Kroketten & bitter balls

This abomination happened at some point, though the words 'croissantje kroket' should never again be uttered by anyone.

This is such a Dutch staple! Like potato croquettes, but make it meat. Also, don't make the mistake of asking for croquettes in France, or you'll be served dog food...

I never used to be the biggest fan of these deep-fried meat sticks when it came to store-bought kroketten, but when my husband made this version in a country where they didn't sell them, I was an immediate convert. Well, you know, after the two days it took to make them... Try them out with wholegrain mustard and see what you think!

You’re going to need a butcher for this, though, as marrow bones aren’t the type of thing you’d easily find in the supermarket (not around where I live, anyway). Skip these if you want, but honestly, they’re not that expensive. Same thing with the shin. You can use osso bucco pieces for this, but you’ll probably pay more just for the name. If you go for just the meat, try to find the fattiest bits, because you want this snack to be nice and juicy. I mean, it’s a fried meat stick; you don’t want to eat this on a diet (or eat a lot of it if you secretly are on one).

Ingredients: 

For the broth:

• 1 l / 4 cups water
• 250-300 g / 9-10 oz beef shin, including the bone
• 2 marrow bones
• 500 g / 17.5 oz diced beef
• 50 g /1.75 oz carrot
• 50 g /1.75 oz onion
• 50 g /1.75 oz leek
• 50 g /1.75 oz celery (leaves and stalks)
• 3 sprigs of parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 5 peppercorns
• 1 clove
• 1 piece of mace
• 6 g / 1 tsp salt
• 6 g / 2 tsp ground white pepper

For the ragout:

• 4 sheet of gelatine or 6 g / 1.5 tsp powder
• 60 g / 0.5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 60 g / 0.5 cup flour
• The broth
• The meat
• Salt, pepper & nutmeg to taste, but be generous, as fried food loses some of its taste
  

For the kroket:

• breadcrumbs
• fine breadcrumbs
• 3 eggs

Steps:

1. Cut the vegetables into chunks. Add everything for the broth to a big pot and bring to the boil. If scum develops, the thing to do is scoop it off as best you can, but if you’re lazy like me, you don’t bother (honestly, I’ve never noticed a difference).
2. Cover and leave to simmer for 4-6 hours. And here you thought you were getting a quick, fried snack.
3. After all that time, you should have a lovely, meaty broth, but unfortunately, you now get to pick it apart. Underneath that layer of fat is a mess of meat, bone and veggies, and we want to make that into a pile of meat, a bowl of liquid, and a pile of veggies that we’re not going to use in this recipe. Do let me know if you have a good way of using those, because I hate to waste them, but overcooked veg isn’t the most appetising…
4. Obviously, we don’t want the bones any more, but scrape out any leftover marrow, because it’s yum.
5. Separate the meat by running 2 forks through it repeatedly.
6. Once the broth has cooled down, you can easily remove some of the fat or even all of the fat if you so desire (again, you might want to keep some, though, just because of all that juicy flavour).

Now for the ragout:

1.  If you’re using gelatine sheets, soak them in cold water until they are soft.
2. Melt the butter in a pan, add flour. Mix and let cook for a minute or so.
3. Stir in the broth bit by bit. As always with a roux, it’s going to spread out when you add the liquid and then firm up again until you’ve added it all and you should have a sauce-like consistency.
4. As soon as you have bubbles, your roux is ready.
5. Add the meat.
6. Add your generous helping of salt, pepper and nutmeg.
7. Take the pot off the heat and add the gelatine.
8. Let the mixture cool down and once it's cool, put in the fridge overnight.

And finally, the actual making of the things:

1. Prepare 3 surfaces on which you can roll your meat into a thick stick: one with fine breadcrumbs, a large plate or shallow dish with the beaten eggs, and finally a surface covered in larger breadcrumbs.
2. Scoop out a ball of 80-90 g / about 3 oz ragout with your hand. Yes, it's gooey and squishy and all those disgusting things you used to love when you were a toddler. Just channel your inner child!
3. Dump your meat in the fine breadcrumbs and roll until it has this shape (excuse the unprofessional photos, I'm not Julie, you know): 
   
   Or, if you feel more like a snack-sized fried meat thing, try what we call bitterballen:
   
   
   Both the sticks (kroketten) and the balls (bitterballen) should be about 4 cm / 1.5 inch in diameter
4. Obviously, those are the final product. You're only at the first bread crumb stage. Now roll your meat in the egg.
5. And then roll it in the coarser breadcrumbs. Tadaa! Almost there.
6. Now, if you've made the whole thing, you're going to end up with too many kroketten to eat in one sitting. so this is when you freeze them.
7. But not all, because you'll want to try if they're any good, right? So fry! Fry like the wind! 5 minutes at 185°C / 365°F, or frozen for 8 minutes at 175°C / 350°F. Slightly less for the balls, but just keep an eye on them and take them out when they look like the above.
8. Pair with mustard! I like wholegrain, but Dijon if you must.