potatoes and then deep fried.
Czech Republic:
Krokety[6] are small round balls usually made from potatoes, eggs, flour, butter, and salt that are deep fried in oil. This variety can be ordered in most restaurants as a side dish as well as bought frozen and prepared at home.
Germany:
Plain potato croquettes[7] (Kroketten)[8] are served as side dish in restaurants and available frozen in supermarkets.
Hungary:
"Krokett" is a small cylindrical croquette made similar the Czech variety: potatoes, eggs, flour, butter and touch of nutmeg and salt that are deep fried in oil. This variety can be ordered in most restaurants as a side dish as well as bought frozen. Croquette can be made with cheese too, called turokrokett[9]. .
India:
A potato-filled croquette called alu-tikki[10] is very famous in Northern India, served with a stew; mostly served as snacks at home it is also popularly sold by road-side vendors. Sometimes it is called "cutlet" and eaten just like that or a fast food variation is inside a hamburger bun (like a vegetarian burger).
Indonesia:
The kroket[11] (Dutch) made of potato and minced chicken is one of the more popular snack items in Indonesia introduced during the Dutch colonial rule.
Japan:
A relative of the croquette, known as korokke[12] ( ???? ) is a very popular fried food, widely available in supermarkets and butcher shops, as well as from specialty korokke shops. Generally patty-shaped, it is mainly made of potatoes with some other ingredients such as vegetables (e.g. onions and carrots) and maybe less than 5% meat (e.g. pork or beef). It is often served with tonkatsu (????) sauce. Cylindrically-shaped korokke are also served, which more closely resemble the French version, where seafood (prawns or crab meat) or chicken in white sauce (ragout) is cooled down to make it harden before the croquette is breaded and deep-fried. When it is served hot, the inside melts. This version is called "cream korokke" to distinguish it from the potato-based variety. It is often served with no sauce or tomato sauce. Unlike its Dutch cousin, croquettes made mainly of meat are not called korokke in Japan. They are called menchi katsu (??? ??), short for minced meat cutlets.
Mexico:
Croquettes are usually made of tuna or chicken[13][14] and potatoes.
Netherlands:
Whereas previously the dish was regarded as a French cuisine delicacy of varying meat or vegetable content, in the 1800s it started to be used to use up leftover stewed meat. After World War II, several suppliers started mass-producing croquettes[15] filled with beef. The croquette subsequently became even more popular as a fast food, a deep fried meat ragout covered in breadcrumbs. Its success as a fast food garnered its reputation as a cheap dish of dubious quality, to such an extent that Dutch urban myth relate its allegedly mysterious content to offal and butchering waste. The "kroket" is even so popular that it is sold at McDonalds. Besides the common ragout type filling, other popular fillings served in fast food restaurants are whole boiled eggs, noodles, shrimps and rice. A smaller version of the kroket, the bitterbal[16], is often served with mustard as a snack in bars and at official receptions.
Philippines:
The Filipino 'croqueta' is derived no doubt from the Spanish colonial era, but unlike the bechamel-filled croquetas in Spain, Filipino croquetas are made with mashed potatoes and chopped meat or fish, usually leftovers. Like most Spanish-influenced foods in the Philippines, croquetas ares served mainly in middle and upper class households.
Poland:
Croquettes in Poland[17] are basically made from rolled thin pancake stuffed with mushrooms, meat, cabbage, sauerkraut or varieties, covered in breadcrumbs and fried in a pan and usually served usually with clear barszcz..
Portugal:
Croquetes[18] are cylindrical, covered in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. They are usually made with white sauce and beef, sometimes with a small amount of pork, and frequently with some chouriço, black pepper, bacalhau or piri-piri to add more flavour. Seafood, fish and vegetarian (potato) croquetes are also eaten in Portugal, but less often.
Russia:
The widespread ???????[19] (from French cotelette) is made of minced meat (beef or pork or mixture of both), bread, eggs, white onions, salt and spices, shaped as a meat patty and pan fried. Bread is added in amount up to 25% of meat, adding softness to the final product and also making it cheaper to produce. Another popular variation similar to French cotelettes de volaille is Chicken Kiev, made from boned chicken breast pounded and rolled around cold unsalted butter, then breaded and fried.
Spain:
Croquettes[20], especially filled with jamón or chicken, are also a typical tapas dish. Unfilled bechamel are also consumed in parts of Spain.
United Kingdom:
Plain potato croquettes[21] are available frozen[22] or refrigerated in most supermarkets.
United States:
In Tampa, Florida, there is a type of croquette made with seasoned crab meat that is traditionally breaded with stale Cuban bread. Locally, this is known as a deviled crab (croqueta de jaiba).[23]
A traditional New England preparation uses leftover holiday ham, usually of the maple-cured variety.
See also
References
| 
