Korokke - if it's good enough for Japanese students...

So, true to form, the plan got sidetracked by the realities of life. However I've still made the time (somehow) to do some experimenting and the theme for the last week has been: Japanese.

While in London the Saturday before last, I managed to find my way to the Japan Centre neat Picadilly Circus. As well as indulging in some takoyaki (battered octopus balls) which was yummy but more batter than octopus, I decided to try something new.

A bit of background for you: Recently I've been re-watching an old favourite animé of mine: Honey & Clover, a slice-of-life series about a group of art students at University. Something I noticed was the constant consumption of korokke or croquettes. It seemed to be the Japanese equivalent of an English students 'beans on toast'. Deep fried potato mixed with cheese or minced meat or white sauce.

Well, I thought that was interesting. Here I am, a student, who happens to have a bag of potatoes that need to be eaten, as well as some turkey mince. The only thing I was missing was 'panko' or Japanese breadcrumbs, an ingredient which every recipe I read assured me were much superior to the Western breadcrumbs I might find in my local.

What I did

Well I boiled and mashed my potatoes, cooked my mince with onions, tender-shoot broccoli stems, baby-corn and chilli, then mixed together using a little egg for binding. I thin coated in flour, then egg and then the panko. The frying process was less harrowing than i thought it would be (and the recipes were more or less correct that, despite the deep frying, the croquettes didn't turn out very greasy at all.

One thing to note, put a lot of seasoning into the potatoes, since that is the bulk ingredient.

All in all a successful experiment that made a lovely dinner, and went lovely with my landlady's chilli jam. Not to mention, the leftovers fit nicely into my bento box for lunch the next day. To summarise, korokke are yummy, filling, easy to make if fiddly, and very cheap (making ~10: the 3 potatoes cost about 20p, the turkey mince about £1, and the little bit of veg I used was about 50p. The panko was the most expensive purchase at £2, but then I only used about a third of the packet.)

Potato & Mince mix

The Finished Article