18 6.12.22 Photograph by Chris Simpson Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas.
Eat By Bryan Washington
There are dishes we cook, and then
there are dishes we cook toward. These
are the meals that follow us in memory —
sometimes annoyingly, sometimes entic-
ingly — after we’ve washed the dishes,
or the next morning over coff ee, a quick
fl ickering before we’re battered by the
day. These recipes expand and contract,
growing right beside us. They’re like the
idea of home.
Lately, my home has been built from
korokke. The dish is a Japanese itera-
tion of the French croquette: a patty of
mashed potatoes, simmered vegetables
and protein. That mixture is molded into
a mass, until the mounds are breaded
and fried to crisp, golden perfection. In
‘‘Japanese Soul Cooking,’’ Tadashi Ono
and Harris Salat note, ‘‘While easy to
cook at home, korokke in Japan are alsocommonly sold from stalls and, especial-
ly, in butcher shops.’’
When making your own, you could
opt for gyu korokke (beef croquettes). Or
curry rice korokke, subbing out the pota-
toes entirely. Kani cream korokke binds
crab meat with a béchamel sauce, coated
and fried in little logs, perfect for bolting
by the truckload. Or, well into your korok-
ke journey, you could turn to its distant,Croquettes,
Japanese-style.
Pair them
with shredded
cabbage or
eat a handful on
their own.