Cheese and Vegetable Croquette

A group of friends from church were visiting us for the annual Christmas carols and I had no clue what to serve. I wanted to serve some warm bite-sized appetizers would be both delicious as well as convenient. Initially I was leaning towards Stuffed Mushrooms but my husband strongly discouraged that option since not many folks are fans of mushrooms and moreover, I had no idea how the stuffed mushrooms might behave on reheating. Therefore that plan was duly shunned but after some pondering and brainstorming we came up with the mutually acceptable idea of making Croquettes which turned out to be a nice success, as both the adults and the kids seemed to enjoy them!! 

A Croquette is a small, fried food roll with its main ingredients usually being mashed potatoes or béchamel in Spain, and/or ground meat (veal, beef, chicken, or turkey), shellfish, fish, vegetables with soaked white bread, egg, onion, spices and herbs, wine, milk, beer or any of the above combinations often encased in breadcrumbs.The Croquette is usually shaped into a cylinder or disk, and then deep-fried. The Croquette (from the French word croquer, "to crunch") gained worldwide popularity, both as a delicacy and as a fast food.

Makes 50

Ingredients 
1 - Onion,Finely chopped
8 cloves - Garlic, finely chopped
6 stalks - Spring Onions/ Scallions
1 -Red bell pepper/ Red Capsicum
1 - Carrot , Shredded
8 - Mushrooms, chopped
4 - Potato
2 1/2 Cup - Cheese, grated (I used a combination of Mozzarella, Pepper jack, Parmesan)
Salt
1 Tsp - Italian Seasoning or 1 Tsp - Oregano
Oil 

Coating the Croquettes 
3 slices - Bread or Bread crumbs
1- Egg
Pepper as per taste
Salt
Oil

Directions 

• Boil 4 potatoes in a pressure cooker. Once cooled, peel the skin off, chop them coarsely and keep aside. 
• Heat some oil in a heavy bottom pan and add the garlic and onions and saute until the onions are translucent. 
• Add the  Spring Onions/ Scallions, Red bell pepper/ Red Capsicum, Carrot and Mushrooms. Saute until the vegetables are cooked. 
• Add the boiled potatoes and mix well. 
• Season with salt and pepper 
• Take off the heat, add the cheese and mix well. Season with salt and pepper if necessary. 
• Once this mixture cools, take a small amount of this mixture and make 2.5 inch cylindrical shaped croquettes. 
• Crack an egg into a bowl and season with salt and pepper and whisk well.  
• Take the 3 slices of bread and pulse it in a food processor to make bread crumbs. 
• Transfer the bread crumbs into a bowl and keep it aside 
• Take each Croquette and dip it in the egg and coat it with the bread crumbs. 
• Heat the oil in a frying pan.  The oil should be very hot while frying the croquettes otherwise they might break and the cheese might ooze out. Fry 3-4 croquettes at a time. Avoid over crowding.  
• Serve hot with ketchup. 

Notes and Tips 

• If you want to avoid eggs, you can make an all-purpose flour and water mixture to coat your Croquettes before breading them. 
• The oil should be hot while frying the croquettes otherwise they might break and the cheese might ooze out. 
• You can make this ahead of time and reheat in the oven/ toaster oven just before serving.