Cauliflower and Cheese Croquettes

I was inspired to make these decadent crunchy bites because I had a dish of cauliflower and broccoli cheese left over after testing Jamie Oliver’s recipe. The cauliflower still maintains some of its texture so works perfectly when rolled into these croquette balls. A tasty little dip on the side finishes the dish off.

I have discovered that if you add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce to mayo it gives it a fantastic flavour. So I did just that with a low-fat store-bought mayonnaise, added a few drops of lemon juice too and a pinch of chopped parsley. Quite tasty. You could go the whole hog and make your own mayonnaise, which is very easy and I love to do, but you need to have a lot of people to feed as it makes a lot. Aioli is also stunning and I wrote about how to make it and ways to flavour it here. A variety of flavours would work well with these cauliflower cheese croquettes. Chipotle, herbs or even something quite zesty.

All you need to do is lightly mash-up your left over Cauliflower cheese, cutting the larger florets, and roll them into balls. I found this easier than rolling them into a more traditional log-shaped croquettes. Roll these in breadcrumbs, then dip and coat lightly in beaten egg, and again roll them in the breadcrumbs and set aside. The double roll and single egg dip is very necessary to get a thick enough crumb on. Heat a large pot of oil, allow this to reach a temperature of 180 C / 350 F, and then fry the croquettes in batches until golden brown, turning once. Drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately while they are still warm and crunchy. Caper berries are a wonderful and tart garnish to accompany these.

* Cooks notes ~ My bread crumbs are generally slightly toasted as I find it easier to grind up crisper and drier bread into crumbs. I normally break up or slice any left over bread I have, bake in a medium oven until the bread has dried and has just started to turn golden. I then whizz this through my food processor and store the crumbs in my freezer in a ziploc bag.

Another awesome way to rock your leftovers.