Krokiety z Grzybami Mushroom Croquettes

Name: Krokiety z Grzybami Mushroom Croquettes
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: Dried wild and chestnut mushrooms; Onion; White cabbage; Olive oil; Quark; Plain flour; Semi-skimmed milk; Egg whites; Egg yolks; Dried breadcrumbs; Vegetable oil; Salt; Black pepper

Krokiety z Grzybami Mushroom Croquettes, plated as one serving.

338 kcal a serving, against 467 for the traditional version. That is 129 kcal off, or 28%, with 10g of protein. Serves 6. 1 hour plus mushroom soaking.

What the traditional version is

Classic krokiety use butter-heavy crepes, a rich mushroom and onion filling, and a thick coating of egg and breadcrumbs. They're fried in a generous bath of oil till crisp and golden, then served piping hot, usually with clear beetroot soup.

What changed, and what each change costs

Double cream swapped for quark

Double cream brings lush texture to the filling but not much else. Quark bumps up the protein and keeps things creamy enough if you stir it through at the end, especially with the mushrooms carrying most of the flavour.

What it costs you. You don't get the thick, glossy richness. The filling's a bit firmer and less unctuous, but you won't be left scraping cream off your chin.

Cabbage increased, onions kept, butter swapped for a drizzle of olive oil

That much butter in the fry-up is old-school, and you can't taste it once it's all wrapped up. Olive oil's enough to sweat the veg. Cabbage goes up because you need more body and chew when the crumbs get lighter.

What it costs you. You lose that buttery perfume, but you can just about fake it with a bit of black pepper and a heavy hand with the mushrooms. Still, nobody's fooled if you're after nostalgia.

Crepes: more egg white, less yolk, part-skim milk

Egg yolk and whole milk make a plush, yellow crepe, but the protein lives mostly in the whites. With more whites and a blend of semi-skimmed milk, the wrap's a bit closer to a protein pancake.

What it costs you. The crepes are lighter in colour and less flexible. They'll tear if you rush, so be gentle when rolling.

Breadcrumbs reduced by two-thirds, absorbed oil calculated only

The classic coat is so thick you could lose your fork in it. Here it's basically a dusting, so most of the crunch is gone. You can get away with 12% of the total weight as absorbed oil, so fry hot and quick.

What it costs you. You don't get the thunderous crunch. The crust is more suggestion than substance, but at least your arteries won't file for divorce.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Dried wild and chestnut mushrooms
Onion
White cabbage
Olive oil
Quark
Plain flour
Semi-skimmed milk
Egg whites
Egg yolks
Dried breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil
Salt
Black pepper

How it starts

Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes, then chop them with the fresh chestnut mushrooms.
Finely dice the onion and shred the cabbage as thinly as you can.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, sweat the onion until soft but not brown, then toss in cabbage and let it wilt.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Polish.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	467	338
Protein	8.9g	10g
Fat	31.2g	18.9g
Saturated fat	10.7g	3.1g
Carbohydrate	38.6g	33.1g
Protein per 100 kcal	1.9g	2.9g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Polish prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. gluten, eggs, milk.

The method is in the book

Nobody's mistaking this for the legendary crunchy krokiet of your childhood. The crust is barely there and the filling's firm rather than velvety. But you get full-on mushroom flavour and more protein than you'd expect. If you need that fried, thick crunch, go classic and save these for workday lunch. Sometimes it's nice not to ruin your shirt with breadcrumbs, anyway.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Polish, along with 53 more. Buy the paperback