Cooking with Fran : King Sue Ham and Cheese Croquettes

When I got married two years ago, I thought I'd be able to hone my cooking skills further as I'll start cooking for my husband. While other may take this with fright, I welcomed this thought with open arms as I love to cook. I love experimenting and I look forward to making Paul happy with my cooking.

It has been two years since and sadly I hardly get to cook. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining it's simply because we were blessed to have manang from his side and my mom and talented Maricel who would prepare our meals everyday from my side. Simply put, the need to roll up my sleeves and get busy in the kitchen wasn't there...yet.

Still, I try to grab any opportunity to cook. Be it a simple breakfast plate or snacks for us to enjoy during mid-day, I really do not mind getting my hands dirty, oily and smelly..that's how much I love to cook.

When I was sent a huge package of King Sue (pronounced as: king-sway) products I saw this as my opportunity to prepare something special.  Of course, I turned to my favorite recipe website (forgive the plugging) Yummy.ph and there I found the recipe that will best make use of my pack of King Sue Hawaiian Ham and a block of Mozzarella Cheese -- Ham and Cheese Croquettes! Inspired by our recent dinner with the Pinoy Eats World gang, I have been intending to create my own croquettes at home. More on our fun dinner soon.

I patterned my recipe after this but here's my own version:


To make 24 pieces:

4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled
1 cup warm milk (I used non-fat milk)
2 tablespoons melted butter
8 pieces King Sue Hawaiian Ham, chopped into squares
1 cup Mozzarella cheese, chopped into squares
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cups Japanese bread crumbs
oil for deep frying
salt and pepper (for flavoring)

1) Boil potatoes until it's soft for mashing
2) Prepare the ham and cheese, set aside
3) As soon as the potatoes are ready, remove from heat, drain the water out and return back to the stove keep under low fire. Add in the butter and milk, simmer until the mixture gets heavy (mashed potato-like)
4) Transfer the potato mixture in a big stainless mixing bowl, let cool for a while.

5) Add in the ham, cheese and 1 egg. Flavor with pepper and salt. Mix well.
6) Create round balls and roll this over the flour, dip into the egg bath and cover with Japanese bread crumbs
7) Fry until golden brown. (I gave each piece about a minute each)
8) Serve and enjoy! 

To give it a more Asian feel, you may also add in some chopped spring onions too.

I realized that King Sue has a lot of products available in the market. While doing my grocery shopping last week, I took a peek into the King Sue freezer and was surprised to see frozen items such as Sisig, Salami, Luncheon Meat and Chicken Nuggets!

Together with the Croquettes that I prepared above, we also made use of more Hawaiian Ham and a piece of Chorizo Bilbao in my Mom's signature fried rice. This is the exact fried rice that I consistent blame why I wasn't a skinny kid then and I'm still not a skinny adult now. It's my favorite comfort dish and only Mommy can make it so yummy!

We also tried the Chicken Sausage and turned it into a Hawaiian dish with tomato sauce and pineapple chunks. This made a great baon to school and to the office. 

Christmas is just around the corner and I'm so excited to experiment next with the King Sue Chinese Ham Bone-In. It was quite expensive but imagine the tedious process that this particular piece of pork leg had to go through. It was cured for 30 days then smoked for almost a week and finally cooked for 24 hours using their special brine. This means, this ham is packed with flavor and doesn't need extra glaze already. I'm already thinking of that special ham sandwich or I can use this as an appetizer should we have guests over too.

More Cooking with Fran entries:
Mixed Greens with Garlic Wasabi Mayo
Italian Eggplant Lasagna
Three Cheese Penne
Fusilli alla Genovese
Special! Cooking with Paul -- Wagyu Sirloin with Buttered Vegetables

Check out King Sue in all leading supermarkets nationwide. 

p.s. I'm giving out special King Sue giftpacks SOON! Check back for more details.