Korokke

I made a wonderful meal the other night. Comfort food all the way. Put your diet on hold and try these wonderful Japanese croquettes. I served them with rice (yes I know, how many starches do we need...but it is a MUST for a Japanese meal), a fried and marinated vegetable dish (agebitashi) which I'll post some other time, and miso soup. This recipe makes a lot. You could probably feed 6 people (with side dishes) without a problem with this recipe. I think it is traditionally served on a bed of shredded cabbage and also used in sandwiches or just as a snack. I've read that you can usually buy them, one at a time, from convienience type stores in Japan. They would be a nice bento box addition too.

You'll need:
1/4 - 1/2 lb ground meat (beef, turkey, pork, veal or a combination. I used turkey)
1 onion, chopped...between a chop and a mince
4-5 medium potatoes, peel, dice, boil (we are gonna mash them)
Flour
2 eggs, more or less
Panko crumbs

Cook the minced onion in a pan in a little oil or butter or whatever you like...broth would work too but what's the point? Cook until it is softened but not browned. Add a little salt at the end.
Add the ground meat and cook while stiring and mashing with your spoon to break up the chunks.
Meanwhile, your potatoes should be cooking and when they are ready drain and mash. Don't add anything to them...just mash them.
When the meat is cooked drain any oil from the pan. With lean turkey I didn't have to drain anything.
Mix the meat and the potatoes together well. You can do this in a bowl or in the pan just make sure to get it mixed well so when you make your korokke you won't have too much meat in some and not enough it others. You can taste and salt at this time, although, I did not.
I used a small ice-cream scooper (somewhere btwn 1/8 and 1/4 cup scoop) to scoop out balls of the potato mixture. I then shaped them into more solid balls in my hand and flattened them slightly.
Dredge in flour and then dip into the egg then the panko.
Fry in hot (350 degrees F) oil until golden brown. Don't worry about the middle, everything is cooked in there to start with so you don't have to worry about it cooking now.
Remove from oil and let drain on paper. Pop them into a warm oven to keep them war until the rest are made.

Traditionally they are served with a tonkatsu sauce which can be made by combining 100 ml Ketchup (hey, when you make these  international dishes you have to be able to measure in metric) and 60 ml worchestershire sauce (be careful, if you keep kosher you'll have to find one that is parve as some are made with anchovy and you wouldn't want to use it for a meat dish)

Another sauce (which I loved) is one I found to go with tonkatsu (a deep fried pork chop). It is from a website called J-Simple Recipes (the J is for Japanese). It goes like this: Stir together 3 Tbsp red miso, 5.5 Tbsp sugar, 80 ml water, and 1.5 tsp soy sauce. Pop it in the microwave and cook for 1 minute to warm it up.

You can also serve this with Japanese mayo which is so yummy and rich and thick. I think they would be very yummy in a sandwich (although, very starchy again) with shredded cabbage and Japanese mayo.

YUMMY! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.