Project I.Am.Abbey: コロッケの日曜日！！ Adventures in the Kitchen I

きのう私は友達のうちへ行きました。私たちは日本料理をしました。コロッケとみそスープとフライドライスをしました。きのうの料理の中で何がいちばんおいしいですか？コロッケはとてもおいしいとおもいました。Mmmmm...

Got together with my friends from Japanese class yesterday and we had a cookout. The theme was Japanese food, and we made korokke, miso soup, fried rice and then had some strawberry milkshakes afterward. I'll be putting up some pictures of our exploits as soon as I get them from my friend. I forgot my camera @~@, so I'll have to keep bugging her. Considering that none of us cook very often, we did a pretty good job. Sooo happy about the results. My stomach agrees :P

For now, these are the steps we took to make korokke, which is probably the most "complicated" to make out of all the dishes we made -- though I use the term "complicated" very loosely, as it wasn't very complicated at all. So for anyone out there that likes to roll rice dough into ball-shapes, this is a great recipe for you!

bowl of bread crumbs, scrambled egg and mashed potato goodness

Ingredients: potatoes, carrots, onion, cheese, spam, salt, pepper, egg, bread crumbs (ie.　パンコ)

1) dice spam, carrots and onions into small pieces
2) steam 1 or 2 potatoes until soft; mash potatoes
3) cook spam
4) mix potatoes, spam, carrots and onions together
5) grab a small chunk of the mix and shape it into a flat circle
6) add cheese to the middle of the flat circle and close the potato filling around the cheese -- shape it into a small ball

7) in one bowl, scramble 2 or 3 eggs; in another bowl, fill it with the breadcrumbs
8) dip the mashed potato balls in the scrambled egg, and then dip the ball into the breadcrumbs so that the breadcrumbs stick to the ball

9) once you've finished all the balls, deep fry them until the outer shell is a nice brownish colour (brown does not mean burned to a crisp folks!)

Another option is to bake the balls after they're prepared. Haven't tried that version yet, so I can't say they're better, though they are healthier. If you're health conscious but you still want to deep fry the korokke, I recommend using the best cooking oil in the world. I went to the Taste of the Danforth a couple of weeks back and found a store that sells grapeseed oil.

What's so special about this oil, you ask? Well, it's actually even better than olive oil because it has a higher flashpoint, which basically means that you can use this oil at high cooking temperatures and it won't burn like other oils do. When oil burns, that's when people should be concerned about things like cancer. The one I bought is flavoured grapeseed oil: garlic! You can pour some of this oil into a bowl and dip bread in it, and it will be like having garlic bread, except it's so much healthier! Heh heh! A warning for the economic buyer, however: this oil is actually even more expensive than olive oil (though I think it's a great investment because boy does this oil taste wonderful!)

Anyway, that's korokke for you. Itadakimasu! Bon apetit!