In the world Kitchen!

The travel bug has hit again! Happy Birthday Jetstar! We managed to snap up some great return flights to Tokyo for the July school holidays. Spontaneous? Hell, Yeah! As it is not our first visit to the land of the Rising Sun, we have decided to just take it easy and relax at a Ryokan in Hakone, where we can soak in an onsen and enjoy the view of the magnificent Mt Fuji. "He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool" (fools, we be not).
Then a few days back in Tokyo will put an end to little mid year sojourn.

One of our favorite parts of travel is "FOOD" and Asian food is especially delicious! Great incentive to exercise and diet hard before we depart so we can partake in our favourites;
Yakitori: skewered grilled chicken pieces seasoned with salt or sauce, Tempura: seafood and vegetables coated in batter and deep fried, okonomiyaki: Japanese pancakes made with your choice of vegetables, meat and seafood mixed into batter and grilled on a hot plate, teppanyaki, Japanese curries, sushi and the list goes on.  Lest we forget the essential asahi, kirin, sapporo and suntory. Kanpai!!


This is a fast and simple recipe for the delicious Japanese korokke – a croquette made of meat and vegetables. They’re great for lunch boxes, as part of bigger dishes such as Japanese curry, and are great for kids.

Japanese korokke

Ingredients

3-4 potatoes
1/2 onion
1/2 carrot
200g pork mince
1tsp fish stock
2tsp sugar
1tbs sake
1tbs mirin
4tbs soya sauce
salt
2 eggs
panko
flour

Method

Boil the potatoes in heavily salted water until soft, then throw away the water and mash them up with a fork. Dice the onion and carrot, then brown the mince and add the diced carrot and onion.

Add 2tbs sugar, 1tsp fish stock, 1 tbs sake, 1 tbs mirin and 4tbs soya sauce and simmer for 5 mins.

Add the mince to the mashed potatoes and mix well. Then roll into oblong shapes, and roll in the flour, then the egg and finally the panko. Then prepare a pan with 2cm deep of vegetable oil at medium/high temperature and shallow fry the croquettes until the outside is golden. Serve with a little salad for garnish and tonkatsu sauce or ketchup.