After lunch I walked up the road with Nookie – we hadn’t gone far before she dragged me into a little side street to look at a new croqueta shop, Croqueta y Presumida. For the uninitiated, a Spanish croqueta is made with a very thick béchamel sauce, flavoured with ham, cheese, fish, meat, etc. The thick sauce is rolled in breadcrumbs and left to chill, until needed, at which point it is most commonly deep fried. Croquetas are generally served as a tapa or starter. Some say that the name comes from the shape of the croqueta or croquette, which resembles the head of a croquet mallet, though it’s far more likely to come from the French verb croquer – to crunch.
Having closely studied the Croqueta y Presumida website I have discovered that they are a small Spanish chain of croqueta shops selling 15 types of croqueta (see the menu sign above).
I was impressed by the fact that they state that the croquetas are all 100% natural without preservatives. Furthermore, they say, “Elaboramos diariamente nuestras variedades de croquetas caseras, hechas con leche fresca de caserío, con el compromiso de conservar el sabor, aroma y textura, que hacen de nuestra croqueta, una “croqueta única” – “We prepare our varieties of homemade croquettes daily, with fresh dairy milk and a commitment to preservation of taste, aroma and texture, making our croquettes unique“.
Nookie was very keen to point out a very specific selling point – they do 12 croquetas for €5.50 or 24 for €9.95.
Before I knew it I’d handed over €10 and asked for two of everything – I skipped the vegetable croqueta, along with the seasonal one and the chocolate dessert variety, going for the 12 meat and fish types that they sell on a daily basis.
As I walked off up the road, though, I couldn’t help thinking that the packaging was just like a box of chocolates. I was assured that the croquetas last for up to 3 days in the fridge (not mine, I wanted to say) and can be fried, deep fried or heated in the oven. We did actually go down the oven route, so as too cook all 24 at the same time. This works perfectly well and they do crisp up nicely, but some of them did leak. I think the ideal method is to deep fry croquetas in olive oil, straight from the fridge.
All the croquetas were quite deleicious – the very best ones were chipirón en su tinta (squid in ink), centollo (spider crab), bacalao (salt cod), hongo boletus (boletus mushrooms), chistorra (spicy red sausage) and queso idiazabal (idiazabal cheese).
Croqueta y Presumida is at Sant Pere Més Baix, 94, 08003, Barcelona.
Croqueta y Presumida has moved to: Carrer de Viladomat, 59, 08015 Barcelona.
What an awesome find. Of course you skipped the vegetable one. Thanks for the history of croquetas. I never actually knew the etymology. I do want to go back to Spain… Sigh.
Thanks Amanda – it was all down to Nookie, who knew I’d love the place. I have to confess that I’d already eaten some other pretty outstanding croquetas the night before, in Romesco 😉
A whole shop dedicated to croquetas? Perhaps there is a god after all. 🙂
There is definitely a god in Spain, albeit a food god …probably 🙂
Am twixt two courses of Sunday lunch at home fir a bit of a crowd [nor cooking ‘that’ one 🙂 ! Was about to either ‘click off’ [even to you!] or put down one of my unwanted comments re béchamel/crumbs/deep frying , , , well , , , !! And then, thank God, I read on to your favourite croquettes of your last paragraph and, somehow, going back to my ‘pot au feu’ even with dearest of friends, suddenly did not seem quite as exciting . . . . green, green, green . . .
Ha ha – thanks Eha, if only they made one that was heavy on the parsley or spinach 😉
Oops! This proves one should not try and write comments whilst talking to a roomful of lively friends!! What I DID MEAN was that I would have absolutely and utterly loved each and every one of the croquette fillings and that I was totally green in the face ’cause I only had some soup [even if good!] to which I could look forward. I may be a Greenie in politics but definitely do not belong to the vegetarian/vegan groupings!! Sorry: my bad!!!!
I love how you visit these extraordinary little places almost on a whim and find magic. I too looked at the box and wondered – did you buy them cold and then reheat? – and yes you do. I love crunchy food. What a find.. much love.. c
Thanks Cecilia – you would absolutely love these. I can’t help but imagine Sheila getting in to the croqueta shop. I think she’d wolf down the whole lot in two seconds flat 🙂
Yes, I have mozarrella croquettes in the fridge for her from last nights dinner at The Italians. Good old Sheila. She does love her food. c
Ha ha – I knew she’d love croquetas!
I could do with a store like that near me. I love croquetas. Used to have a Spanish restaurant near me in Los Angeles that made delicious ones.
Hi Nadia, it is amazing, though there are quite few places in Barcelona selling croquetas, especially in the markets, though they do usually just sell a single flavour. Croquetas are fairly easy to make – I’ve been meaning to post a recipe for a while 🙂
Please do, I would love to try to make some.
This might keep you going in the meantime 😉
Merci beaucoup. I like Rick Stein:)
You may find video of him cooking this if you search – I’ve definitely seen it, but it looks like it has been removed from YouTube 😦
Have I ever mentioned just how much I love croquetas?! Brilliant find. And I’d much rather be given a box of croquetas than a box of chocolates!
You and me both – croquetas are absolutely delicious. I did think, while photographing the box, that they should bring back the Milk Tray adverts, but for the croqueta shop… and of course they do make a token chocolate croqueta 😉
I love croquetas! There’s a little tapas restaurant here in Southern Oregon that make delicious croquetas. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it!
Thanks Tessa – you are making me drool now 😉
I like the sound of those…..and they look very tempting in that little box….
I wonder if they’d do mail order to France 😉
What a great concept. I wish we had such shops here in Ireland.
I believe the croquette was invented by the French and the Spanish have elevated the dish to an art form …they’ve done a bloody good job too!
Centolla, mushroom (isn’t that a veg?) and idiazabal – my mouth is watering! A good croqueta is a thing of wonder indeed!
Ha ha – I’m sure mushrooms are meat! You are so right – you can’t beat a good croqueta 🙂
I probably would have walked right past this place, thinking it some sort of sweet shop, especially if I’d seen someone walk exit the place carrying a box like the one you brought home. This is an example of why it is advantageous to travel with someone fluent in the language — or at least knows more than “gracias” and “buenos días”. 🙂
Fortunately my Spanish skills are up to reading the sign outside and questioning the people inside. I particularly enjoy talking to the market traders in the Boqueria when I come across something new and want to know how to cook it. One of these days I’m going to take Catalan lessons. I don’t think you’d have too much trouble – Italian and Spanish are quite close 😉
Hi MD, sorry to message you via the comments but my laptop died and I’ve lost most of my contacts 😦 It may be too short notice but I’ll be in central London tomorrow at about 1pm after a meeting and wondered if there was any chance of meeting up so that I can give you a bottle of olive oil! Drop me an e-mail, take care, Txx
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