korroke, vegan

deep-fried and delicious

Korroke, Japan’s variety of croquette can be made from sweet- or white-potatoes, pumpkin, squash etc, and deep-fried in panko crumbs which adds an amazing texture. They’re normally filled with cream-cheese, but a wee cube of boiled silken tofu still gives you that soft texture and colour contrast when you bite into it.

ingredients

(about 600g) half-and-half pumpkin and sweet-potato

1/2 block of silken tofu

100g any flour

1 tsp corn starch

50 ml water

200g panko breadcrumbs

a whole lot of oil – any neutral one will do, I used vegetable oil!

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp chinese 5 spice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper

methods

1. Peel and chop sweet-potato/pumpkin and microwave it until easily mashable – around 10 mins (but clingfilm on top of the bowl helps!)
2. Cut the tofu into cubes and boil in water (with a pinch of salt in it) for 20 minutes, and drain.
3. Mash the potato/pumpkin with salt, pepper, cinnamon and 5-spice, and shape into either spheres or pebbles.
4. Fill them with a cube of boiled tofu, or you can make the pebble-shaped ones which don’t have filling.
5. Roll them in flour, then in water+cornstarch, then in panko
6. Deep-fry in oil for about 4 mins, then remove them and put on a paper towel to remove excess oil – you’ll need to do these in batches!
7. And okonomi sauce and egg-free mayo for the perfect topping…or sriracha, that goes with everything haha