Potato and Beef Croquette Recipe

Croquette is a very popular dish in Japan and I think you can find them in many different countries in the world. I love them but since it is quite time consuming to make it and fry it, I don't make it too often. In Japan, you can find already fried croquette in a supermarket or you can also find frozen one so you can just fry them at home.

Since I had 1lb of ground beef and lots of potatoes at home, I decided to make this dish the other day.

I made a lot of them and froze half of them. Next time I want to eat croquette, I can just take them out from the freezer and fry them.

Normally in Japan, we eat this with Tonkatsu sauce which is something like a ticker Worcestershire sauce. I always have this on hand but if you don't have it, you can either use regular worcestershire sauce, ketchup, hot sauce or even without any sauce. If you season them well during cooking, you don't really need any sauce.

If you want to but it, you can buy them from Amazon. This is a very popular brand of tonkatsu sauce in Japan. Bull dog Tonkatsu Sauce.

Here is the recipe.

Potato and Beef Croquette
Print Recipe

Yields about 14 large croquette

Ingredients
Potato   4 large
Ground Beef   1lb
Onion         3 medium
Carrot         3
Nutmeg      2 teaspoons (Optional)
Salt             1 tablespoons
Pepper        1~2 teaspoon
Flour           about 1/2 cup
Egg             2
Panko (Bread Crumbs) about 1 cup
Vegetable Oil for frying plus 1 tablespoon

1. Peel and cut potatoes into small pieces and boil them until fork tender.

2. While cooking potatoes, chop onion and carrot into small pieces.

3. In a Frying pan, add 1 tablespoon of oil. Then add onion and carrot to saute.

4. When onion and carrot are cooked, add ground beef and saute until meat is cooked. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper.

5. When potatoes are boiled, drain and mush in a large bowl.

6. Add meat mixture into potato and mix.

7. Let the potato/meat mixture cool.

8. When it is cooled, prepare flour, egg and panko(bread crumbs) stations.

9. Shape potato/meat mixture into a oval shape and dust with flour.

10. Then into egg then to panko.

11. Heat vegetable oil in a pan and fry them until golden brown. Since inside is already cooked, you don't have to worry about inside being uncooked.

12. Serve and eat while it is hot.

Kids love this potato croquette. I would recommend making a bunch of them and keep some of them  in the freezer for later.

Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe

I love Kimchi Fried Rice. It is so easy to make and it always taste good. The bad part about it is I eat too much when I make this fried rice.

I like having Kimchi in my fridge all the time so when I don't have anything and if I don't want to go to the grocery store, I can take out bacon from the freezer and cook rice and make this fried rice.

This time, I added some left over vegetables which I had in the fridge but this is totally optional and you can add any kind of vegetables you have in hand (or you don't have to add any vegetables if you prefer)


Kimchi Fried Rice
Printable Recipe

Cooked Rice   3~4 cups
Kimchi            10.6oz (300g)
Bacon or thin sliced pork 1/4~1/2 lb
Green Onion   5~6
Ginger             1inch
Garlic              1clove
Daikon Radish  1/2 cup (optional)
Lotus root          1/2 cup (optional)
vegetable oil       1 table spoon
Butter                  1 table spoon
Salt  & Pepper     to taste

1. First, cut bacon (or pork) and all the vegetables into small pieces. Mince garlic and ginger.

2. Also, chop kimchi into small pieces.

I used this kimchi from Trader Joe's

3. In a flying pan or wok, add 1 table spoon of vegetable oil and heat. Then add garlic and ginger. Wait till fragrant then add meat and vegetable. Sprinkle salt and pepper.

4. When the meat is cooked and vegetables are little soft, add chopped green onion.

5. Saute

6. Add Kimchi then butter and fry them a little bit. Then add rice.

7. When it is all mixed, taste and add salt and pepper if necessary then serve.

Super easy and yummy Kimchi Fried rice!

I think depends on what kimchi you use and how much rice you add but this particular one I made was not too spicy (I think it was because I added lots of vegetables and rice) so my son was able to eat it also. He said it is spicy but he kept eating :-)

I love making fried rice so I can clean out my fridge. It is super easy. The only tedious part is to chop all the vegetables into small pieces but after that it is so fast!

If you like Kimchi, you definitely will like Kimchi Fried Rice! Please give it a try.

Recreating Garlic Shrimp from Hawaii

I love Hawaii. This is one of the favorite dish I had in Hawaii. There are some garlic shrimp truck in Hawaii and I think the most famous one is in North Shore. But since I was staying in Waikiki, I went to the one in Waikiki called Bluewater. This garlic shrimp was so good that I had to take a photo in order to look at it later to recreate this dish.

Well, that was more than a year ago. Now, I am finally trying to recreate this scrumptious garlic shrimp.

Here is the recipe

Garlic Shrimp (for 2 people)
Jumbo Shrimp       10
Yellow Onion        1
Garlic cloves          5
Butter                    3 table spoons
Paprika                  1 table spoon
Cayenne pepper        1 tea spoon
Garlic powder          1 tea spoon
Chili flakes              a pinch
Salt & Pepper         a pinch
White wine             1/2 cup
heavy cream           2 table spoons
Olive Oil                2 table spoons

1. First, defrost the frozen shrimp (if it is not frozen, skip this) and devein the shrimp and clean. I cooked with the shell on but if you don't want to have shell, peel the shell at this point.

2. In a food processor, process onion and garlic until it becomes like a paste. If it does not become like a paste, add some olive oil.

3. In a frying pan, add olive oil and cook onion and garlic paste.

4. When it started to become fragrant, add spices (paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, chili flakes, salt, pepper) and saute more.

5. Then, add some butter to it and saute more.

6. Then, add shrimp.

7.   Turn the shrimp after about 30 second and pour white wine in. When the shrimp is cooked, add heavy cream and stir quickly then turn the heat off.

8. Serve with brown rice or white rice.

This was so garlicky and so good! I think it was close to what I had in Hawaii. Even though I don't quite remember the exact taste any longer. Maybe I should go to Hawaii again to research about this garlic shrimp. Anyway, this is a very garlicky dish so please plan ahead before you make this. I think it is best to be cooked a day before your day off!

I realized that I forgot to add parsley. Don't forget to add your parsley at the end!

Fried Tofu recipe and "It's Complicated"

In my fridge, I found tofu which is about to expire. I had to used this. I thought about different kind of tofu dish and remember this fried tofu dish called "Agedashi Tofu" in Japan.

This might be a side dish or appetizer kind of dish but I made this as a main dish since I had to consume lots of tofu. I had this dish at bars (Izakaya) in Japan. I think it is popular dish to have with some alcohol.

Izakaya is kind of like a bar in Japan. They serve drinks and also some small dishes like tapas. When we go drinking, many people go to these Izakaya and have drinks and food together.

I had this dish many times in Izakaya but I never made this before. I realized that this dish was easier than I thought it will be. I also had some daikon radish so I grated it and added on top. Here is the recipe.

Agedashi Tofu
Tofu (medium firm) 1
Corn Starch    about 3 table spoons
Seasoned Soy Sauce (Tsuyu no moto)  about 1/2 cup
Water        about 1/2 cup
Green onion   1/2 cup chopped
Daikon raddish      1/4 cup grated (Optional)
Shiso (Japanese basil)  about 3 leaves (Optional)
Vegetable oil    2 table spoon

1. Cut one tofu into 12 pieces and dredge them into corn starch.

2. Heat the oil in a pan and add tofu. Saute until it is light brown and turn. Saute for a few minutes until the other side is also light brown.

3. Add Seasoned Soy Sauce and water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until it thickens a little bit.

4. Transfer into a bowl or plate and add chopped green onion, chopped shiso and grated daikon raddish on top. Serve.

Pretty easy isn't it?

I harvested lots of green onion from my garden so I also made some Japanese flavored scrambled egg with lots of chopped green onion. I like adding some seasoned soy sauce and sugar into my eggs. It goes very well with rice.

I was suprised how easy it was to make fried tofu. It is fried but you don't need lots of oil. You just need a little bit to saute. I think it makes much easier if you have seasoned soy sauce (Tsuyuno moto ot Mentsuyu) but if you don't have it, I think you can also use regular soy sauce, sake and sugar (or mirin) instead of seasoned soy sauce.

On the weekend, I watched this DVD called "It's complicated".


It is about divorced middle age couple starring Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. I thought they are so good! It is funny movie to watch when you want to laugh.

If you have a chance, watch it. I am sure that it will give you a good laugh :-)

Stir Fried Udon Noodle (Yakiudon) recipe and Gobo & Carrots Salad

Udon is thick Japanese noodle made from flour. Normally, people eat this in a broth but sometimes we stir fry them like Yakisoba.

I have been wanting to eat this for a while but keep forgetting about it and finally I made it.

It is very simple but yummy.

Yakiudon (stir fried udon noodle)
Ingredients
Udon noodle   about 270g
Thin sliced pork    about 5 slices (cut into small pieces)
Onion              2 (sliced)
Garlic              2 clove (chopped)
Garlic Chives   a handful (cut into small pieces)
Seasoned soy sauce    2 table spoon
Vegetable Oil             2 table spoon
Red pickled ginger     2 table spoon
Fried wheat flour       optional

1.  Since I used dried udon noodle, I cooked the noodle in hot water. (follow the direction on package)

2. Add some oil in a pan and saute chopped garlic and sliced onion until soft. Then add pork and garlic chives.

3. When udon is cooked, add udon to the pan and mix with the vegetables and pork. Then add seasoned soy sauce. At the end, add chopped red pickled ginger.

4. If you have fried wheat flour handy, sprinkle them on top (optional) and serve.

I also had gobo and carrots salad on the side.

This weekend is memorial day weekend and we are having a big BBQ party at our place today. Some people had yesterday off already and everybody is enjoying the long weekend.

I am making banana pudding for dessert and salmon wrap and cheese roll for appetizers. There are so many things to be done still. I need to get to work now before everyone shows up.

I am so excited about this BBQ. There are some people whom I haven't seen for a while and there are also some new people. We are going to celebrate the summer season!

I hope everybody is having a great weekend!!

Japanese flavored mushroom pasta recipe

When I go to Japanese supermarket, I always buy many different kinds of mushrooms and make pasta or risotto. It was no exception this time neither.

I remembered that I had this great mushroom pasta in Manhattan's restaurant called TriBeCafe. (Click here for the post about TriBeCafe). I tried to recreate what I ate there.

I make mushroom pasta quite often but I don't use too much Japanese ingredients for it normally. This time I did some research and experimented with some ingredients from Japan such as "seasoning soy sauce", "seaweed powder" and "bonito flavored seasoning".

Japanese flavored mushroom pasta
Ingredients
Mushroom (I used maitake, shiitake, shimeji, bunashimeji but you can use whatever mushroom on hand as much as you want)
Pasta       300g
Onion      2  (sliced)
Garlic      2 cloves (chopped)
seasoning soy sauce    2 table spoon
seaweed powder         1 tea spoon
bonito flavored seasoning   1 tea spoon
butter                           2 table spoon
Olive Oil                     2 table spoon
Shiso (Japanese basil)  3

1. Heat up butter and olive oil in a frying pan and sauté onion and garlic.

2. boil water in a pot and make pasta.

3. When onion is well cooked, add mushroom, seasoning soy sauce, seaweed powder and bonito flavored seasoning.

4. When pasta is cooked, add pasta to the mushroom mixture and mix well.

5. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with shredded shiso leaves.

This tasted more Japanese than my normal mushroom pasta and it was really good.

It might be a bit difficult to find those ingredients in a regular supermarket. Seasoning soy sauce is called "Tsuyu no moto" and this is very useful. This can be used to make a broth for udon or soba noodle or dipping sauce for Tempura or when you make some kind of bowl. I used this all the time.

Seaweed powder is called "konbu cha" and people dissolve this powder into a hot water and drink it as tea. I don't like drinking this tea but I like to used this as a flavor for some dishes.

Bonito flavored seasoning is a powder seasoning from bonito and we use this when we make miso soup. It is a base for making miso soup or some other kind of Japanese soup.

My husband told me before that he does not like mushroom too much but since I love mushroom, I make something with mushroom all the time. I think he got used to it. He now likes it. Maybe because I always enjoy eating mushroom, it motivate him to eat more mushroom :-) I don't know but it is good that he likes it now :-)