Garnalenkroketten (Dutch Shrimp Croquettes)

The croquette is a very typical dutch snack, we eat about 18 croquettes per person per year. Although those are mainly beef croquettes, this version with shrimps is more popular in Belgium. The principle is very simple: you make a roux and add cooked shrimp (or meat or whatever). You add gelatin as a trick to help the roux get firm in the fridge, you won’t taste it in the finished product. Mold croquettes in your hands, dust with cornflour, roll in egg-white and cover with breadcrumbs, deep-fry and that’s it! In this recipe it’s really worthwhile to use the typically dutch brown shrimp.

INGREDIENTS
4 gram gelatin sheets
90 gram butter
120 gram flour
300 gram chicken stock
500 gram peeled brown shrimp
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of garlic powder
salt
pepper

panko breadcrumbs
egg-white
oil for deep-frying

MAKING THE ROUX
Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water for about 5 minutes.
Slowly melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
When butter has melted, add all flour at once.
Stir with a rubber spatula.
(using a whisk would release the starch, making it sweet)
Heat the mixture for about 3 minutes or until you feel the rawness of the flour is gone. This is an important step, if you don’t cook it enough the croquette will taste of flour, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Gradually add the (cold) stock, stir and bring to the boil.
(do stir well, it will release gluten for optimal “binding”)
Squeeze the soaked gelatin and stir into the mixture.
Add cayenne, garlic powder, salt and pepper and let the mixture cool a little.
Then carefully mix in the shrimp. Don’t stir too much now.
Taste the mixture and add salt, pepper, etc if needed.
Line a baking tray with cling-foil, add the mixture in a layer of about 3 cm thick, cover with clingfilm (clingfilm touching the mixture), let it cool (as quickly as possible) and transfer to your fridge. Ideally, you let the mixture rest for a day to let the flavors “mix and marry”.

MAKING THE CROQUETTES
Cut the mixture already in the shape of croquettes. Pick up the now square croquettes one by one and mold in your hands into a nice, round croquettes.
Dust them with (corn)flour.
Roll in beaten egg-white.
Roll in breadcrumbs.
Deep-fry for about 2-3 minutes at 180°C.
(or about 5 minutes when frozen)

RECIPE SOURCE
Het Groot Culinair Croquetten Kookboek van Edwin Kats

NOTES
(mainly for my own reference)

• I used bapao flour, which is low in gluten. I’m not even sure if it’s “better or worse” to use, normally you’d use all purpose flour.
• I was short on stock, so I used some dry white wine too. (about 100ml?)
• I added 2 teaspoons of freeze dried yuzu and some chopped parsley. Normally you’d just squeeze some lemonjuice over he shrimps.
• I used panko, Japanese breadcrumbs. And I coated the croquettes twice, so adding another step of rolling in eggwhite and panko again.
• I froze them after I dusted them in cornflour. You could also freeze them including the panko, but you get a much nice result when you roll them in panko just before deepfrying.

VARIATIONS
with cheese, left-over “man & wife tongue” or braised beef: