A Japanese potato croquette without egg wash?

Question

I'm trying to make these little babies (Example recipe here: http://www.bento.com/tr-koro.html) and every recipe I've looked up requires the egg wash. It's part of the usual deep-fry coating for a lot of other dishes: coat with flour, drench in egg, coat with breadcrumbs. I'm serving them to a friend who is allergic to all dairy products. Any chance I could substitute the egg wash for something else so that the panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) will still stick to the croquette?

Answer 1

Just mix starch and flour in a bowl with water and whip it up until is look like egg.  That's what I do, and it works.  I think potato starch works very well, but try corn starch or other starch and see.  I do the same for tempura.  The temperature of the oil is very important... it's not hot enough, it won't stick.  We also tried adding some baking powder to the starch and that helped to fluff it up some too.  Just experiment.  I always forget what I tried which works best, then start over again each time...

Answer 2

I am a former chef and we had to make these in japan for the Shinto customers, a bit of soya milk or water, mixed with potato starch/rice or soya flour and a bit of salt, roll them in some starch before, and I even add some to the panko crumbs or wheat free breadcrumbs, I have taken rice cracker snack mix and buzzed it in the food processor to make a nice coating.

Our karrokata were made with both regular potatos and Japanese Yam potatos, with shiso and other herbs even curry in them, if you use the non veg 3 stage type breading process of a flour, liquid wash, and crumb coating, lightley tamp them to make sure the coating is sticking then chill, I cook mine in a non stick fry pan with a light spritz of oil, not deep fried but is an option.

Answer 3

soy milk - just roll in soy milk then in bread crumbs easy

Answer 4

If your friend is allergic to dairy products, then using an egg wash is fine because it is not a dairy product.

Eggs come from avians.

Allergy inducing "dairy products" come from bovines.

Also, eggs that are not fertilized do not end a life, so the ethical consideration is not present either. That is why they are an acceptable source of protein and nutrients for some "ethics vegetarians".

Answer 5

I'm vegan so I've experimented with non-egg ways to coat things to fry and haven't come up with a perfect solution yet. Some suggestions that I've tried out include using soy sauce, maple syrup, or creating your own crumb recipe using corn meal. The maple syrup worked best because it's so sticky but beware how it might affect the taste of what you're making. Same goes for soy sauce, it could get too salty.

Answer 6

1tsp soy flour mixed in 1Tbsp water.

Eggs are not dairy, by the way.