069 - KARAAGE - 唐揚げ

Hello everyone. Man, I feel bad for not giving you update what’s going on over the last 3 weeks since my last post. There were a lot of stuff going around during that time, but long story short, I wasn’t on the mood.

Yes, Mr. Moody is back.

It’s not that I don’t want to make a new post with new recipe on it, it’s just that; let me ask you a question first.

Have you ever wanted to show people something so bad, but stopped halfway through because you know it looked ugly as hell and you could do a lot better than that? 

Because that’s exactly what happened to me!

You see, I tested a few new recipes, but none of it made it. It’s just too tacky, ugly, simply said; ain’t good enough for you guys. But hey, failures breeds success.

So, here I am, proud to show you my take on Japanese deep fried chicken, also popularly known as KARAAGE.

Karaage, for me, is the perfect fried chicken. It’s even better than KFC, since with little ingredient, you can deliver even bigger flavor than Colonel’s!

Without further ado, let’s get going!

For 1 serving, you will need;

YES, THE SUGAR WAS MISSING, FORGOT TO PUT IT THERE

·         Chicken Thigh – 150 Grams – Cut into bite sized pieces

·         Cornstarch – 1 ½ Tbsp

·         All Purpose Flour – 1 ½ Tbsp

·         Egg – 1 piece – Beaten

·         Oil – Enough to cover the chicken during cooking

Seasonings

·         Soy Sauce – 1 Tbsp

·         Sake – 1 Tbsp (Optional for y’all Halal readers out there)

·         Garlic – 1 Tsp – Grated

·         Ginger – 1 Tsp – Grated

·         Sugar – 1 Tsp

·         Sesame Oil – 1 Tsp (Optional)

Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Pat your chicken dry with kitchen towel if you haven’t done so. Transfer it into a bowl; add the soy sauce, sake, garlic, ginger, sugar, and sesame oil. Get dirty and use your hands, give it a nice massage you can ever do to a chicken. Once done, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, let sit in the fridge to marinade for 30 minutes.

Garlic goes in

..Ginger too

Then soy sauce says hi

Sake says hello

Sesame seed oil apologizes on behalf of sugar for not being there on time (YES, YOU'RE SUPPOSE TO PUT THE SUGAR RIGHT AFTER SESAME SEED OIL)

The greatest mix up of all time!

Step 2 – Take the chicken out of the fridge. Add the beaten egg, give it a nice mix. Add the flour, mix again. Add the cornstarch, and give it a final mix. Don’t mix too much, or else the dough will get a chewy finish later. Set aside.

Egg was lovely today

Eww, sticky!

Flour. Hmm..let's see what happens next

OH MY GOD STICKY.

Cornstarch. I got a bad feeling about this

OH MY GOD, LET ME HAND GOOOOOOO

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

..and there you are.

Step 3 – Heat the oil on medium heat. You can tell it’s hot when you drop a little bit of batter in and it floats right away. Anyway, cook your chicken in batches so you don’t f*ck up with the temperature too much. I’m cooking 3 pieces per batch. Fry for approximately 1-2 minutes depending on the size. Once it’s pale/almost light brown in color, take it out and let it rest. Cook the rest like you would the first time.

Soybean oil this time around. Higher smoke point madafaka!

YESS

Now, this is what you're aiming, done, but not quite there.

Whole batch of it!

Step 4 – Once the first frying is done, we are going to double fry these bad boys. Set the heat to high, and let the oil gets smoldering hot. Cook your chicken in batches (again), this time it’ll only take a mere 20-30 seconds. Once it’s crispy to touch and golden brown in color, welcome to heaven.

See the bubbles? Eat yourself, beer.

PERFECTION

See how double frying actually improves everything? The left side is single frying, right one is double fried.

Step 5 – Serve!

I personally like to add a sprinkle of salt over the Karaage right after it left the fryer. Karaage tend to have a light taste that is not overwhelming, that’s why some people will prefer to have more savory kick to it, hence, the salt.

Karaage is best serve with rice, like you would Japanese dish. However, possibilities are endless. I’ve seen Karaage served with French Fries, Mashed Potatoes, even sandwich between Burger Bun!

Give this recipe a try this weekend. It is very easy, and guaranteed to be loved by your family. Well, unless they hate fried food.

Cheers

xx

060 - MAC AND CHEESE

I’m back people. First of all, apologize for lack of updates. You see, last week, I got a deal on airfare tickets courtesy of our recently crowned 5 star national airline, Garuda Indonesia. It was too good to miss. So yeah, I went to Singapore for a day. LITERALLY, a day. Had the first flight out, and went back on the 3^rd from last. Safe to say, I’m basically spent. Dammit.

Anyway, let’s learn how to make an easy Mac and Cheese. I love Mac and Cheese. I remember getting my first Kraft dinner Mac and Cheese. It was essentially a forbidden food in our kitchen. Why? It’s carbs and fats. It ain’t good for the body. But who am I kidding? Those things are nostalgic. It brings comfort of home to your tummy. Who am I to say no?

Here are the lists of ingredients;

=========================

For 2 servings, you will need;

180 grams of Macaroni. Don’t use other pasta, please.

50 grams of Butter

50 grams of All Purpose Flour

400 ml of Milk, cold.

150 grams of Cheddar Cheese. Grated

(optional) 1 tbsp of Grated Parmesan Cheese

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

===========================

Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Fill a pot with enough water to cook the pasta, add salt, and let it boil. Once boiling, add the Macaroni in, cook in approximately 8 minutes for al dente. Once done, strain it and set aside.

Salt

Covering helps the water to boil faster

Macaroni

Precisely!

Perfect!

Step 2 – Get a non-stick pan/pot and set the heat to medium-low, melt the butter. Once melted, add the flour and whisk vigorously to combine. The goal here is to make a Roux. Roux is a base for a lot of French sauces, or, in this case, cheese sauce. We are actually cooking the flour so there won’t be any flour taste left when the sauce is done. This should take about 3-4 minutes.

Butter

All ready to go

Flour goes in

Whisk! and don't stop!

All combined, and cooked up

Step 3 – Add the cold milk little by little while you continue whisking. The mixture will turn into lumps. BUT DON’T WORRY! They always do. Now all you gotta do is continue whisking while adding the milk constantly. When you’re down to your last pour, the mixture will be liquidy and thick enough to actually look like a sauce! Let the mixture come so a simmer on medium-low for another 2-3 minutes.

See how the milk turns the mixture into lumps?

lumps! Lumps! LUMPS~!

Weehee! No more lumps!

Step 4 – Add the shredded cheese in, and whisk to melt. Add the salt and pepper to round up the flavor, and boom. Cheese sauce is done!

Cheddar

(optional) Parmesan

Mix!

Ey ey, good lookin'!

Salt and Pepper

SEX!

Step 5 – Combine the macaroni and the sauce. Nothing else you need to do. Seriously.

Step 6 – SERVE!

Mac and Cheese is awesome. It’s a perfect food for your Sunday lunches. It taste good, and it actually make you feel good! Well, unless you’re on a diet.

Anyway, you can spice things up in a lot of way, possibilities are endless. But I like it simple like this

Cheers

xx

026 - The Double Crispy Trouble!

Instant ramen is a game changer. No doubt about that. Ever since its inception, the fabulous thing had been converted into lots of creative meal. The imagination those who create a meal off of it has no limit. 

So after I made Milk Ramen few weeks back, I’m going to incorporate yet another Instant Ramen into my recipe. So for this week, brace yourself for this fucker. Lo and behold, the Double Crispy Trouble.

Why double? This dish consisted of Ramen that is pan fried till crisp PLUS a crispy chicken thigh seasoned with the seasoning pack itself!

Here’s what you need:

1 Pack of Instant Ramen of your choice. Onion chicken for me today

Enough oil for frying

For the chicken:

70 grams of Chicken Thigh, cut into bite size pieces.

1 garlic peeled and grated.

2 tbsp of Soy Sauce

2 tsp of Rice Wine Vinegar

1 tsp of Dried Chili Flakes.

1 seasoning packet from the ramen. Remember, save it, don’t waste it. (PURELY OPTIONAL! Read below!)

8 tbsp of Cornstarch (for Indonesians, we call it Maizena)

1 egg white

Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Marinate your chicken. Mix the chicken thigh with the garlic, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, chili flakes, AND if you’re feeling adventurous, the ramen seasoning. If you decided to add the ramen seasoning, it’d be best to leave the soy sauce out of the marinade! The seasoning will overwhelm everything, and it will make your chicken way too salty. Oh, and leave it to marinate for at least 10 minute.

Chicken

Soy Sauce

Rice Wine Vinegar

Chili Flakes

Garlic

WARNING: CONTAIN MUCH MSG ORGASM. SUCH INTENSE. MUCH WOW.

 This is what i feel about the seasoning packet:

OOOHHH LA LAAA

Mixy-Mixy- MIX IT UP

Step 2 – Boil your ramen as usual, strain it after it’s done to your liking, and leave it to dry for a bit. Dry ramen will yield a crispy ramen. And you know what crispy means right? YUM YUM. Oh, and no picture for this step, you know how it's done right?

Step 3 – While we wait for the ramen to dry, heat your oil in the pan with high heat, just enough to shallow fry the chicken. Shallow frying is typically used to prepare portion-sized cuts of meat and fish, and patties such as fritters (that’s what Wikipedia says, I simply call this as ‘goreng dangkal’ LOL)

Step 4 – Drain the marinade off the chicken; mix the egg whites and prepare the cornstarch. The flow goes; chicken-cornstarch-egg whites-corn starch. You will see that the chicken will be coated in a thick batter. And trust me on this one; this will become crisp once finished!

Prep line

Corn starch first

Egg whites

Back to the starch

 Step 5 – Dunk the chicken to the hot oil. Cook it for 1.5 - 2 minutes on each side, or until that golden brown crust has popped up gracefully! Be very careful not to burn the crust. Once you hit the jackpot, strain and leave the excess oil drop on top of the paper towel.

After the flip. LOOK AT THAT

Step 6 – Heat yet another batch of oil. Feel free to reuse the previous oil, but for great appearance, use fresh new batch. Don’t be a cheapo will ya? Oh, use medium heat for this. Once you see smoke, put the ramen and shape it into concentric circles. You know, for presentation ;) Cook this for about 4-5 minutes on each side, until it turns golden brown. Drain it on paper towel after it’s done. Oh, and don’t you dare to speedhack the process with higher heat, you will definitely burn the noodle! (I did this, stupid)

First side. Looking lumpy.

Press it!

Golden Brown Crunch!

Step 7 – Serve!

See how easy it is for you to elevate the level of a simple instant ramen? Heads will turn folks, heads will turn. For that extra savory, mix mayonnaise with mustard and a touch of acidity in forms of either lemon juice or white vinegar. Drizzle that all over the dish. D-E-L-I-S-H!

Give this a go and let me know how it turns out!

Peace

xx