Chicken Karaage

Before there was Korean fried chicken, there was Japanese chicken karaage.

There are times when I just get sick and tired of KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) and its million and one variants, and all I crave really, is the simple taste of chicken and that hint of ginger and soy.

No cheese, butter laced gochujang, bbq sauce (the worst) or ranch. And no bones!

I’ve had so many versions over the years and I’m glad that Eric Kim of NYTimes Cooking has laid to rest that question of ‘what is the definitive recipe for chicken karate?’ (watch his video). The answer being, is that there isn’t one.

There was a time when I literally had something deep-fried every week, mostly on weekends, but I’ve been pacing that now but when I do, it’s karaage.

My recipe is almost identical to Eric’s but with one difference- I use an equal part of tapioca starch in my batter with regular flour. You could do the starch exclusively, but flour mixed in gives it a crunch that’s firm, but not too crunchy which is my preference.

Ingredients:
1pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces
1(2-inch) piece ginger, peeled and finely grated (2 teaspoons)
2tablespoons soy sauce
2tablespoons sake
½teaspoon granulated sugar
½teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1large egg
1/2 cup tapioca starch mixed with 1/2 cup regular flour.
About 1 quart canola or vegetable oil, for frying

Step 1
To a medium bowl, add the chicken, ginger, soy sauce, sake, sugar and salt. Toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Step 2
Place a wire rack over a large, paper towel-lined sheet pan. Crack the egg into a small bowl and whisk. To a large bowl, add the starches. One by one, dip the chicken into the egg, then into the batter mixture until evenly coated. Set the coated chicken pieces on the left side of the wire rack.

Step 3
To a medium saucepan, add enough oil to fill a third of the way up. Heat the oil over medium-high to 320 degrees. Turn your hood vent on, if you’ve got one, and open a nearby window, if possible. Working in batches, fry the chicken until crunchy and light brown, adjusting the heat so the oil temperature stays between 300 and 320 degrees, 4 to 6 minutes per batch. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the fried chicken to the right side of the wire rack, away from the portion that was exposed to the raw chicken, to rest slightly.

Step 4
Serve with the optional (but very delicious) lemon wedges and mayonnaise dusted with togarashi.

Friday's Mac and 'Cheese'

The sixth consecutive food post that made me think, since eating seems to be the only thing of significance I do in my life, I might as well do a food blog. Our kitchen isn’t the best though- for shooting cooking videos that is, so I need to be creative with my shots.

I’ve been mulling whether to buy this clever camera stand as well as a whole slew of stuff from this site which means that at the end of it all, I’d probably be fat and poor.

Anyhow, another week done and we’re already hurtling towards the holidays which is funny, because in mid-August I started getting a lot of pumpkin-pie, pumpkin-anything stuff on my social feeds. I also got an email from Nespresso hawking their limited-edition pumpkin-spice cake pods.

It’s a shame the Z station near our office burned down; Z Energy Cafes sell the BEST PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES in the country. It was so good, that I had one every other day last year for the duration that it was available.

I have a can of Libby’s Pumpkin Puree that an American (obviously) friend gave me- might do that pumpkin flan I’ve been wanting to do.

I was all set to have Spam and eggs for dinner when I spotted three large capsicums in my fridge that I had meant to make into a sauce; one was already on its way out but the other two (large) ones were still okay. So I popped them into the oven to grill. Peeled and de-seeded, you saute them in olive oil and butter with a couple of cloves of garlic. And the magic ingredient that makes them taste as if you’ve put dollops of cream and cheese? A chicken flavour cube.

It’s then pureed and mixed in with the macaroni. Since I didn’t have cheese which usually makes the topping along with bread crumbs and butter, I had to use this salad topper mix that had moorish yeast flakes, toasted seeds and crispy onions.

I very briefly put the mac under the grill just enough to heat the topping- it didn’t have cheese anyway so there was nothing there to melt- because I actually like my pasta runny.

Boun appetito!

Cookie Wednesday

I could be wrong, but I’ve never made cookies before. Full disclosure- not too fond of them. I’d eat them for sure if they were offered, but I don’t go crazy for them. We have a steady, free supply of cookies and biscuits at work and I do have one or two every day (!) but it hasn’t become a habit. Given the choice between a packet of choc-chip cookies or a deli pork-belly roast, I would always pick the latter.

Fact: I love a rum-raisin cookie though and on the rare times I get a Subway sandwich, I always get one if it is available.

But I decided to make this cookie because I saw it on Instagram- the current source of culinary inspiration- and the guy just did it well, plus, it was salted caramel, with emphasis on salt (using Maldon sea salt) which is my go-to flavour for sweet stuff.

Alas, I neither had the time to make the caramel (didn’t feel like watching a pot of simmering sugar) nor had Maldon sea salt. Tried to use Himalayan, but it’s not really fine and flaky as Maldon.

But I was committed and in lieu of caramel, I bought a packet of cranberries. The recipe is as follows if you want to make the caramel:

Ingredients:
200g granulated sugar
a pinch of Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
Cookies
210g unsalted butter, cubed
200g dark brown sugar
100g granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
330g all-purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
300g dark chocolate, chopped
Maldon Sea Salt Flakes for finishing

Method
1. To make the caramel, add the granulated sugar to a small saucepan. Over a medium heat, melt the sugar until you reach a golden amber colour, swirl the pot to mix the caramel
2. Season the caramel with a pinch of Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, then pour it onto a heat proof surface covered in greaseproof paper and set aside to harden
3. Add the cold butter, with a pinch of salt to a saucepan and melt. Once the butter has melted, continue to cook until it starts to develop a darker colour and smells almost nutty. Then, pour the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and let it cool for 15-20 minutes
4. While the hot butter is cooling, get all your dry ingredients ready in a separate bowl, chop your chocolate into large chunks, and smash the caramel into small coin size pieces
5. Once your butter has cooled slightly, add both the sugars to it. Mix using the paddle attachment. Once the sugar has dissolved into the butter, add the eggs one at a time and beat until the eggs have emulsified
6. Add your dry ingredients to this in 2 or 3 batches, at this point you’re trying to bring the batter together - you don’t want to overwork it
7. Add the chopped chocolate and caramel and mix for another 2-3 minutes
8. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and give it a light spray with cooking oil. Roll the cookie dough into balls and place them on the tray evenly spaced apart. Pat them down so they form a slight disc shape, then finish them with some Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
9. Bake the cookies at 180°C for 10-12 minutes. Take them out of the oven while they’re still a little bit soft.

It’s funny when you get recipes that call for eye-balling the amount of dough or using an ice-cream scooper where there’s really no guarantee of scooping consistent quantities. Use a digital scale- I have one which I got as a Christmas gift- and you’ll always get your quantities and sizes correctly. Turns out, the weight dictates the eventual size.

And don’t believe what you see on social-media; 9 times out of ten, the quantities they prescribe don’t match what you just watched. In the video, the guy made FOUR cookies.

I weighed the entire thing before portioning them out and the grand total was 1239 grams. I ended up making six 100 gram cookies; four 46 gram ones; three 80 gram ones and three 75 gram ones (these are not exact weights- some of the cookies were a couple of grams smaller).

As expected, they were delicious especially when they were still warm. But also so rich that I couldn’t finish even half a (large) 100 gram cookie. Since everyone in the house is dieting, will be bringing them to work instead.

The reliables

Sometimes, I just want to be done with it, preparing a meal, but it doesn’t mean I have to make a goddamned sandwich.

And so you pull out the familiar recipes and end up being surprised how for such simple things, there is so much satisfaction and flavour for so little effort.

Arroz Caldo
I like it thick which means a rice-cooker cupful (doesn’t seem like a regular cup) of rice to about four cups of water; this is about two generous servings. I don’t season it as much because I like to do the seasoning afterwards with lemon juice and patis. A dollop of garlic chili-oil gets it ready for eating.

Sinigang na baboy
I would prefer to use pork-ribs, but a $35 baby rack which we currently have in the freezer may be too rich. So I would divide a 1kg pork belly for this- the other half to be made into binagoongan- and simmer it in a sinigang mix (I like the Gabi variant). For the greens, it’s a mixture of swamp spinach and water-cress.

Binagoongan
It’s simply letting the pork-belly pieces cook in water until the liquid evaporates and it begins to render and fry in its own fat. A whole clove of diced garlic goes into this, and then the fish-paste. It’s not the best bagoong-alamang from Pangasinan, but it would do. I would do a fried rice with the leftover bits and pieces in the pan.

Smashed burgers two ways

I’ve been trying to eat a bit more red meat; you know, for the testosterone, B vitamins, zinc and iron. Since I really can’t do Wagyu beef all the time, I get really good Wagyu mince on some days.

But my cooking repertoire is quite restricted because I really don’t want to do the usual minced beef suspects like beef and pasta (not fond of pasta), or meatballs (I prefer pork or lamb for this) or maybe a shepherd’s pie.

So it’s mashed burgers which is how I do my burgers all the time these days. We got the brioche buns from Costco, not the best I must admit but in Auckland it’s crazy that there’s only one brand that sells brioche at the supermarkets and I haven’t seen any lately (people eating a lot of brioche buns in this economy?).

I didn’t have lettuce, so for crunch, I did cornichons for one burger, and kimchi for the other.

But I could only manage to finish one burger (the kimchi one).

Sunday's ribs

I love pork ribs BUT I HATE THE SAUCE.

I think there was a cannibalism scene in some dystopian movie or show where human ribs were covered in that ubiquitous brown glop that made me think- not because it was disgusting- how unnecessary it is flavour-wise. Of course the cannibals had to cover the ribs with sauce because if they didn’t, the flavour of the meat would be a giveaway.

But there’s nothing like the unadulterated taste of fresh pork. When I get the chance to eat lechon, I pick the belly meat for sure, but there’s the ribs and the spine, the meat and fat salted just right with that hint of lemongrass and garlic. And when I got out a rack of St. Louis Pork Ribs from the freezer I sure as hell, wasn’t going to smother out the flavour with sauce.

The rack was just seasoned with salt and pepper and marinated in lemon juice and crushed garlic.

The Station Buffet

From Wikipedia
The station handled freight and passenger traffic from when it opened in 1872 until closing in the late 20th century, and from 1880 was the site of an interchange between passenger rail and trams until the 1930s. The station building remains and is currently tenanted by a restaurant. There have been proposals for the reinstatement of commuter rail services on the Main North Line that would involve the use of Papanui but thus far, none has been approved.

And this restaurant, a Korean BBQ Buffet is called The Station in Papanui, Christchurch.

And it isn’t fancy by any means. There’s a table when you come in where you sit if you do not want the buffet, and in the buffet area, there are tables with the requisite single burner portable butane stove on top. The station structure is wood and while there are overhead heating lamps, it can still be quite cold- until you start cooking and eating.

I must say I love buffets. As someone who eats basically only one meal a day, indulging yourself in unlimited food is VERY satisfying. And the price- who says no to $39pp? If you’ve been to Korean buffets, you’d be familiar with the requisite sides: kimchi, pickled cucumber, and candied sweet potatoes. But because this is New Zealand, there are also chicken nuggets, hot chips and fried-chicken nibbles. Some people I know find table-top cooking a chore, but if you can keep yourself from eating a lot of the prepared sides, waiting til your meats are cooked allows your stomach to take in more just to get your money’s worth.

J'aime la France: qu'ils mangent du foie gras

Don’t ask me how much we paid for dinner.

J'aime la France: la recherche du goût

If there was a Popeye’s chicken, would I eat there? For sure. But we steered clear of fast-food (we checked the menu of Burger King and Maccas if there was a local entry, something like a foie gras burger with truffle shavings but there wasn’t any so..) as well as ridiculous items such as $NZ 50 burger and fries. We know there’s inflation, but that’s fancy hotel inflation.

So now we know (which Google didn’t tell us) that if you find yourself in any of those hotels on that narrow strip of white-sand beach, food is $$$$$.

I don’t mind pricy food- if that $50 burger had real truffle shavings on it or was served with a tablespoon of caviar on the side, I would’ve tried it out once.

J'aime la France: jour deux

We woke up early to watch the Apple Developer’s Conference where they announced new MacBook Airs. terribly expensive and unnecessarily powerful Mac Pros and my next terribly expensive purchase, Vision Pros. This means that I do need to get used to using contact lenses, because if I don’t, I would have to buy terribly expensive extras in the form of Zeiss made prescription lens inserts in order to see through the damned things.

The conference made us hungry and depressed ($$$$) so off we went for buffet breakfast and it was spectacular. There was a pastry station with petite almond madeleines so freshly made, they felt like a dog’s tongue on your skin, warm and sticky. There was the usual hot-food station with spicy breakfast chipolatas, scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and a food server who did crepes made to order. There was the cereal-granola-fresh fruit-yogurt (TWELVE kinds including genuine Swedish langfil) station which I’ve always ignored; the pastry station with 10 kinds of croissants, danishes and specialist breads. And there was even an ‘Asian’ station where you could create either noodles or congee with different toppings.

The morning feed was good because on our walk exploring the eastern side of the city, restaurant food was ridiculously expensive. We ordered a galette to share only because we didn’t know how big it was and it was the first time I had one that had curry and rice as a filling.

But coffee was a disappointment- I thought this was a culture that was big on coffee?

We found another superarket and decided to do DIY dinner- a baguette, a good bar of butter, a pate and a rillette and a block of cheese.

J'aime la France

Today’s expenses:
1270 F for macarons
680 F for cappucino
chips and water ? F
250 F (2) cannelle

First we went to the beach. In the distance, we could see an ever shifting curtain of rain. It could come or it won’t, but we did bring our umbrellas. There was a long narrow wharf and midway, Sam got anxious. It wasn’t rickety but it was gappy. The water below was really clear and blue.

I couldn’t tell when the buildings were made. The Hilton looked like the buildings in Muriel’s Wedding and a quick Google search showed that the movie was made in the 90s, so there you go. But the streets all over the city were in a state of repair and we had to walk our way through a maze of orange cones. Doing pedestrian crossings felt like Russian roulette and finally, we found a supermarket.

We were stumped. We wanted cheese, butter, ice-cream and sorbet. but it was at least 45 minutes walking back to the hotel, so…..

Everyone literally had a baguette under their arm. The bread section held different sorts and we wanted to just stand there and smell it. We figured, we needed a car and then we’d go crazy shopping. So we’ll be back.

Darkness fell fast just like as it was back home. The restaurants were half-empty and we were all Frenched out asking questions so we just went back to the hotel.

We opened the courtesy bottle of brut champagne (an Armand de Brignac) and had it with bags of Lay’s potato chips. That was dinner done.

Tapioca pudding

Can’t remember if we were kids or actually a bit older, but one day, our mother made tapioca pudding. We absolutely loved it, and she never made it again.

So it was that singular event that made us- me at least- look for it ever since. And who knew that it was just really tapioca (I believe she used a boxed one from the States). Funny thing is to this day, she only half-remembers it, but then she wasn’t really into cooking when we were growing up. I saw a pack at the Asian store, and said to myself, let’s make it and I did and it was exactly as I remembered it. Funny that.

Online articles say it’s a bitch to cook, but not really. Watch over it as much as you could (boil a cup of the tapioca in about 4-5 cups of water) letting it simmer just until the whiteness in the middle of the pearls fades to the point of becoming invisible.

Turn off the heat and let it cook in the heat a bit before putting into the fridge after it’s cooled. I did a mixture of cream and condensed milk. It will be wanting for more sweetness but up to you if you want to add more sweetener.

You can put any fruit in it and I remember the version my mom made used pineapple chunks so that’s what I did, as well as mango.

Anzac Sunday (2023)