Cook the potatoes in boiling water for about 10 minutes.
While the potato is being cooked, chop the onion and carrot finely and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a frying pan over high heat and add the mince to cook.
When the color of most of the ground beef changes, add onion and carrot to cook for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Check if the potatoes are cooked by inserting a skewer. If it goes through, the potato is cooked.
Strain the water from the potatoes, put them back in the pot and shake them around to rough up the outsides a little. *5
Then mash the potato with a potato masher while the potato is warm.
Add cooked ground beef, onion and carrot to the mashed potato and combine them all well.
Divide the mix into 8 equal sized flat ovals. *6
Combine the egg, water, mayonnaise, and flour in a small bowl to make a batter. *7
Coat each of the ovals with the batter, then place the potato oval into the panko crumbs.
Coat all potato ovals with the panko crumbs.
Heat deep frying oil in a deep pan until it reaches around 350°F (180°C). *8
Fry each of the potato ovals until crispy and golden brown.
Serve croquettes with salad leaves or any side dish of your choice. *9
Video
Notes
*1 Choose starchy type potatoes such as Classic Idaho or Russet.*2 or half a small onion*3 or half of a small carrot *4 I recommend to use Panko crumb, if you can not access commercial panko, you can make your own panko from white bread that is as good as commercially made panko. *5 This technique is called "Kofuki imo" which removes extra moisture in the potato, in order to make the "Hokku, hoku" texture. *6 I sometimes make 2 of 1/8 potions into smaller sized korokke for Bento Lunch box. *7 This is the shortcut step discussed in the post. Usually cover with flour, then dip into beaten egg, and then coat with Panko crumb. 8* If you don’t have a thermometer you can check if the oil is the correct temperature by dropping a bread crumb into the oil. If the bread crumb drops about halfway down into the oil, then floats back up – you are at the perfect temperature.*9 Or you can freeze them for later use. Before deep frying, freeze them. Then wrap with cling wrap individually and place them in a ziplock bag. It will store for a month in freezer and will be great for Obento lunch menu. *calories of the potato croquettes are indication only as the deep frying oil is difficult to accurately measured.