Portuguese Croquetes

This is the best meat left over recipe ever. But in this case it's just a great recipe because I didn't use left over meat.

In Portugal  this is eaten as an amuse bouche or as a main course with some rice. It's delicious and the more meat varieties you have, the tastier.

Super easy, here's how:

 Ingredients:

1 cup of Bechamel sauce ( Recipe from the soufflee posting)

1 lb left over meat or any type of ground meat, pre cooked.

1/2 chorizo

1 tbsp parsley

Flour for coating

Egg for coating

Breadcrumbs for coating

Oil for frying

Directions:

If you haven't done so already, cook the meat with some salt and peppet.

Add the Chorizo to it and cook till no longer pink.

Meanwhile, make the Bechamel sauce.

Mix everything including the parsley in the food processor until ground and uniform. Add the bechamel slowly, you only want to add enough to make the meat stick together.

Refrigerate until cold enough to handle.

Mold into little logs about 3 inches long and coat them in flour.

At this stage you can freeze them for later use or refrigerate to firm them up before frying.

Roll the croquettes in egg and then in breadcrumbs, and fry at 375 F (while still frozen). Depending on their thickness the cooking time will vary. But it might be around 2 minutes. Bite into one and check if it's defrosted or not.
Note: Don't crowd the pot or it will bring the temperature of the oil down and cause the croquettes to absorb too much oil. Cook 2 or 3 at a time.

Serve with some pea rice or any other type of rice.

As we say in portugal, Bom Proveito!