The croqueta (croquette) is one of the classics on any good tapas menu: crunchy coating surrounding a soft, creamy filling. Our latest classic Catalan recipe, the bomba de Barceloneta, is very closely related to the croqueta, just made slightly larger and with an easier filling. It also happens to be from the very neighbourhood of Barcelona where our chef, Oscar Manresa of Casa Leopoldo was born.
Ingredients for 2:
- potatoes - 320g / 11oz
- garlic - 2 cloves
- botifarra negra de perol
- breadcrumbs
- flour
- egg
- olive oil
For the potatoes, Oscar uses Monalisa, a waxy variety; for the breadcrumbs, he likes the texture given by Japanese panko. As for botifarra negra (de perol), it's a kind of blood sausage, normally with a higher proportion of meat than in a black pudding. Oscar likes serving this bomba with aioli and a sun-dried tomato.
Recipe:
- Peel the potatoes and boil them in well-salted water
- Once cooked, drain them and set them aside
- Peel and roughly chop the garlic
- Remove the skin from the sausage and cut the filling into large chunks (see video)
- Add a splash of oil to a frying pan, followed by the garlic and sausage pieces
- Fry until the garlic has started to take on some colour
- Start breaking the sausage up, crushing it with the back of a spoon or the like
- In a separate bowl, mash the potatoes
- Add the sausage and garlic to the potatoes and mix them all together
- Form the mixture into balls of the desired size
- Coat them in breadcrumbs by the normal method:
- Roll them in flour
- Dip them in beaten egg
- Roll them in breadcrumbs
- Fry them in small batches in a large saucepan of oil until golden