The perfect croqueta
Croquetas de Jamon Iberico at El Portal de Echuarren. Photo by Gretchen Thomas
As much as I love the modern cooking of Francis Paniego at El Portal de Echuarren, I dream about his croquetas (made from his mother’s recipe). There are only a handful of places in the world that I know of that do it exceptionally, a couple in Madrid, Tia Pol in New York, but these are so sublime, so crispy on the outside, so melty on the inside, I have a decidedly emotional reaction every time I see these little orbs land on my table here.