cook: karaage chicken

I really should’ve gone to the gym after work on Monday, but opted instead to come home and cook. I had intended to cook Japanese fried chicken for Saturday supper, but the New York Times recipe called for marinating the chicken for 24 to 48 hours. And so we ate leftovers Saturday night at the same time, I mixed soy sauce, ground ginger, grated garlic, sugar, poured it over the chicken and popped it all into fridge for Monday evening.                  

I had also made a run to the grocery outlet and bought salmon and a marinated flap steak as well as these fun condiments.                      

I’ve no idea yet what to do with the truffle mayonnaise, but the wasabi sauce is compelling me to make a poke. On Monday afternoon, I combined a cup of potato starch with a 1/4 cup of corn starch, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper to dredge the marinated chicken.                    

I also rinsed a heaping cup of Jasmine brown rice and long grain white rice. 

 

And then I poured a 1 1/4 cup water into the rice pot. Let it come to a boil and then turn the heat to low and let the rice simmer for 15 minutes.

 

But I wasn't going to boil the rice until I started frying the chicken. Before cooking the starch and the proteins, I washed a couple of Persian cucumbers and sliced them on the mandolin. I salted the cucumber and while it rendered its water, I mixed rice wine vinegar, sugar, soy sauce for its pickling.

 

Before you pickle the cucumbers though, squeeze all the water well out of the vegetable (or is it a fruit because of all the seeds?).

 

Now that the pickles were done and in the fridge, I could start frying.

I ended up swapping out my medium sized cast iron frying pan for my little one because the recipe called for frying only 3 pieces at a time, and I wanted to not throw away so much cooking oil away after the frying. BUT to cook smaller batches means it will take FOREVER to finish frying. AND that was okay with me.

I quite enjoyed cooking this simple meal.

What I love about this frying method is how crisp the chicken remains after cooking.

 

And of course, I sipped sake all throughout the cooking and during the eating of this Japanese meal.