Beef & Potato Korokke - Japanese style croquettes

With the beef mince and some potatoes in my fridge my usual choice for dinner would have been meatballs, but since I have been even more than my usual Japan crazy lately (as we are about to book our flights to Japan!!), I decided to make the ever so yummy korokke.

I just love these Japanese words that have been borrowed from other languages, and the way they are pronounced feels very natural to me thanks to Finnish and Japanese having a lot of similar sounds. Korokke of course comes from the word croquette, and these deep fried patties are usually made with mashed potato. This version has a slight curry flavour to it and I added a good amount of beef to make it a fuller meal.

Beef & potato korokke

250g lean beef mince
500g potatoes
small onion, finely chopped
1 egg (to mix with the potato)
1tsp curry powder
salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

flour for dusting
1 egg, beaten
Japanese panko (breadcrumbs)
canola oil for frying

Boil the potatoes until tender, leave to cool. Saute the onion until soft, add the meat and cook until brown. Season well and leave the mixture to cool. Peel and mash the potatoes and stir in the meat mixture. Add in the egg and stir well.
Shape the mixture into thick fingers (or round patties). Coat each patty first in flour (dusting of the extra flour), then dip in the egg and cover with breadcrumbs. Deep fry or shallow fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with Japanese mayo and tonkatsu sauce.

Serve warm, these are highly addictive!