Japanese Crabcakes (Crab Cream Croquette)!

Ingredients for 2 (made about 6):

• 200ml of milk
• 20g of butter
• 20g of flour
• 80g of crab meat (fresh or canned)
• 1 bay leaf
• panko
• 1 egg beaten
• extra flour, salt and pepper

1. Heat up the milk in a pan to about body temperature:

2. Melt some butter in another pot on low until it becomes bubbly:

Then add the flour and mix well:

3. Then start adding the milk little by little. Break it up into ~3 portions, and before adding in the next amount wait for it to come to a boil. (The recipe claims that if the milk is heated up beforehand this limits the lumping. I dunno it didn’t work so well for me..!):

Keep on mixing until smooth and thickens:

(as you can see, I had to work at beating the lumps out (the recipe says use a very fine strainer and press) but I did eventually get there after this).

Then add the crab (after draining if canned. I used fresh meat):

Bay leaf:

And cook on medium, adding salt and pepper:

And cook until the crab is not watery (important when deep frying later).

Then remove the bay leaf and spread in a plate/container:

Cover, and refrigerate for an hour. Thank you, cute cabbage cover:

4. After an hour, take a look at your crab mixture, it should feel kind of like jello:

Then start making little balls by molding and throwing them back and forth between your hands:

Then dust the balls with flour:

Gosh they look like little mochi balls again.

3. Heat up some oil (about 1cm worth) in a heavy frying pan.

Then coat each ball with egg, and then panko:

Test the oil by throwing in a little egg coated with panko in to see if it’s ready (it should start crackling), and then throw in your little balls:

And cook until golden!

Then remove by shaking off the oil, and setting in a drip pan (and patting with some paper towels for extra measure):

And serve!

Goes well with some Worcester sauce, Tonkatsu sauce, or even on their own!

not mine.credit and source: KUMIKA FOOD