Potato croquettes, or Korokke as they are called in Japanese, are a delicious fried food made from panko crumbed mashed potato with carrot and onion and mince. This is typical Japanese home cooking and also a tasty street food. They’re a great dinner or lunch because they’re like one meal all in one little croquette, so they’re especially great for lunch on-the-go! They’re also a delicious way to change up kids lunches from just the regular sandwich. The croquettes, or korokke, taste best when they’re fried but you can bake these too.
There was a butcher in my little home town too and the korokke they made was so yummy. The inside of the korokke was such a perfect texture with the best ratio of potato to beef mine and they outside was so crispy and crunchy! Plus they were only like 50 yen which is like 50 cents so it was perfect thing for me to spend my pocket money on as a child. Sometimes my mom would bring them home for dinner as well when she wouldn’t have time to cook. It was great. I wanted to recreate the butcher’s yummy potato croquettes with some aussie beef (which Japanese love). To have the crispy and crunchy outside coating you need to use Japanese panko crumbs, which you can get at most grocery stores nowadays.
Although these are potato croquettes, there are also many variations of fillings that you can make as well. My favourite type of korokke that we have in Japan is ‘kani cream korokke’ which is a creamy crab filled korokke. It’s so delicious! But they’re a bit difficult to make so until I master them I will just make these potato korokke, which are delicious too. Serve the croquettes with some salad leaves and miso soup and you’ve got an easy Japanese dish ready to eat! I hope you enjoy!
- 2 potatoes (about 300g)
- 100 g beef mince
- Half an onion( about 70g) finely chopped
- Half a carrot (about 70g) finely chopped
- ½ tbs olive oil
- 1 egg
- 4 tbs plain flour
- 50 ml water
- 1 tbs kewpie mayonnaise
- 2 cups of Japanese panko bread crumb
- Oil for deep frying
- Peel, cut, and boil the potato to make mashed potato then set aside.
- Chop the onion and carrot finely.
- Heat olive oil in a frying pan over high heat and add the onion and carrot to cook.
- Add the mince and cook and season with salt and pepper.
- Once the mince is cooked, remove from the heat and add the cooked mince, onion and carrot to the mashed potato and mix well.
- Divide it into 8 equal sized ovals.
- Combine the egg, water, mayonnaise, and flour in a small bowl to make a batter.
- Coat each of the ovals into the batter then place into the panko crumbs.
- Coat all potato ovals with the panko crumbs.
- Heat frying oil in a deep pan until it reaches around 180 degree celsius.
- Fry each of the potato ovals until crispy and golden brown.
- Serve croquettes with salad leaves or any side dish of your choice.
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