Recipe: Japanese Curry Bread

Tokyo Food Page - Curry Korokke (Japanese potato dumpling)

Source: Noriko's Kitchen
Cooking time: about 90 minutes
Servings: 4

This looks a lot like a knish; it's basically a piece of dough stuffed with potatoes, meat, or cheese and baked or fried. If my memory is right, it was invented in Japan by a chef who cooked for the Meiji Emperor. I believe the Japanese version of curry rice is also one of his creations. Maybe not. Please let me know if anybody knows more about this than I do.

This recipe uses beef or pork, but substituting canned salmon or tuna should work great (an idea from Ken Love [at Compuserve -- Ed.]). Also, I heard that tarako (cod roe, which has to be baked) can be used, too, if you care for tiny pink fish eggs.

1/4 lb. ground meat
1 lb. potatoes
1/2 medium yellow onion, minced
1/2 egg, beaten (to mix with the potato)
1 teaspoon curry powder (optional)
1 tablespoon oil
salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, beaten (to coat the korokke)
2 cups bread crumbs
enough canola oil for deep-frying
8 cabbage leaves, thinly sliced and soaked in cold water until serving time

Boil or microwave the unpeeled potatoes. Place the oil in a frying pan and add the onion. Saute until the onion is tender. Add the ground meat, salt, pepper, nutmeg and curry powder, then saute about 3 minutes until crumbled. Set the meat aside while you peel and mash the potatoes. Thoroughly mix the potatoes and the meat in a large bowl. Divide the potato mixture into eight parts, and shape each portion into a 1/2-inch thick ellipse. Dredge each portion in the flour and pat off the excess flour. Dip them into the egg and then into the bread crumbs on a plate. Deep- fry them at 350F for about 3 minutes on each side until lightly browned. Drain them on paper towels. Serve with thinly sliced cabbage and your favorite sauce (i.e. A1 steak sauce, ketchup, Heinz 57 or Japanese tonkatsu sauce).

- recipe courtesy of Hiroyuki Sato