Recommendations · Wine and food

Serrano ham croquettes with Vilarnau Cava Brut Reserva

Small croquettes with serrano ham and a thick milk roux, deep-fried until they crackle. Cava comes from the same country and has the carbonation that gets the better of frying fat.

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Bottle of Vilarnau Cava Brut Reserva, wine

From the shelf

The bottle

Vilarnau Cava Brut Reserva comes from Spain and is made from macabeo, parellada and xarel-lo. The wine is 11.5 percent ABV. On the nose lemon, lime, grapefruit and green apple, with a hint of aniseed, toast and honey. The mousse is soft, the structure slightly tight and the finish fruity and long.

Order in the online shopVilarnau Cava Brut Reserva

The combination

Why this works together

A croquette is fatty inside and fatty outside, and salty from the ham. Carbonation scours over the tongue and takes that fat with it, so the mouth is clean again between two bites. The acidity of the cava helps on top of that. And the salt of the serrano ham softens the slight bitterness in the finish, so that the wine next to the plate seems fuller than it is on its own.

At the table

The dish

  • Before 4 people
  • Ready in 45 minutes, plus 4 hours setting
  • Type bar snack

What you need

  • 120 grams serrano ham, thinly sliced
  • 90 grams of butter
  • 110 grams of flour for the roux
  • 600 millilitres whole milk
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 quarter teaspoon of nutmeg
  • 100 grams of flour for breading
  • 2 eggs
  • 150 grams of breadcrumbs
  • 1 litre sunflower oil for frying
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to make it

  1. Chop the onion very finely. Cut the serrano ham into small pieces.
  2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan and sweat the onion for eight minutes over low heat, until soft but not coloured.
  3. Stir in the 110 grams of flour and cook it for two minutes, stirring, until a smooth paste forms.
  4. Pour in the milk in small splashes and whisk after each splash until smooth. This takes a while; rushing gives lumps.
  5. Let the mixture simmer on low heat for ten minutes until it is so thick that the spoon stands upright in it. Stir constantly, because it burns easily.
  6. Stir in the ham and season with nutmeg, pepper and very little salt; the ham is already salty.
  7. Pour the mixture into a greased dish, cover with cling film pressed against the top and leave to set in the fridge for at least four hours.
  8. With wet hands roll balls or sticks of about three centimetres. Dip them in the flour, then in the beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs.
  9. Heat the oil to 180 degrees. Deep-fry the croquettes in small portions for three minutes until deep golden brown. Let them drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.

In the glass

Serving

Pour the cava at 7 to 8 degrees into a tulip-shaped glass and not into a flat coupe glass; in a narrow glass the mousse stays intact longer. Letting it breathe is not an issue with sparkling wine: pour it straight from the cooler.

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