Scrumptious Potato & sprout croquettes

At Xmas I can happily ignore roasted potatoes but I must have my croquettes. Far tastier in my opinion. Sometimes I have them simply with potato & onion coated in a parmesan crust. But today I am having them bubble & squeak style simply as there are always sprouts to use up & if you have family or friends who say they don't like sprouts give them these. Simple and fun to make.

Ingredients list is for 10 croquettes but it depends how big you want to make them. The larger will take slightly longer to cook. Again you can easily increase or reduce quantities. They freeze well so you might as well make a bigger batch.

Ingredients:

• 4 large potatoes
• The same weight in sprouts
• Butter
• Flour
• Egg
• Breadcrumbs

For the breadcrumbs, either buy some or make your own, better doing your own. I sometimes blitz old bread in a processor and toast under the grill which does give the best outcome BUT life can be too short so here are a couple of options. Blitz bread in processor and blitz in a handful of cornflakes to give it a crunch ( an Aussie tip). Or, when I'm coating fillets of haddock I simply blitz oats and cornflakes. Its a top tip and it works.

Peel the potatoes, cut into 3 pieces and boil for 15 minutes. Set timer for 8 minutes then cook the sprouts.

Tail the sprouts and peel away any loose leaves and boil for remaining 7 minutes or until cooked.

Drain the potatoes and put back into the pot under a low heat for 2-3 minutes, simply to dry them out a bit. You don't want the mixture sloppy.

Drain sprouts and slice finely.

Mash the butter into the potatoes and then beat in the sprouts with a wooden spoon, season to taste and mix well. Allow mixture to cool for a couple of minutes so that you can easily handle the mixture, then roll into ball shapes. Put in fridge to cool for about an hour to make the next stage easier.

Now lay out 3 small containers. Put plain flour in one, a beaten egg in the next and the breadcrumbs in the 3rd. Now roll one croquette in the flour, then roll in the egg and finally roll about in the breadcrumbs to coat. if you want a real crunchy coating repeat the process again but once works for me.

You can now keep them in the fridge for 2-3 days, freeze for a month or use straightaway.

To cook I put them in the oven with the bird for 15 minutes or so until they have heated through. If you want to fry them for 5 minutes or so each side make them a flatter shape rather than a ball.

If making the plain version grate fresh parmesan into into your breadcrumbs, lovely or do it to this version also.

Enjoy and I bet you soon make more!!