Eggless Potato Cheese Balls/Croquettes

Potato croquettes have been my favorite snack for some 4 years now. When I had them for the first time (I still remember that day), they were almost melting in my mouth after I chewed the outer crispy layer. I didn't know how they were made, but all I knew was that I was in love with them. When I looked for recipes, I found most of them with eggs and bread crumps, but  I eventually came up with was an egg-less, less oily recipe. This is an extremely simple recipe and you could try it even today with ease.

POTATO CHEESE BALLS/ CROQUETTES

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes (boiled and mashed): 4 (medium sized)

2. Cheese Cubes (grated): 2

3. Corn Flour: 2 tbs

4. Salt to taste

5. Oil: for deep frying

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes and then peel off their skin on cooling. Mash them well (actually, very finely, so that there are no lumps left).
2. To the mashed potatoes, add the grated cheese, corn flour and salt.
3. Now make small balls out of these and keep them aside. I actually did a trick here; I prepared two mixtures: one with grated cheese and the other without (i.e. only mashed potatoes, corn flour and salt). I made balls out of the potato mixture and filled potato-cheese mixture inside, to avoid cheese to layer out and melt on the surface.
4. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry these croquettes till golden brown. Keep the flame on medium.
5. Serve them with green chutney, tamarind chutney or mango chutney.

Note: Originally, these croquettes are dipped in/coated with egg white and bread crumps alternatively, but I personally prefer eggless recipes, and also I avoid bread crumps because they absorb a lot of oil, so to make the croquettes crispy, I have used corn flour as an alternative.

Tips:

1. You could use chopped parsley/coriander leaves and ground pepper for adding spice to them, though I prefer the cheesy, creamy taste.
2. If you wish, you could fill/stuff the balls with dry fruits (cashews and raisins) in the middle.
3. If the balls tend to split or break on frying, add in a little more corn flour for binding.
4. You could also dip the balls in a very thin corn flour batter to make them much crispier. 

Submitting this recipe to:
My event: Cooking Made Easy With Cheese/Paneer

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