Potato and Mozzarella croquettes

These simple croquettes make great finger food for a crowd.

Ingredients
1kg peeled potatoes
1/2 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
100g breadcrumbs
1 cup grated Reggiano Parmesan
1 egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper for seasoning
1/2cm cubes of mozzarella

For coating
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups breadcrumbs

Olive oil, for frying

Making them
1. Place the potatoes in a pot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil; cook the potatoes until tender. Remove from the heat once cooked, drain, and pass the potatoes through a potato ricer into a bowl. Allow to cool.
2. Season with salt and pepper, add the parsley and combine. Add the egg and combine, and finally add the breadcrumbs and combine
3. Divide the mixture into balls. An ice-cream scoop is great for this. A large scoop will give you about 18 larger croquettes, a medium one 30-ish smaller ones. I didn’t cut my mozzarella till I figured out what size I was going to do.
4. After the balls are formed, indent each one in the centre with your thumb, place a cube of mozzarella in the dent, and form into an oval croquette.
5. In a bowl, place beaten eggs and in a separate bowl place the breadcrumbs. Roll each croquette in the eggs then in the breadcrumbs to coat. You can prepare the croquettes ahead up to this point and then put them in the fridge until ready to fry.
6. Heat a heavy based pan with a generous amount of oil and fry the croquettes for 4-5 minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve.

Eggplant croquettes

This is a recipe courtesy of Mr Yotam-I-made-vegetables-sexy-Ottolenghi. But I added some parsley, and substituted his feta for ricotta. Charring the eggplant gives these a lovely smokiness. Makes 20 generous size croquettes.

Ingredients
4 medium eggplants
2 medium potatoes, cooked, peeled and smashed
1 egg, beaten
150g ricotta, well drained
1/3 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
2 cups dried white breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper
oil for frying

Making them

1. Char the eggplants on your cooktop on your gas flame, turning frequently until skin is burnt and they are starting to collapse. Once cool, you should be able to easily peel off the skin. Discard skin and place flesh in a colander and leave to drain for 30 minutes
2. Place eggplant in a large bowl. Add the potatoes, egg, ricotta, parsley, Parmesan, and season with salt and pepper. Bring everything together gently with a fork. Add 1 cup of the breadcrumbs, just enough so the mix is sufficiently solid to hold its shape but is still a little sticky.
3. Remove the mix from the bowl and divide it into four. Roll each portion into a thick sausage that is about 1 inch in diameter. Sprinkle the remaining breadcrumbs on your work surface and roll the sausages in them so they are completely coated. Cut each sausage into five pieces, gently shape and transfer to a tray and leave to firm up in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
4. To cook, pour enough frying oil into a frying pan to come about ¾ inch up the sides. Heat up the oil, then fry the croquettes in small batches until golden, turning them over to color evenly. Make sure the oil is always hot but not so hot that it burns the croquettes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Serve hot.