Potato Croquettes or Korokke

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'Croquettes' or Korokke is another dish with a French name that is popular in Japan. Here is a wonderful recipe for Potato Curry Croquettes:

Ingredients:

Croquette mixture:
1/4 lb. ground beef
1 lb. potatoes, boiled and mashed
1/2 onion, chopped fine
salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste
Optional: 1 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon oil or butter

Coating:
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
2 cups bread crumbs

Cooking:
Oil for deep frying

Garnish:
8 cabbage leaves, thinly sliced, soaked in cold water

Cut 1 lb. of potatoes, boil and mash, then set aside while you cook the meat mixture as follows:

Heat oil/butter, then saute the chopped onion until it is transparent. Add ground meat, brown the meat, then add the spices. Remove meat mixture and add it to the mashed potatoes.

Place the flour on a plate or clean surface and do the same with the bread crumbs. The beaten egg should be in a separate bowl.

Now make 8 croquettes by shaping or rolling the mixture in your hands, dredge each first in the flour, dip it in the egg, then roll it in the bread crumbs until it is covered thoroughly.

Heat oil and deep-fry each croquette in the oil for about 3 minutes on each side until golden-brown. Drain and remove any excess oil from the croquettes, then wrap in the cabbage leaves and serve. (If you do not like raw cabbage, you can cook the cabbage leaves slightly before placing them in the cold water.)

Not as healthy as Natto perhaps...

A very simple Korokke recipe is:

3 or 4 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup corn
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup Japanese bread crumbs (panko)

Oil for frying

Place the flour on a plate or clean surface and place the bread crumps on another plate or bowl, while keeping the beaten egg in a separate bowl.

Mix the mashed potatoes and egg together, then shape into patties. Dredge first in flour, then dip in the egg and finally coat with the bread crumbs.

Deep fry each croquette in oil until golden. Drain and remove any excess oil. Serve with tonkatsu or any other favourite sauce.

Natto

Some one left a comment on my site with a link to a YouTube video about Natto, reminding me that this was another Dish that appears in Harvest Moon with many variations but which may be unknown territory in real life for many players.

Natto, as players of Island of Happiness may have realised from the basic ingredient, basically consists of fermented soybeans. You can purchase plain natto from most Asian or Japanese markets, but if you are courageous and enjoy experiments in the kitchen, you can make it yourself.

Even when you make Natto yourself, you actually have to purchase the 'starter culture' in the form of commercial Natto somewhere. As with homemade yoghurt, you need the culture in the form of plain yoghurt in order to 'infect' your own ingredients. The ingredients needed to make homemade Natto therefore are soybeans, commercial Natto and water. A pressure cooker always is recommended for cooking soybeans.

Here is a link to a site that describes the entire process very well:

How to Make Natto

One of the reasons I used 'courageous' in my description of the cook who is willing to try to make Natto 'from scratch' is the disclaimer given by Kazuo Shiroki on this site as follows: 'Disclaimer: As making natto involves food processing, there is a chance of food poisoning. Even at the best care it might happen.'

Fermentation involves the creation of bacteria and is akin in a sense to allowing food or drink to spoil. Wines, ales, cheeses, yoghurt and Natto all only a few examples of fine foods and beverages created when an edible ingredient became fermented or transformed by bacteria.

Soybeans are a wonderful source of nutrients and a mainstay of many cuisines.

Whether you make your own Natto or buy it ready-made from a market, you then can experiment with different Natto dishes.

Kazuo Shiroki gives a list of easy Natto dishes that require the addition of only one or two ingredients each: Add vinegar. Add mayonnaise. Add sliced apples or applesauce. Add soy sauce. Add yoghurt. Add avocado and soy sauce. Add mustard, chopped green onions and soy sauce. Add tabasco sauce. Add soy sauce and various cheeses.

The smell of Natto and its 'sliminess' are the two aspects of plain Natto that deter many people from eating it. The additives given above reduce the odour and improve the texture.

Evidently, whether or not you make it yourself or buy it in a package, Natto needs to be stirred thoroughly or 'whipped' before you use it. According to one Japanese programme, you need to stir Natto 424 times before it will be ready to use!

Natto can be served with hot rice, spread on bread or used in any way that takes your fancy.

Here is a video from YouTube about Natto, suggested by a visitor to my Harvest Moon site:

Japanese Curry Rice

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As this is a Rune Factory/Harvest Moon Cooking Site, it would be lacking in versimilitude if I did not include Japanese Curry Rice Recipes. Sadly, most of the Recipes I discovered called for commercial 'Japanese Curry Roux' for seasoning without listing the ingredients. That rather begs the question, as I wished to know what the difference was between ordinary Indian Curry Powder and the Japanese version... Fortunately, I did find a Recipe for Curry Rice that did include a recipe for Japanese Curry Roux.

As various types of Curries are found in large quantities in Harvest Moon and Rune factory, I rather suspected that they were extremely popular in Japan. What is interesting is that they evidently are considered to be 'yoshoku' dishes derived from Western food rather than Indian Cuisine. In fact, the manner of cooking as well as the spices used would give the Japanese Curries a distinctive taste that would be very different from any Indian Curries.

A food writer declared that Japanese Curries are more like spicy stews than generic Indian/Pakistani Curry. Certainly there are ingredients included in some of the Japanese Curry recipes I have seen that I never encountered in traditional Indian curries, from yams to applesauce. Now I have more understanding of the Recipes for 'Finest Curry' and 'Ultimate Curry' in Harvest Moon! Obviously, unorthodox ingredients can be the key to a rare dish in Japan.

Japanese Curry Rice:

Garam masala:
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger or ginger powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon black pepper

All ingredients:

4 cups cooked rice
2 potatoes, in small pieces
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped fine
2 onions, sliced thin
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 cup water
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups water
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
1 teaspoon beef bouillon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon grated fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons butter
salt to taste

Cut potatoes, carrots, onion and any meat you wish to use into small pieces.

Saute meat in cooking oil until fully cooked. Add potatoes, carrots and 1 chopped onion and continue to saute until cooked. Add 1 cup of water, bring to a boil quickly, then lower temperature and simmer for 40 minutes.

In another pan, melt butter and saute 2 sliced onions for 20 minutes until brown. Add the grated garlic and ginger to the pan and saute well, then add the flour and curry powder.

In yet ANOTHER pan, add the 2 types of bouillon to 3 cups of water to create soup. Once the soup is made, pour it slowly into the pan containing the sliced onions, stirring quickly. Simmer until thickened and once thickened, add the garam masala that you made gradually. This is your 'curry roux'.

When the vegetables and meat have cooked for about 40 minutes, add the curry roux. Stir, then allow it to simmer for ten minutes. Sprinkle with salt.

Note from Freyashawk: Kind of a complicated way to make Curry compared to the single skillet variety I was taught to make! When I was taught, no one measured the ingredients either. They simply told me to watch them and they would proceed to take a handful of this and handful of that, knowing precisely how big of a handful was required for each ingredient! I will have to do more research, but it seems that Japanese 'curry roux' is kind of a basic curry sauce.

Basic Potato Vegetable Curry

Harvest Moon and Rune Factory Cookbooks display incredible enthusiasm for Curries. As a child, I lived in a country where I learned to make Curries. I therefore will include my own basic recipe for Curry here. As Harvest Moon and Rune Factory ordinarily do not include meat as an ingredient, this will be a simple vegetarian Curry from the far north, near Mount Everest.

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic (or more if desired)
Butter or Oil

Spices:
Cumin, Cardamon, Coriander, Mustard seeds/powder, Cinnamon, Clove and Curry Powder (masala)
Optional: dried red chilis

Vegetables
Potatoes, diced
Cauliflower, cut or broken into small florets
Optional: Carrots, Green Peas
Salt and pepper to taste

There are two ways to use the spices. One traditional method is to grind all the spices with the garlic using a mortar and pestle until you create a paste. The chilis often are included here. The other method is to simply add the spices to your oil/butter and onion while frying it. The basic spices are Cumin, Coriander and Mustard Powder as well as some form of Curry Powder (which usually contains these spices as well as Tumeric). Cinnamon, Cardamon and Cloves add a sweet flavour to the curry.

Fry the onion (and garlic) over medium heat in butter or oil until transparent. then add spices or curry paste. After a few moments, add the vegetables and fry these for about five minutes, until coated with the butter/oil and spices. If you use curry powder or tumeric as well, the vegetables will turn yellow. Add water, salt and pepper and reduce the heat, then simmer until the vegetables are tender.

Serve the Vegetable Curry with Boiled or Steamed Rice.

'Curry' is fairly generic and can vary wildly both in ingredients and flavour. I next will post a Japanese Recipe for Curry.

White Sauce for Japanese Doria without Seafood

As I waded through countless Recipes for 'Doria', I discovered that there were two different fundamental Dishes that were given the name in contemporary cooking. One is a Seafood Dish with a white sauce and the other is a dish with Cucumbers.

With a white sauce, it appears that one could make a dish without seafood and call it 'Doria', so here is a simple recipe for a White Sauce used in Doria.

In HM DS/Cute DS, the Basic Recipe for 'Doria' is as follows:
Onion, Butter, Milk, Riceballs, Flour

It contains no Cucumbers. I therefore am including a very simple White Sauce and Doria recipe here that would correspond as closely as possible with the original Harvest Moon Doria.

White Sauce or Bechamel Sauce


4 Tablespoons butter
6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/4 cup Gruyere cheese
Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

To make the white sauce, melt butter in a skillet and add flour very slowly, stirring constantly to create a smooth paste. Add milk slowly to the mixture, never allowing any lumps to form. When the sauce is thick, remove from heat and add 1/4 cup Gruyere cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Now you have the bechamel sauce for your Doria.

Other ingredients for Doria:

You need cooked rice, 1 to 2 cups
Fresh Parsley
1/2 cup Gruyere

1 onion, chopped fine
Optional: chopped garlic, chopped mushrooms
Meat, vegetables or seafood, sliced or diced

For the main element in the Doria, melt butter and then cook a chopped onion (and chopped garlic if desired) in it until golden and transparent. If you wish to add mushrooms to the dish, do so now and cook them in the butter. Now add your meat, brown a little on both sides and then add the wine. When the meat has cooked, remove from the heat.

Place the cooked rice in a baking dish and toss the meat mixture into it, combining nicely. Pour the bechamel (white sauce) over the mixture. Sprinkle lavishly with grated Gruyere cheese and bake in the oven for about a quarter of an hour, until the mixture bubbles. Garnish with fresh parsley.
1/2 pound shrimp - peeled, devained and cut in bit-size pieces
1/4 pound scallops - cut in bite-size pieces
1/2 - 2/3 cups white wine

1 Tablespoon butter

1/2 yellow or white onion, minced
1/2 cup chopped white mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (1 or 2 small cloves)
Pinch of white pepper
2 cups cooked white rice at room temperature (leftover rice is fine and dandy)
Topping

1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese (or other mild white cheese)
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Another Recipe for Doria (with Chicken)

It appears that some traditional Doria Recipes are made with cucumber. Here is one:

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
Flour for dredging
1/2 onion, chopped fine
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup diced cucumber

Cut the chicken breasts in half, tenderise and dredge in flour, then saute in butter until golden on both sides. (Note that you must slice the meat rather thin if you wish to cook it fully in this manner.)

Remove chicken and saute the onion in the butter until transparent.

When the onion has cooked, add the wine and reduce the heat. When the liquid has boiled down, add the cream. When the liquid is reduced again, add the cucumbers, salt and pepper, then pour mixture over the Chicken breasts.

Pudding or Blancmange and Trifle

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Pudding is included in most Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games. In these games, the only required ingredients usually are Milk and Egg but there are a multitude of optional ingredients. 'Pudding' is one of the best Cooked Dishes to take on any exploration of the Mines in the early stages of a game. It has good Energy Recovery values.

Rather to my delight, one of my favourite 'puddings' in the form of Trifle has been added to the Recipes for Sweets in the new Harvest Moon game, Sunshine Islands. A traditional recipe for Trifle is included here as well.
This is the easiest, old-fashioned Pudding and probably is as close as possible to 'Pudding' in any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons Sugar
4 tablespoons Cornstarch
2 tablespoons Butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 cups Milk
dash of salt

Using a little Milk, make a smooth paste of the cornstarch, sugar and salt, adding more milk gradually until all the milk has been added and the paste has completely dissolved without creating any lumps. Place the mixture in a saucepan and cook it over medium heat, stirring constantly. Do not allow it to come to a complete boil if possible. When the mixture thickens, remove it from the heat and add the butter and vanilla extract, stirring to melt the butter and mix it thoroughly into the Pudding. Place in individual glass dishes and allow to cool.

Less cornstarch can be used to create a custard sauce to be poured on top of cakes. More cornstarch will create a thicker pudding. If you like a richer pudding, you can add a beaten egg yolk to the milk mixture. This will make it slightly golden rather than white. The traditional English 'Bird's Custard' actually is a form of Blancmange.

Coconut Blancmange

One of my own favourite variations to plain Blancmange is Coconut Blancmange. Instead of using only Milk, I replace half of the Milk with Coconut Milk. I sometimes add a little cardamon to the pudding with the vanilla at the end. Other spices that are wonderful in this pudding are nutmeg and cinnamon.

Chocolate Pudding

You can add cocoa or melted semi-sweet chocolate to the milk mixture in order to make Chocolate Pudding.

Trifle

A traditional English Trifle often contains a layer of Pudding as well as custard sauce.

To make a simple Trifle, cut Pound Cake or any sponge cake into thin slices and create a layer at the bottom of a large glass bowl or dish. Cover this with a thin layer of jam or fruit puree. If you like an alcoholic Trifle, you can sprinkle or saturate the cake with Sherry, brandy, rum or any other liqueur before you add the Jam or Fruit.

Your next layer is Blancmange or any other kind of Vanilla Pudding. This layer should be reasonably thick.

Now add a layer of what is called 'jelly' in England and 'jello' in the States. Use a flavour that will go well with the fruits you are using. Some people mix cut fruit into the jelly/jello but others create a separate layer of fruit above it.

If you wish to keep the fruit separate, add a layer of fresh or tinned fruit now on top of the jelly/jello layer.

Now add a generous layer of whipped cream to the top of the dish, sprinkling sliced almonds on it.

Your Trifle, known as 'Zuppa Inglese' or 'English Soup' in Italian, is complete. Note that Trifle can contain any ingredients or as many layers of different sweet substances as you wish!